Day One in Carmel

Sept 15^th

Well it certainly is cooler here on the coast (Carmel River Valley) – about 65 for the high today and mostly cloudy. But we’re here and we’re going to have fun!

The car definitely has some sort of problem but I can’t tell what it is. I started it up and we got the same smell as yesterday, something like hydraulic fluid burning on a hot manifold. But there is no smoke, and no apparent leak. I have to attribute it to road debri and diesel fumes from the semi. We drove to a mechanic, he looked at it, said to not worry, just drive it until it goes away. So we did.

The dune leading to the City Beach

After leaving the mechanic, we went grocery shopping stopping at a farm stand on the way home. Once everything was put away we had lunch and decided to drive into Carmel and go to the city beach. We were lucky and parked within 100’ of the beach entrance. Taking the dogs and our cameras we walked down the face of the dune (beach entrance) and down to the beach.

Wild surf!

There was a pretty good surf and lots of people so we walked north to give the dogs a chance to run. It was really relaxing with the crashing surf pounding on the beach, seagulls wheeling overhead and pelicans diving for fish out in the bay just beyond the surf line. After wending our way along the shore towards a private community we took a set of stairs up from the beach and across a boardwalk which went through a protected habitat area.

The boardwalk across the habitat area

There were signs posted to stay on the boardwalk to protect the “Black Legless Lizard” which burrow into Monterey County sand dunes. As you might imagine, this lizard looks a lot like a snake, it lacks any limbs or ear openings, and has smooth scales. Unlike snakes, black legless lizards have moveable eyelids and are able to detach their tails to escape from predators.

Photo courtesy of California Wildlife Department

Leaving the protected habitat area we walked along a public access path out to a street north of where we parted and headed back towards the car. A block later we came to another public access walkway over the dunes so we decided to follow it and see where it went. We ended up at the top of the sand dune overlooking the beach and bay. 

Photo courtesy of NOAA

That’s when Tina noticed a sea otter and some seals playing just beyond the surf. We stopped to watch them and before long they were joined by a pod of about twenty Pacific White Sided Dolphin spread across a quarter mile of bay in small groups. They seemed to be putting on a show for all the people on shore, cavorting and jumping around, playing with each other and fishing too. It kept us captivated for nearly an hour. Eventually the show was over so we went back to the car and drove back to town.

We were lucky and found a spot in the center of town on a cross street half a block from Ocean Blvd. We took the dogs (Carmel is a very dog friendly town) and spent an hour just wandering around eventually ending up in a small courtyard down one of the narrow alleys where we stopped at Carmel Café and Cocoa Bar. I parked myself and the kids at a small table while Tina went and got us Mochas. When she got back we had our coffee and shared a big Chocolate Chip cookie. Lots of people stopped by to visit with the dogs so it was a very pleasant interlude.

Returning to the car we were blocked in by a big Anhauser Busch beer truck double parked in the middle of the street. We got in the car just as he pulled out… good timing, then a FedEx truck took his place, bad timing… but the Fed Ex driver helped us maneuver around him and we were off headed through town to the Carmel River Breach. We never found the beach but we did locate the Borromeo del Rio Carmelo Mission, one of our planned visits.

Eventually we made it back home and had a late dinner, shish kabobs with sirloin, pineapple, red and yellow peppers, tomatoes and onions! Yummm! Later we finished off the blackberry cobbler with tea and took the rest of the night off.

To see all our photos, go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski