California: Carmel

When we left the California story last time Chad and I had just eaten at the Ragged Point Inn and were hitting Highway 1 once again. The drive from this point on was just amazing, from the standpoint of both the incredible views and the incredibly twisted and turning roads. The roads are narrow, sometimes steep, frequently warn of falling rocks, and often don't have a guardrail or a shoulder. That's why we were amazed to see at least 30 bicyclists riding up this road throughout the day!! Seriously, you would come around the corner and have a car coming towards you with a bicycle trying to share the lane with the car--it was so incredibly dangerous! Just one gust of wind (and believe me, this area is windy) or one small rock or one slightly inattentive driver could run a cyclist slightly off course and cause a horrific accident. I couldn't believe the cyclists would put themselves (and the drivers who often had to swerve to miss them) at such risk, all for the sake of completing a painfully grueling ride. Call me a chicken, but I really think the people who bike that road must be a little crazy!

We stopped at a few more scenic overlooks during this stretch of highway to take a few more pictures, and once to capture some video of the tame little ground squirrels who apparently live on tourist food. I just couldn't resist them!!

Our next major stop along Highway 1 was at a state park I'd read about in my online Big Sur travel guide called Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. The guide said that this was the place that most people think of when they think of Big Sur, and also that the area had some good hiking trails. After being in the car most of the day, I was ready to get out and walk a little to stretch out my aching back. Chad would have preferred to just power on through to Carmel, but he was nice enough to stop anyway so that we could go hiking for a while. After paying the $10 entry fee to the park, we felt like we should at least hike to the end of the most popular trail, so we ventured up the Pfeiffer Falls trail. While the mile or so trail was pretty and scenic, Pfeiffer Falls left a little to be desired. We saw much better waterfalls while canoeing in Arkansas with our friends Heather & Grant (and Quillen) and while hiking in Ohio with my dad. This waterfall was a little anti-climatic.

Since the falls weren't so exciting, we veered off onto the Valley View trail, hoping that a spectacular view of the valley would make our stop worthwhile. After another mile or so we arrived at the summit, but the view definitely left something to be desired--the ocean! Because we were fairly far inland and there was a mountain on the other side of a valley (I guess that's sort of what makes it a valley in the first place), you couldn't see the ocean at all! I was so disappointed. We've hiked in much more beautiful mountain ranges in Colorado, so this was a bit of a letdown. Although it was nice to get out and stretch our legs for an hour or so, it's a stop we probably wouldn't make again if we had to do it all over!

About 3o winding miles north of the the state park, we made it to our destination for the night--Carmel! We checked into our adorable bed & breakfast, the Carmel Country Inn, around 5:3o or so. After some snacks in the the quaint little dining room we went and relaxed for a few hours in our lovely suite. We tried out the jacuzzi tub (and filled it with way too much bubble bath, resulting in bubbles all over the bathroom) and then lounged around in the plush bed until it was time to go to the restaurant we'd picked out for our anniversary dinner.

We went to Anton & Michel for the special occasion, which was only a few blocks away. We'd gotten the restaurant recommendation from the staff of our bed & breakfast a few weeks before, at which time we'd made a reservation. It was pretty silly that we even made a reservation at all, since when we walked in there were like three or four other parties in the entire place! This would have been fine except for that there was only one server, so we were seated right in between two of the other occupied tables! This made for a slightly awkward dinner, since we didn't feel like we could hardly speak above a whisper the entire evening without disturbing the other patrons!

While the food at Anton & Michel was very good, it's probably not a place that we'd go back to in the future. The staff was incredibly friendly and helpful, but the ambiance of the place was almost too nice for our tastes. It was hard to relax in a restaurant so fancy--it just wasn't really us. It was also incredibly pricey, which would have been fine except that the food was just very good and not spectacular. For what we spent that evening, I would expect something absolutely amazing!!

After dinner we tried watching the rest of Mission Impossible III, which we were excited to check out from the front desk after watching bits and pieces of it at my brother's the night before. Unfortunately, after a long day of driving, we fell asleep during the movie--for the second night in a row! :)