Last night we both slept well, and feel pretty much back to normal, ready for another big day. First stop is breakfast which is served in the Tennis Club within the hotel grounds, where meet up with Peter and Deirdre to plan our day. It is still overcast, but expected to be warmer than yesterday, and clearing this afternoon.
The Tennis Club
We decide to do a further walking tour of Carmel this morning, have a coffee in town somewhere, and then go for a drive along the famous 17 mile drive, past Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, The Links at Spanish Bay and a number of other golf courses before ending up in Monterey.
Walking into town, this time on a different route, gives us a better appreciation of the size of the town (bigger than we thought), the total lack of traffic (many of the houses are holiday homes for the rich and famous), and how well presented all of the properties are. The greenies have also had a substantial influence.
We see more stunning houses (checkout the tree house in this one)
Monterey Cypress Pines dominate the landscape
We eventually end up in a small, very nice, shopping centre where we enjoy a coffee before heading back to the ranch.
Our walk back to the ranch takes us past a number of restaurants, so we can check out a potential venue for dinner, and then back along the coast to Mission Ranch.
We are soon on our way in the Macdonald's car to 17 Mile Drive, and as we approach Pebble Beach, it is clear that there is a tournament under way, and we have no chance of getting in close to see the course. However, Pete knew of a public access walkway to the coast would still give us a good view of the course, but we could only park for 20 min.
Pebble Beach Golf Course from our vantage point
We then wandered through the periphery of the course as much as we could within the limitations of the tournament boundaries. It was great to see.
We could see the leaderboard as we walked up past the 18th green
The drive continued on with the next highlight being the Lone Cypress, a testament to the enduring nature of the Monterey Cypress Pine. This tree is claimed to have occupied this spot on it's rocky perch for 250 years.
Our drive continues on past Spyglass Hill Golf Course, the Links at Spanish Bay, through Pacific Grove and on to Monterey, where we find a spot to have lunch in a a renovated Sardine Cannery building that was full of outlet shops. We subsequently discovered that there were a number of cannery businesses, now in different use, as Monterey was the largest sardine fishery in the World in the 1900's, until they ran out of sardines.
Lunch was just what we wanted, a sandwich that was so generous in serving that each couple shared one between themselves.
It was then on to Monterey Harbour. We could see that there appeared to be some yachts racing offshore as we approached and were lucky enough to see them start returning to the inner harbour as we arrived.
Fishermans Wharf Monterey
We could hear seals barking in the vicinity of the wharf, so ventured out to see if we could find them. Following the noise and the crowd made it pretty easy, they had their own pontoon at the end of the wharf.
On the way back to the car, we walked through the older part of Monterey, where several museums were located and were were rewarded by a fly over the US Airforce Thunderbirds, which Pete immediately took credit for organising (apparently there was an air show nearby). I wasn't quick enough to get the formation fly over but did capture one on it's way back to base.
We have booked dinner at a restaurant called Grasings in Carmel, and head back to the ranch to get ready.
After a pre dinner drink of a nice California Chardonnay on the Macdonald's balcony, overlooking the sea, we walk into town to our restaurant.
Just as we are leaving our rooms, a car pulled up near the main office, and who else but Clint Eastwood stepped out with his wife, obviously here for dinner. Maybe we should have eaten here tonight. Peter and Deirdre have been here a number of times and despite having been told he does occasionally come here for dinner, this is the first time they have seen him here as well.
It made our day !
Dinner was great. I think it would be hard to find a bad restaurant in this place. The walk home was very pleasant in mild conditions and little traffic. We couldn't find Clint when we returned, so turned in for another relatively early night, which should leave us refreshed for our trip to San Francisco tomorrow.
We have been so lucky that Peter and Deirdre recommended we stay here instead of Monterey (our original plan) and that we have been able to spend a few days with them to benefit from their knowledge of the area and catch up on old times.
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