Both Sherry and I are planners (OK, I admit, I like to plan more), and we did not have anything planned for July 4th weekend. We moved couple of weeks ago so unpacking was our major plan for the weekend. Towards the end of the week (more like Thursday) we decided to take a day trip. On our drive to BART station Thursday morning, Sherry came up with the suggestion of going to Carmel. And even though we spent a weekend in Monterrey a while ago, we did not do much in Carmel during that trip. Friday we did some unpacking, errands and decided to leave to Carmel on the morning on Saturday.
Before we go anywhere we spend a good amount of time reading on-line on what do once we get there, what restaurants to try. This trip we did not have enough time and energy to spend on the usual research that we do, so we decided to just wing it. We drove to Monterrey first, had our lunch there and then we went off on the 17 mile drive.
The initial drive on 17 mile road was more like viewing expensive houses. I wasn’t much impressed, the houses were really pretty, but I wanted to see the ocean. When we saw the view of the ocean, we stopped, we could not walk to the water so we spent little time looking around and got back in the car. Along the drive there are so many pretty Cypress trees, some of them were slanted, some were really big.
The next stop we could walk in the water, but it had rocks all over. The water between the rocks were so clear that we could see fishes, snails and crabs. We decided against stepping into that water as we did not want to disturb the life there. Then we drove to this area where we could see seals taking a nap. It was so nice to see the seal yawning and stretching and getting into brawls over rock space. We then drove along the path and next stop was lone cypress (this is the logo of the Pebble Beach company). Our next stop was the ghost trees, the name is because the trunks are bleached white from wind and sea spray.
After driving through all of 17 mile, Sherry decided to ride his bike the route that we came and we decided to meet at the Seal Rock Picnic area. So he left ahead while I hung out at one of the spots reading a book. After a while I took the same route (at least that was the plan, I got lost, then drove around for a while, then finally got back on the needed route, all the while talking to Sherry assuring him that I was not lost, I was just driving around). We met up at the Seal Rock Picnic area, walked around the beach, played in the water. For some reason ocean water does wonders to my soul. I was so relaxed, and happy.
After a while we decided to drive into the city of Carmel. We went to Carmel Beach, it is just so pretty, the sand was so light in color. We were at the beach around 6.00 PM and we stayed there till the sun set which was around 8.30 PM. Sitting by the beach and looking at the waves is just so relaxing. Finally we left around 8.30 PM and got home by 10.30 PM.
This is one of the most relaxing vacations we have been on, I think we should wing it more often.
Click in each image to see a bigger view
Stunning photos!
but the words were nice too 
A picture is indeed worth a thousand words!
Cheers
preeti