California Dreaming (Part 3)

Carmel-By-The-Sea

It's a wonderful vacation that takes you from the city, to the mountains, to the sea in the span of a week! After enjoying Yosemite, we headed out for Carmel and the best part was the drive!!

The drive from Yosemite Valley descends into the Salinas Valley passing through rolling foothills that from a distance seem mown and manicured. They are charming!

California is know as the "salad bowl of the world" and driving through the Salinas Valley helps you understand why!

We passed miles and miles of lettuce, strawberries, almonds, plums, spinach, broccoli, and on and on and on!!! Farming on a scale that is hard to imagine, but beautiful to behold! My husband, James, had always said that the thing that impressed him most about this part of California was how they farm right next to the beaches and as we drove along ogling the artichokes, Dad said, "Look! It's the Pacific!" We had arrived at the coast!

At this point, we diverted to the famed 17 Mile Drive, a scenic coast-hugging route through the communities of Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula. This included Pebble Beach Golf Club. Dad was in heaven!

Really beautiful! Really cold!

Scoping out the sea lions.

One of the Pebble Beach greens

Impressive golf views!

Dose of reality!!

One of the iconic sights on the 17 Mile Drive is the Lone Cypress. By the way, the 17 Mile Drive is owned by Clint Eastwood.

After enjoying all of these sights, we drove into quaint town of Carmel, known for its precious cottages, restaurants, shopping, and of course, beach.

Our hotel

My favorite part of the hotel

Breakfast on the porch

After breakfast, Dad took us to a place he had discovered on his early morning walk. It was the Methodist church, Church of the Wayfarer. The church's garden was spectacular!!!

Then it was off to do some wine tasting. Again, June had hooked us up with a guide who taught us more about wine than we ever imagined there was to know.

But the main thing I learned about wine tasting and, in particular , wine buying, was THINK ABOUT HOW YOU'RE GOING TO GET IT HOME! So I thought I would include my personal guide for that situation.

A RUBE'S GUIDE TO BRINGING HOME WINE FROM YOUR CALIFORNIA VACA

Option 1:  Spend more than you did on the wine to ship it home.
Option 2:  Gamble on ruining your clothes by stuffing the bottles in your suitcase.
Option 3:  Buy wine shipping boxes at UPS and check the boxes at the airport.
Option 4:  Don't buy wine.

We opted for #3, however, when we got to the local UPS store it was closed and wouldn't open again until we were back in the deep south (where no one would be able to tell the difference between our fancy California wine and a bottle of Sutter Home, but that's beside the point). So no boxes. The concierge at our hotel couldn't help us either. As we walked to dinner that evening pondering our dilemma, Carole and I passed a dumpster full of broken down boxes tucked discretely behind an upscale boutique. Some of the boxes looked like they would hold wine bottles, but a blistering look from Jamie made us resist our natural southern instincts. Instead, we turned on the southern charm (and accents) at the restaurant, thus winning over our waiter who, in the end, happily supplied us with shipping boxes. We taped them together to create one box and were only charged $35 at the airport. What's a trip without a story?!

One of our best memories from Carmel is taking Dad to dinner at The Bench, a Pebble Beach golf club restaurant that overlooks the 18th hole.

Bread Balloon

Our favorite hors d'oeuvre of the trip thanks to Carole, who is more adventurous than the rest of us.

You are looking at a putting green inside an area surrounded by restaurants and shops. Cuttings from shrubs, stems of flowers, bare branches, and string had been added to create what we could only surmise was Pebble Beach putt putt golf.

Poor ol' rich folks - not one windmill or gnome.

It was a wonderful vacation filled with invaluable family memories!!

Love ya'll,

Shelli

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. 

~Seneca

A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life. ~Isadora James

Having a place to go — is a home.

Having someone to love — is a family.

Having both — is a blessing.

~Donna Hedges