We arrived around 4 that afternoon in Carmel. We were going to be spending the next two nights here. We had heard the Carmel was really nice but that the people here were pretty snooty. I will say that I never experienced anyone being snooty towards us. Trust me, we have southern accents that are heard from a mile away. We are far from the standard fare of Carmel, CA, but we never had any issues. We stayed at Comfort Inn Carmel By the Sea. We were within walking distance of just about everything we could have possibly wanted. The rooms were nicely decorated. The doors were stable doors, which was pretty interesting. We also noticed that the rooms didn't have any air conditioning either, but the windows were easy to open in order to allow a breeze. However, the rooms were really small, and the walls were paper thin. I'm not sure what happened but each morning around 7:00 it sounded as if there was construction going on outside of our room.
After we arrived in Carmel we decided to split up and go separate ways for dinner. Jordan and I wanted sushi. We were right on the coast, and we wanted fresh fish. We went to a restaurant called Sushi Heaven. We sat at the sushi bar, and the sushi chef just so happened to be the owner. He and the rest of the staff took great care of us. We ordered several different items and loved every bit of it. We had some white tuna sashimi that was amazing! Jordan asked the chef about it, and he gave us several more pieces. We had a great time at Sushi Heaven and walked away with full stomachs. On our way back we saw a pet therapist, which I thought was pretty amusing. There were a lot of dogs in Carmel, and I guess someone needed to expose the amount of expendable cash within the city. My parents and my aunt and uncle went to a restaurant that Clint Eastwood used to own. They said that it was very good, as well.
The next morning we all piled in the van to just go and check out the beach. It was pretty chilly there, but we at least wanted to see it since we were so close.
I actually couldn't believe that there were people in the water.
Afterwards we went to this outdoor shopping area. The guys went and did their own thing. There was an Anthropology, so that's where I spent most of my time. There were several places throughout the city offering free wine tastings, as well as several designer clothing shops. I saw a sign for a consignment shop, so I went in. This was definitely an unique experience. I didn't see a price tag with less than $100 on it. Had I wanted to spend money on clothing there were some Dior pieces in the shop. While it was more than I wanted to spend on used clothing, it was a lot less than it would have cost off the rack.
We took a break for lunch, and Jordan and I went back to Sushi Heaven.
We say at the bar again and ordered a rainbow roll and an eel roll. We asked the chef what his favorite was. He asked us in return what we liked. I told him that we liked tuna, salmon, avocado, and eel. He came up with a roll especially for us incorporating each of those.
It was sooooooooo good.
We ordered a California roll and some sashimi on top of that. The chef remembered that Jordan liked the white tuna, so he loaded him up with some extra pieces of that.
The chef was wonderful, and we were very appreciative of how much he took care of us. After lunch we headed back to the hotel where we all met up again to drive the 17 mile drive to Monterrey. If you are interested in doing this keep in mind that you have to pay per car. I believe that it cost us $9 to drive along the road. It was a beautiful drive, and we got to see the Pebble Beach golf course. Still paying for 20 minutes of driving seems a bit much.
The Lone Cypress:
Outside of one of the houses we saw some deer grazing about.
We pulled over near this spot to take some photos along the coast. My aunt opened up the van door and went out behind the van to get some clearer shots. The door is still open and my dad pulls back onto the road and starts driving away. We yelled for him to stop. He had no idea that 1) the door was even open or 2) that my aunt wasn't in the car. It was so funny! She wasn't phased by it though. Later that day we were stopped at a gas station in Monterrey and mom got out to use the restroom. When my dad got back in the car we joked with him that he needed to do a head count. He just laughed and started to drive off. We had to stop him again because he seriously needed to do a head count, his wife wasn't in the van. Poor guy. He's getting old.
We drove on to Monterrey, and honestly, Cannery Row wasn't that great. We didn't spend much time there at all. It was so touristy, so we headed back to Carmel instead. We had dinner and called it an early night. I thoroughly enjoyed Carmel. It would be a nice place to live if I had several million dollars.
The next morning we headed back to San Francisco and boarded our plane back to Atlanta. We had an excellent trip. The whole time we were out there it never rained. We saw all sorts of different scenery and climates. I enjoyed this trip much more than I ever thought that I would. San Francisco was definitely my favorite part of our whole time out west. I hope to visit there someday soon again. Thanks to everyone for reading, and so sorry that it took me so long to finish this.
