I made it to Monterey at a reasonable hour and toured around for a couple of hours. It is a charming city center, the rest is a regular city. The tourist area is a riot of flowers and trees, cute boutiques, galleries and cafes. It is hard to tell the tourists from the natives, everyone seems to be strolling along looking in windows or sitting in cafes. Also there are tremendous numbers of dogs. If you aren't pushing a baby, you are walking a dog or both. It is very interesting. I didn't see one dog have a problem with another dog. All the stores looked very expensive though elegant. Most of the stores were unique as opposed to chain stores. Fisherman's Wharf seems very touristy and wasn't very impressive. It had a carnival atmosphere.
The next thing I did was take the 17 mile drive. You don't really drive the whole 17 miles, because everyone gets off at Carmel. The part you do drive is gorgeous. It runs along the coast, which is just magnificent. The water is almost turquoise and aqua and crashes dramatically against the rocks. At one of the viewing points there were several very large rock formations, the largest of which was called Bird Rock. On the rock were cormorants and pelicans and on the other smaller rock were sea lions. Luckily I had my binoculars with me so I could see everything. Further on was the Lone Cypress. This poor tree sits out on a peninsular all by itself, though there is another not that far away. It is very famous and one of the things that you look for on the 17 mile drive. Oh, the drive costs money to take. It must be so annoying for the residents of the magnificent homes along the drive.
I got out at Carmel to tour the town. Carmel is smaller than Monterey and has a lot less to see. There really is only one street to see. It certainly didn't take long. Since I am not a shopper these towns like Monterey and Carmel don't hold a lot of interest for me.
I'm going to be going to Big Sur tomorrow, I think. I know that I am going to skip San Francisco. I have been there a number of times and I didn't like it the last time I was there. It's like New Orleans, I really don't understand what everybody sees in the city. I guess I'm not really a city girl.
I made it to Monterey at a reasonable hour and toured around for a couple of hours. It is a charming city center, the rest is a regular city. The tourist area is a riot of flowers and trees, cute boutiques, galleries and cafes. It is hard to tell the tourists from the natives, everyone seems to be strolling along looking in windows or sitting in cafes. Also there are tremendous numbers of dogs. If you aren't pushing a baby, you are walking a dog or both. It is very interesting. I didn't see one dog have a problem with another dog. All the stores looked very expensive though elegant. Most of the stores were unique as opposed to chain stores. Fisherman's Wharf seems very touristy and wasn't very impressive. It had a carnival atmosphere.
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