the not wild west

flew into San Jose, CA Thursday morning and took the Monterey shuttle down - nice/easy.

Jamie met me later. It's ridiculous expensive to stay in Carmel (maybe cause it was memorial weekend?) still....it is a nice town and really good food.  Leans heavy on wine not cocktails. Best part...high of 62.

Day 1 - 17 mile drive/Pebble Beach/Spanish Bay - Mary's cafe for breakfast, yes good. The rest...pretty ...just so tamed/touristy with the golf courses. We sat at pebble beach over looking the golf course for lunch, then Spanish Bay for 4 hours waiting for the bag piper. The 3 hours before everyone started showing up was the best part (even with the beyond ridiculous priced cocktails).  It was beautiful out, apparently the sun for that long was unusual. I'm golf coursed out. And everyone I saw were terrible golfers (dressed/outfitted to the nines of course). Loads of tourists...walking the greens even. Grasings for dinner. Didn't do much for me. Jamie loved the fish.

Day 2 - drive down to Big Sur - stopped by Point Lobos first, worth $10?...eh i guess? We saw a few otters. Not 20 minutes later they shut down parking for being so full. Lookout spots on the way down..i lost interest. Jamie got good bridge shots. I liked the bridge before the bixby bridge from far away.  Lunch at Nepenthe, beautiful spot...don't get the burger. The Shrimp was delicious. Do we need to go back...i don't think so...but don't regret going.
Came back and walked down to the beach to see the Frank Lloyd Wright house...walked along the beach sidewalk...and then about died going up the hill back to the hotel room. Seriously...out....of....shape. My kidney's hurt. Went to dinner at Montrio Bistro...a best meal we've ever had.

Day 3 - fruit stands on the way to San Jose (high five) /Henry Cowell Redwoods/airport. I had on the way to stop by Santa Cruz but it just reminded me of Gatlinburg or Niagara...."tourist world" we didn't even park. No "Lost Boys" nostalgia there. Even the redwoods were tamed....though we only had 45 minutes "loop" so maybe it our fault that we didn't make time to go deeper.

Overall...a lovely place "the Central Coast"...can't help but wish to have seen what it looked like before it was tamed.

Speaking of - I'm on book 3 of Court of Thorn and Roses (Sarah J. Maas)...I thought it was a YA but the sexy times say otherwise. There a few irksome things but overall a good story...we'll see how it ends...