Where's Clint when you need him?

30 Sep 2012 (Sunday) Salinas, California  - Salinas, California - 55 miles



Once again the weather looked good, so we headed back to the coast, this time driving into Carmel-by-the-Sea, the town where Clint Eastwood used to be the mayor.

The town can only be described as 'quaint' or 'twee', but is rather attractive nonetheless.  The town was busy, it being Sunday, but we managed eventually to find a parking space quite close to the beach.  We sat around and watched people exercising their dogs on the beach for a while and then decided to go for a walk along the road by the coast.  The road was lined with beautiful houses, some beach-front, others rising up the hill behind, all very expensive.  Many houses that were for sale were being marketed by Southebys!  Once again, we managed to find a bench to sit on and watch people on the beach.  There were a few people surfing too.

Whilst sitting on a bench watching the world go by, we realised that hummingbirds were feeding in the trees close by.  There were lots of Brewers Blackbirds feed on the ground as well.

After all this activity, we decided to walk into town and leave the car where it was parked.  It was a bit of a haul up the hill into town and once again we passed many beautiful houses.  Once in town, we stopped for coffee/drinks and did some more people-watching.

This obviously made us hungry so we decided to look at the shops and also find somewhere for lunch.  Some of the restaurants were 'fine-dining' and appropriately expensive, but we found one off the main street which had more reasonable prices.  I found my perfect brunch meal, a lobster BLT with hand-cut fries.  There was plenty of lobster on the toasted ciabatta and several strips of crispy but substantial bacon to top along with avocado and black tomato.

After this extravaganza, we headed back to Salinas for a rest.  Lynn and I sat by the pool all afternoon and read.

Later, Lynn and I drove about 1/4 mile to Applebys where we had a pleasant dinner.

Hotel - Laurel Inn Motel
Weather - Clear skies and sunny.  Slowly warmed up all day to reach mid 70s