December 28, 2011 was basically our last California vacation day. My brother and my dad played another round of golf at our hotel, Spanish Bay. My mom and I attempted shopping again after checking out of the hotel, but still didn't find much. We did, however, find my favorite restaurant of the trip. Cafe Demetra is a very tiny Mediterranean place within the Carmel shops with incredible food and service. Not only was my meal delicious, but it included free refills. If we had been there before they got super busy, we probably would have gotten free baklava (as I was so full, I let the fact that we didn't get any slide). It wasn't exactly cheap, but we got what we paid for: huge portions, AMAZING pita bread and tzatziki sauce appetizer, free bread (might've been the best bread of the trip, too), free Diet Coke refills, and free drinks to go. Also, they sang happy birthday to a 92 year old lady who was eating there. It was the best "happy birthday" thing I've ever seen a restaurant do. They announced it to the whole restaurant, played music up and down the entire isle (not just the Happy Birthday song) and everyone, including the 92 year old woman, my mom, and me, got a chance to wear a gypsy scarf and dance. It was so fun!! Too bad the golfers missed out.

We picked them up after and drove back to San Francisco, stopping at In and Out Burger, another place mentioned in the Meg Cabot books, on the way. I'd eaten there before, but didn't really remember it. This time the fries weren't good, but the hamburgers were. At least, that's what I was told. I was still full from Cafe Demetra to eat a burger. We found our hotel at the airport and finally had the time and energy to see Mission Impossible, which was pretty good as long as we didn't try to make perfect sense out of it.

The next day doesn't really need a blog of it's own. We got up at 5am and went to the airport. Flight to Dallas, drive to the grandparents in Denton for a short visit before finally heading back home to my kitties and puppies just in time for a date with my wonderfully patient boyfriend for New Year's Eve :) And I will finally get to see my friends again and give them their Christmas presents!! And I'm planing tea parties. Lots of tea parties.

December 27, 2011

This was, sadly, our last full day in the Spanish Bay/Carmel/Monterey area. There was no golf, so our whole family spent the day together. We took the Find A Parking Spot challenge around Carmel again, but with much more luck. We window shopped for a bit before starting our day trip up Highway 1, which goes straight up the California coast and is breathtakingly beautiful the entire way. 

Our final destination was Hearst Castle, but we made several other stops along the way. I believe we went over one of the world's largest arched bridges called Bixby Bridge. We also saw several beautiful beaches. We stopped for a snack at a bakery, and then drove up the road for lunch at The Nepenthe. There is usually a long wait there, but it's not for the food. I was told that many celebrities came to eat there, and I could see that everyone else did too, and it was because the restaurant is located on a cliff with a spectacular view of the coast. You would think such a famous and popular place could afford decent chef. You would be wrong. The food was not good, overpriced, and there were no free refills. Have I mentioned my issue with this? There was no non-fast food, sit-down restaurant in San Francisco or anywhere we stopped between Carmel and Hearst Castle that offered free refills. A Subway in San Francisco allowed only one. What kind of crap is that? (Spoiler alert: we found a  Mediterranean place in Carmel the next day that had free refills AND it was my favorite meal of the trip.) The least The Nepenthe could do is offer free refills, since that's all they could do right. 

We hiked off our lunch on a trail to a waterfall in a California State Park. There were several along the highway. Another one we stopped at had a steep path to a beach that has some jade for the taking. Our last stop before Hearst Castle was the elephant seal rookery. It's a beach where the biggest seals anyone has ever  seen come right up to the walkway. I guess to mate, but we just saw them huddled together. Apparently, one male will have several calves and they all sleep in clusters. If another male comes too close, they fight. Or, as we saw, they burp at each other and kind of... wiggle after each other... very slowly. But that wasn't a real fight, was I informed. When they're serious, blood is drawn. I preferred our comedy version.

Then, to end the day, it was Hearst Castle! Owned by What'shisface Hearst, CEO of... basically everything. William Randolph Hearst started out in the newspaper business, first inheriting the San Francisco Examiner from his father. What followed resulted in a castle somewhere, a ranch in California, and somewhere down the road, a kidnapped granddaughter, with whom you might be more familiar. 

Yes, if you caught on, Hearst had two castles. An ACTUAL castle - I can't remember if it is in Europe or on an island somewhere - and Hearst Castle in California - which was actually just his ranch!! It was built (but not completely finished) over 28 years, starting in the 1920s. If you did the math, yes, he was building a castle during the Great Depression. He actually created a lot of well-paid jobs by doing so, so I haven't quite figured out how conceited that fact made him. The castle was built to include his antiques, which he began collecting at the age of ten. I guess that's why it had to be so big. He had two guest houses. His guests were all famous people he'd invite to stay (but they weren't allowed to bring their own booze, and he made sure no one had more than two drinks of his own, which he locked up in a safe). He even had a huge theater in the main house, two swimming pools, and two libraries. 

TWO LIBRARIES.

The day after Christmas my dad and brother played golf at Pebble Beach in the morning. My mom and I got to sleep in and then test drive a car courtesy of the hotel! We got a red Lexus IS 350C. It was red too. Sound familiar? The only difference was it was a 2011 convertible. We had it for two hours, so we planned on shopping in Carmel, but there was NO parking in the entire city. Luckily, there was another stop I wanted to make in Carmel!
In high school, I read a Meg Cabot book series that took place in Carmel. The main character went to school at an old mission named after Junipero Serra. It was closed, but I still took some nice shots of the facade and garden.
Since there was no parking near the shops, we went back to the hotel for a little bit while the guys finished golfing. We did, however, still have time to drive on the scenic 17 mile drive. Then we made Dad find parking in Carmel so we could look at the shops before dinner. We tried a mexi-cali grill or something. It was good, but Mexican food in Texas is better.
We also drove down Cannery Row, the area made popular by John Steinbeck's novel of the same name.  We almost went to see Mission Impossible in that area, but the wait was too long so we went back to the hotel and crashed into bed instead.