Carmel-by-the-Sea

One of the things I really wanted to do Friday morning was the dishes, but I realized that we were totally out of clean dishcloths. Also, when I tried to wash my face, I found that there were no clean wash cloths either. We had decided that we didn’t need to wash towels when we last did laundry at the Grand Canyon, but obviously we did now. We loaded up our laundry,  left Laguna Seca and headed for Salinas...

 We found a Laundromat and while the clothes were washing, I tried to get online at the McDonald’s across the parking lot so that I could update my blog, but had no luck. I did have a pretty tasty caramel mocha though, so the visit wasn’t a total loss.

We drove through historic downtown Salinas...

Our primary reason for going through Salinas was to visit the National Steinbeck Center, so after the clothes were all clean we found a parking space just a block away from the entrance. What an amazing place! John Steinbeck has always been my favorite American author. I read the Grapes of Wrath in high school like so many other people and fell in love not only with the characters, but also with Steinbeck’s way of writing. I am ashamed to admit that I have only read one of his other books, however – East of Eden. I read it while I was in the hospital recovering from a ruptured appendix surgery. While going through the museum, I realized that I need to read everything else that he has written. 

My favorite...

I definitely need to read Cannery Row...

 

 The inside of Steinbeck's camper that he drove while he wrote Travels With Charley. It really did give us goosebumps to realize that he actually sat here and wrote...

 And Marilyn with artichokes!

 I was going to buy a copy of Cannery Row in the museum bookstore, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay $17.50 for a paperback when I can get it for so much less at a used bookstore. And used bookstores are so much fun to browse through anyway. We asked the girl at the counter of the museum if we could fine one in Salinas and she told us where she thought one was, but we couldn’t find it. I just may have to wait until I get to Everett and hit Half Price Books.

We left the Steinbeck Center and stopped at Nob Hill, a big grocery store in Salinas, bought some picnic supplies, and headed for Carmel. 

What a magical place. We parked and walked down to the beach, Duchess leading the way. It’s funny how much she loves the ocean, coming from Denver as she does, about as far inland as a dog can get. We sat on some rocks and ate our lunch, and then walked down to the water. 

It felt so good to dig my toes in the sand!

Being Valentine’s Day, we saw three different weddings going on. What a beautiful place to exchange vows. We walked back to the car and drove along Ocean Drive.  I would love to live there – if I ever win the lottery! It was hard to fathom that people really lived in those houses, they were so spectacular. Do they ever take that view for granted? 

And the storybook houses – I’ve seen so many pictures of them, and here they are! We drove by Tor House, the home the poet Robinson Jeffers built with stones from the beach, and I didn’t even realize it until I read about it later. I hadn’t done much prior research on Monterey or Carmel before the trip, because we hadn’t planned on coming here until we found ourselves in the Laguna Seca campground for three nights. We were fortunate to be so conveniently located to these places of beauty.

We made our way to the Carmel Mission and found that they charged a $5 entry fee. What? None of the other missions we had visited had charged an admission fee, so we turned around and drove away.

We thought we might as well drive to Cannery Row, while we were in a Steinbeck frame of mind, but found that it was so commercialized and busy, we didn’t even want to try to find a place to park. All of the old canneries have been converted to restaurants and boutiques, so we drove on back to Jumbo. Larry scrounged up enough wood to build a fire, I poured a glass of wine, and we had a relaxing evening. I could stay here forever!