On our last trip to San Francisco we took a detour south to charming Carmel-by-the-Sea to visit and stay with a friend. Known as a European-style village where Clint Eastwood was once the mayor, it did not disappoint as a pleasant place to rest and relax.
Referred to often just as Carmel, it is a largely residential neighborhood with houses nestled in wooded areas near Carmel beach. There are plenty of nearby hotels if you don’t have friends to stay with like we did.
Once settled at our friend’s house, we started our day with breakfast at a quaint neighborhood breakfast spot on the corner of 5th Avenue and Dolores, Friar Tucks. We got the standard breakfast fare of toast and eggs with coffee, served with kind hospitality. It was a great start to our day.
Then we headed out to an area called the “Golden Rectangle”, which is within walking distance. The main street, Ocean Avenue, is lined with shops, restaurants and art galleries. The neighborhood itself has an artsy feel to it, and is a great place to pick up a scented candle, souvenir, a bottle of wine at one of the wineries, or maybe some art. I got a nice coconut scented candle in a candleholder studded with golden mirrored mosaic chips and seashells. I also got a nice half-zip sweatshirt.
We then visited Dawn’s Dream Winery. It wasn’t at all crowded, and you could just walk into the spacious and breezy front room and take a seat for a wine tasting with knowledgeable staff. We bought a bottle of their Pinot Noir as a gift for our hostess.
There are a ton of restaurants in the area to try. Two reasonably priced places we ate at that we enjoyed were Dametra Cafe, a Greek restaurant with authentic menu options (I was satisfied with their Gyro sandwich for lunch), and Mission Bistro, American food with Californian flair, where I had the artichoke appetizer and sea bass entrée. A restaurant we walked by in the evening had such a romantic vibe to it, we swore we have to come back to try it some day, The Forge in The Forest.
To explore more restaurant options, go to Carmelcalifornia.com
A visit to Carmel-by-the-Sea isn’t complete without a stop at the beach, which is within walking distance of downtown Carmel and access to the beach is free. As our trip was in late September, and this is northern California, it was rather cloudy and chilly that day, but the beach was still scenic and serene – a beautiful stretch of fine white sand backed by Monterey cypress trees.
After spending some time walking barefoot in the sand, we went back to Carmel for dinner and then called it a night. This day was really just a taste of what Carmel-by-the Sea has to offer.
As I parted this pleasant village by the sea, my thoughts lingering on the words from the poem “Carmel Point” by Robinson Jeffers:
The extraordinary patience of things!
– Robinson Jeffers (1887-1961)
This beautiful place defaced with a crop of suburban houses—
How beautiful when we first beheld it,
Unbroken field of poppy and lupin walled with clean cliffs;
No intrusion but two or three horses pasturing,
Or a few milch cows rubbing their flanks on the outcrop rockheads—
Now the spoiler has come: does it care?
Not faintly. It has all time. It knows the people are a tide
That swells and in time will ebb, and all
Their works dissolve. Meanwhile the image of the pristine beauty
Lives in the very grain of the granite,
Safe as the endless ocean that climbs our cliff.—As for us:
We must uncenter our minds from ourselves;
We must unhumanize our views a little, and become confident
As the rock and ocean that we were made from.
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- Visit wineries and art galleries
- Look for fairytale cottages
- Visit Carmel River State Beach
- Do the “17 Mile Drive” through Pebble Beach for scenic sunsets
Date of trip: September 2018