Pebble Beach

Wednesday |2 May 2001 | Carmel, California: We had a lovely and a long day! I don't think you can ask for better weather on the Monterey Peninsula - warm, sunny, cloudless skies, and just a little breeze. Just perfect weather for a perfect day.

We left Goldie mid-morning to "do" the famed 17-mile drive. This is a scenic drive through property owned and operated by The Pebble Beach Company. The first part of our $8-per-car route took us through forests, and then we continued along the seashore. It is a strange route, with mansions next to fixer-uppers, breath-taking views over golf courses to the sea. We saw deer, birds and sea life - otters and harbor seals. Harbor seals have pups at his time of year. You can see them sunning on the rocks, smell them from afar and hear them barking! We saw at least a dozen otters in the surf today also. The drive has 21 "points of interest", including Poppy Hills Golf Course, Spanish Bay Golf Club, Spyglass Golf Course and Pebble Beach Golf Club - where our tour ended - luckily enough for us, in time for a late lunch. DT took many photos, but I only have one for your enjoyment:

The Lone Cypress - The Pebble Beach symbol

As you can see from the photo - the weather was perfect! At Pebble Beach we walked through the shops and had a nice lunch overlooking the 18th green. We watched several surfers - and seals - while we dined. I had a very interesting spinach salad with a curry dressing, apples, currants and goat cheese. DT had yet more fish, cooked this time, in a sandwich.
 
After lunch, we walked down to the 18th hole and phoned Matt on my cell phone. He wasn't going to speak to us, until I explained we were AT Pebble Beach - we were not PLAYING Pebble Beach.
 
After lunch, we drove back into Monterey and spent several hours at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The aquarium is a very enjoyable way to spend the day and one of the nicest we have visited... and we have visited a few. They had an exhibit of live sand dollars! We often find sand dollars on the beach (DT found one on the beach in Morro Bay) - but we had never seen them live. Actually, with sand dollars, it is difficult to know if they are alive or not - they do not move very much. The aquarium also has a vast (new) jellyfish display. We watched the otters being fed and then watched a diver feed the sharks and reef fish in the giant multi-thousand gallon pool. The Monterey Bay Aquarium also has a fabulous display of "schooling" fish with thousands of anchovies swimming together. Fascinating!
 
After our visit to the Aquarium, we walked around the Cannery Row district. The shops were not very inspiring... mostly tourist junk, but we enjoyed the walk - between the shops there are great views to the bay below and always a seal or otter to "find". One  hundred years ago otters thrived from Canada to the tip of Baja. Now ow otters only live from Morro Bay to San Francisco Bay. Their luxurious pelts, with up to one million hairs per square-inch, were too much of a lure to trappers. Otters are one of the few animals to use tools - they use a rock, against their chest to bang-open shell fish. Luckily, otters are now protected and may once again rule the West Coast. They are a beautiful creature.
 
It was getting towards cocktail time, so we headed toward the overly-adorably-quaint town of Carmel-by-the-Sea for a stroll through the tree-shaded streets and an icy gin tonic at The Hog's Breath Inn. Clint was not there, and the Inn was a dump.
 
We headed towards our campsite, stopping at a nearby cantina for a late dinner. We are having a streak with "wedding planners". Last night, at the Italian restaurant, we were seated next to by a family planning a wedding - music and menu. And, not so you will think we sit in silence and eavesdrop our fellow diners... a family seated behind us at Pebble Beach at lunch were ALSO planning a wedding - and the poor (dimwit?) bride just couldn't "visualize" the reception room and had to keep hopping up and running into the next room, making quite a scene, to "visualize" her reception. And seated next to us (and I mean rubbing elbows) at dinner tonight? Two men discussing their wedding. This is California. The more love in this world the better. We arrived home at 8:30 p.m. - over 10 hours after we left. 

RV Park: Carmel-by-the-River