Carmel and Pebble Beach

Thu, 1/6:  This was a wonderful day.  The sun was out and we headed south to Carmel in the morning.  The sun was out, but the wind was blowing hard and it was chilly.  We parked in downtown Carmel and walked down Ocean Avenue to the beach.

Carmel Beach below Pebble Beach Golf Links

Pebble Beach Golf Links from Carmel

  

 

The beach was beautiful, and one of the things on Dave's bucket list was to walk the beach down to below the Pebble Beach Golf Club.  It's the beach you see on TV when the professionals are playing their big tournament at Pebble Beach.  We walked north as far as we could go.  There were golfers above us.  We thought for sure we'd find some golf balls, but the sand is so white and fine, they were't visible if they were there.  The walk south was much more comfortable with the wind to our backs.  We climbed the sand dunes back up into town and wandered the streets window shopping....there are some very expensive shops in Carmel. 

Roofline on an old quaint shop in Carmel

Artistic shingles

After putting in a couple of hours of walking Carmel, we headed south to the Carmel Mission (aka The Bascilica of Mission San Carlos Borromeo Del Rio Carmelo).  The mission is just one of 21 missions on El Camino Real (King's Road) created as a travel route by Spaniards.  Each mission was designed to be about a day's journey from the next (approx. 30 miles).  

Carmel Mission

Padre Junipero Serra founded the Mission of San Carlos Borromeo in 1771.  It was the 2nd California mission constructed and was the home base for Father Serra and his staff. The first mission buildings were destroyed in the mid-19th century and rebuilt.  The original bell tower dome still exists.  Today the buildings have been restored and serve as an active parish church as well as museum, concert venue and an on-site children's school.  We spent over an hour wandering the grounds.  It was such beautiful day and with the blue sky and sun shining on the mission, we got some beautiful photos.

 

On to 17-Mile Drive and Pebble Beach.  There is a $10 entry fee to drive on the privately owned and world-famous road called 17-Mile Drive.  The 2-lane narrow road is a loop that connects Carmel with Pacific Grove and follows the coastline.  The map received at the entry point gives points of interest with 21 scenic stops along the drive .  Much of the drive is lined with huge mansions behind tall fences, so the coastline isn't completely visible except at the scenic pullouts.  Our destination was Pebble Beach Golf Links for lunch.  It was too bad the weather was a bit chilly, because eating outside at The Bench would have been fun.  Instead, we opted to dine in the upstairs Stillwater Grill.  We knew it would be expensive, and it was, but the food and service were excellent and the view was unbeatable.  Our waiter told us that the current price to golf at Pebble Beach was $495+ per person.  Guess lunch was pretty affordable in comparison (also, they refunded us our $10 entry fee).  After lunch we went down to the 18th green and took some selfies and pictures of the beach below that we walked earlier in the day.  We wandered in and out of the expensive golf shops at Pebble Beach and slowly wound our way back home.  Pretty fantastic day

View from restaurant - Pebble Beach 18th Fairway

Pebble Beach 18th Green

18th Fairway Seawall

Carmel Beach from Pebble Beach Golf Links

We're at Pebble Beach!!

Fri, 1/7:  Well, we can't afford to play Pebble Beach Golf Links but we can afford to play Peter Hay Golf Course at Pebble Beach.  It's a 9 hole, par-3, 748-yard course located across the street from Pebble Beach Golf Links.  The layout twists and turns around "Momentum", a 15' bronze sculpture that was commissioned for the 2000 U.S. Open won by Tiger Woods.

                                    

The course caters to families and juniors, but it was a perfect spot for me to warm up after not playing since October.  Dave's been easing his shoulder into golf again with these 9-hole courses so it worked well for both of us.  The sun was shining again and though chilly, we didn't have the wind we had the day before.  It was a fun round and we can now say we played golf at Pebble Beach 😊

  

Now for lunch!  Dave found a roadhouse near our RV Park called Tarpy's so we decided we would go there for a late lunch and then we'd get back to the motorcoach early enough to get our departure chores done.  Tarpy's turned out to be a great find.  Really a cute, unique building and quite a history.  It's named after a man named Matt Tarpy who was lynched on this site in March of 1873 for the murder of his neighbor over a property dispute.  He'd been arrested for the murder and put in jail.  A mob of about 400, led by two bitter enemies of Tarpy's, overpowered the jail and grabbed Tarpy.  He was taken by wagon to the fateful tree in the area that later became known as Tarpey Flats.  The beautiful stone building that now houses the restaurant and wine bar was originally owned by the Ryan Ranch family homestead.  It dates back to the early 1900's and took the family about 10 years to build.  The property was bought and sold a number of times but in 1992 was purchased by a restaurant duo from Carmel and opened as Tarpy's Roadhouse.  We had an absolutely delicious lunch.  I had a grilled cheese sandwich that was thick french bread with lots of Gruyere and Fontina, sauteed Broccolini, Mushrooms and Truffel (I've never had a grilled cheese with broccoli and mushrooms).  Certainly not a diet dish, but it was fabulous.  Dave had a salad with avacado, citrus, lentils, tahini-cumin dressing, sunflower seeds and grilled salmon (I had a bite....it was yummy).  Of course we had a local Montery beer to wash it all down.  The restaurant consists of multiple rooms as well as an outdoor patio (not during off-season).  We ate in the main building with a vintage bar area and extensive wine cellar.  Well worth the stop.

Leaving for Pismo Beach tomorrow.