An Urban Aindustrial Suite - Salinas, CA

 Our last day in California.  A person asked if we missed living in California.  Truthfully, yes!  The weather is wonderful, the produce is fantastic, the people are friendly….yeah, but the traffic is gnarly!

Today we went to Carmel-by-the-Sea.  (That’s the official name.  I Googled it and there is a Carmel in Indiana, but I’m not sure I could confuse the two).  We had lunch at the Treehouse Cafe.  It touted Thai food, which is very high on Deb’s list, but we ate Falafels and Gyros.

Since most of my clothes seemed to have shrunk slightly on the trip (I can think of no other reason that they might be slightly tighter).  I convinced everyone to walk down to the beach for a little exercise, forgetting that in Carmel, “down to the beach” is very literal.  There was a hefty uphill climb on the return.  We rested at a cowboy themed wine tasting,   The pourer spouts were cowboy heads with red liquid coming out their mouths…not a great visual.

The day finished with a “flight” of chocolates.  Sort of a game where you eat a small piece of chocolate and guess the percentage of cacao and the other ingredients.  It took quite a bit of “higher/lower” etc. To even come close!  Lots of fun however!

Tomorrow, sadly, we fly home.

An Urban Industrial Suite - Salinas, CA

 

Our downtown studio is urban industrial chic.  So that’s a thing now.   Maybe not my go to vibe, but fun for a few days.  After some delicious homemade muffins, we head for the Salinas farmers market.  They have lots of local produce, which isn’t all that strange since Salinas is famous for providing the world with healthy vegetables.  

There’s lots of food vendors, as well, but Deb is drawn like a moth to the smell of a smoker (it’s one of the things we miss most about living in a condo…not having a smoker). Smoked brisket and smoked sausage with smoked baked beans.

Justin has renewed his membership at the Odonata Winery, the sun is out, and there’s a jazz combo.  Everything is aligned for an afternoon of music and wine tasting.  

A very enjoyable day!

An Urban Industrial Suite - Salinas, CA

 

Our eclectic VRBO 

We start off the day with some pastries courtesy of the inn.  Deb has a delicious fruit danish.  She gives me the summer squash danish (I know, it doesn’t sound that good…and there is a reason for that).  With breakfast under our belt, so to speak, we head off for Salinas.  These are pretty much old haunts for us.  In short order we are through the extensive vineyards and onto the Bay Area freeways.  Lunch in Morgan Hill, while watching the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics.  We make it to Salinas, had a quick visit, checked into the VRBO and walked to Mangia, an Italian restaurant for dinner.  Visit, watch an episode of Firefly and off to bed.  

Cottage Inn - Sonoma, CA

 

Today is a travel day, of sorts.  From Mendocino to Salinas is 300 miles and Sonoma is half way.  The plan is to check-out and get a picnic lunch at 11:00 when the Deli opens, drive down the coast, find a picnic table and arrive in Sonoma at check-in.  We executed with flawless ease.  For much of the trip, the ocean was covered in fog.  From the road, high up on the cliffs, it just looked like clouds.  

I don’t believe that we have ever been to Sonoma before, but others in our party may disagree.  It’s a really nice little town.  We ate at a Michelin rated restaurant (well la-di-da!).  As you might expect, it was excellent.  But…the gaspacho was garnished with grilled prosciutto.  I told the owner that I thought that the soup was delicious but the garnish was out of place. Deb was having no part of this discussion, she was a half block away when I found her.  The only reservation we could get was at 5:30, so we were not really ready to back to the hotel.

 We found an alley with an Irish pub, outside tables and a 60’s band with attitude.  We might have been the youngest couple there,  but the place was definitely rockin’.

Tomorrow we tackle the second half of the journey. 

Inn at Mendocino - Mendocino, CA

 

It’s our last day, and after exploring Mendocino for two days (it’s not really that big) we have more questions than answers.  How did the town start, why are there water towers virtually everywhere.  How come the town looks like it came right of the 19th century.  So we went to the visitor’s center and got all our questions answered.  Started as a logging town (it took three months to cut down a single redwood).  Water is rare and precious.  Emma Lou Packard (not related to the Hewlett Packards) got the town declared a historic site, so no modern buildings allowed.  I could say more, but that would just be answers in search of a question.

Unbeknownst (I don’t think I have ever used that word before!) to us, Mendocino has an annual Music Festival, and yup…it’s this week.  Although they cross almost all the genres, we opted for a classical concert with Stravinsky and Rachmoninov.  Only once did some of the audience applaud between movements.  Gasp!

By now, we are so full that we actually pretty much skipped dinner.  We have only one more day to trim down before the weekend.  Tomorrow, we are off to Sonoma for our last night before seeing Justin.

Inn at Mendocino - Mendocino, CA

 

Our room on the second floor 

The inn provides a complimentary breakfast in your room.  They deliver it between 8:30 and 9:00.  By 8:31, Deb was at the door, checking to see….  It was delicious when it finally arrived at 8:35!

When we first came to California, 30 years ago, we didn’t realize how cool it was by the ocean.  Today was a relearning experience.  Our first stop was to find something warmer to wear.  However by the time we bought something, it was too hot to wear it, but now we are again California ready (dressing in layers is the California way).

In the morning, we hiked along the ocean.  The trail runs along the cliff face.  The afternoon was more dedicated to self indulgence.  For lunch Deb had a B.L.A.T. (no sandwich is complete without an avocado).  We stopped for a cool drink in the shade because the sun was hot, but shade was cold.  Dinner in an Irish pub that prohibits anyone under 21.  I had no idea that mussels were Irish pub food.

Tomorrow, we will have to face all these problems again, but at least, we will be better prepared! 

This is a huge, 12-15 foot tall plant! Amazing!

Echium Pininana

Inn at Mendocino - Mendocino, CA

 

View from our sun deck

Had a massive breakfast just around the corner from the hotel.  It was a balmy 56, so they had all the doors and windows open!  We had a quick flight and arrived in Santa Rosa, CA around 2:00 where it was a mere 105!  It was a 2 hour drive to Mendocino.  I got a text from the hotel we were staying at reminding us that check-in and a complimentary wine hour starting at 4:00.  Using deductive reasoning and a degree in mathematics, we decide to forego lunch in the heat and head directly for the coast.  

The road was lovely, climbing over golden hills, past dozens of vineyards, through magestic redwood forests to reach our little hideaway in Mendocino.  Our wine on the patio was lovely although it was back in the 50´s again!  Dinner was fun.  The Mendocino Cafe had a distinctly Asian flair.  I had a “Healthy Bowl” which only meant that it had kale in it!  

Tomorrow we will do some exploring, and possibly buy a warmer sweatshirt.

Inn at the Market - Seattle, WA

We were planning on having Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday with Nathan, but now we only have Sunday.  Nathan has come up with a plan that meets our stated objective - visit, eat, drink.  It starts out with a trip to a bakery.  The line is out the door and for good reason.  The pastries are incredible.

Next stop the Kubuto Gardens, a city park fashioned as a Japanese garden.  We stopped in an art store that a friend of theirs owns.  She makes shadow boxes with layer upon layer of intricately hand cut paper.  The complexity of each layer was absolutely stunning.

Nathan & Richard 

Japanese food for lunch, followed by machi tea ice-cream stuffed in the mouth of a fish shaped waffle cone (you can’t make this stuff up).  After lunch we take a look at the new Seattle Aquarium that is going to open this fall.  One of Nathan’s first projects at his job was to create a fairly complex concrete frame for  an external staircase.  Although the building is still under construction, we were able to admire his work.  I was almost ready to stop people on the sidewalk to show people what my son had done (probably not a good idea).  

A stop to a tea shop, a stop at a cider shop and an Indian restaurant finished the day.  Yes, I believe that we were able to compress 2 1/2 days into 1.

Inn at the Market - Seattle, WA

Seattle Part I

 We are off on a 10 day trip to the west coast.  The plan is simple.  With two working kids, we visit one in Seattle for the week-end.  Kink back in Mendocino for a week, visit the other in Monterey for the week-end and fly home.  Enter the Crowdstrike bug!  Starts out with a one hour delay, which eventually turns into a cancelled flight.  The service desk at Delta is swamped but one person got through and was able to schedule a flight in four days!

I get out my trusty i-Pad. Tap-tap-tap. I have booked a flight on JetBlue (not one of the severely affected airlines for Saturday night.  We go back home, to a foodless condo, have a lovely dinner at Puddledock and prepare for Seattle Part II

Seattle Part II

We go to the airport, get on the plane, fly to Seattle, take the light rail downtown, check into the hotel and go to bed.  (I love it, when a plan comes together!)