A Day on the Coast

Since I had Friday off, I joined Andrew for a quickie road trip to Monterey... by way of Hollister.
 
We spent Thursday night at the Best Western in Hollister, and during our first hour there, we changed rooms twice. When we first checked in, I was delighted to discover a swarm of ants in the bathroom. I went back to the front desk and asked for new room. As I walked into room #2 I was immediately assaulted with the sound of a baby crying next door. Um, that won't work either. I had to go back to the front desk and ask for yet another room. The dude gave me a hard time, saying that those were the only 2 non-smoking rooms available, which I highly doubt seeing as though there were maybe four other cars in the parking lot. But I wasn't going to sleep with ants or crying, so I accepted the third room, a smoking room, and all the while I was apologizing profusely for causing the dude trouble. He never once apologized for the fact that they sold me a room with ants in it!

I had Friday morning to myself while Andrew was golfing, then we packed up and headed down to Carmel. We stopped briefly at the San Juan Batista mission, which was featured in the Hitchcock movie, Vertigo.

We spent a couple hours walking around dowtown Carmel - we even checked out a blues band playing in Devendorf park. Then we headed over to take a quick peek at the Carmel mission - lovely - and continued to Monterey.

Let me just say, the Super 8 motel in North Monterey has a lot of character. I was pleasantly surprised! After freshening up, we headed over to municipal wharf #2 to have dinner at the Sandbar and Grill. A funky little place sitting right over the water, it allowed for watching the folks cruise by in their speedboats, sailboats, canoes, and other various contraptions. There was a kid practicing his turns and ducking under the swinging sail, and the family hoisting their sailboat out of the water - with the boy directing the whole process after attaching the winch. "Look it's a flying boat," announced our kooky waittress who spent too much time socializing instead of refilling our drinks. I had the chicken with say-ginger [sic] sauce. It was quite good. After dinner, we took quick stroll down the wharf, watching people fishing off the side, admiring all the boats in dock, and ogling at all the real fishing boats just like in The Perfect Storm. Plus, we spotted several seals lounging on buoy.

After popping over to "Old Fisherman's Wharf #1" to soak up a little touristy action - it's nothing but food and souvenirs - and a quick stroll around cannery row, we headed downtown to finish the evening at Cibo where "it all happened" 16 months ago. We drank 5 pints between us and lingered for a couple hours, just people watching and grooving to the jazz band.

After checking out in the morning, we drove to Pacific Grove, which is now my new favorite place. Known for it's community of butterflies, and touted as "America's Last Home Town," it has a lovely little downtown with nice wide streets and plenty of parking. We drove along the coast (the "free" part of the 17 mile drive) and visited the Point Pinos lighthouse.  We at lunch downtown at the 17th Street Grille. I had the greek chicken wrap.