We spent Tuesday at the beautiful seaside town of Carmel-by-the-Sea (aka Carmel) which is a 2.5 hour south of SF. If you ever visit Californais, it should be on your list of places to see....it's amazing! It has fantastic shops, yummy cafes, beautiful art galleries, and quaint cottages. And here's an interesting fact...Clint Eastwood (yep, the actor!) was the mayor from 1986-1988 and still owns the Mission Ranch and Hotel in town.
We ate lunch at Flaherty's Oyster Bar....I had fried oysters and clam chowder and Mike had
crab tacos....YUMMY!
We purchase an ornament from any new city we visit, so we selected a cute ornament with a cottage on it to represent Carmel. The cottage painted on the ornament is called The Tuck Box, as seen above. It's a popular tea room in town.
Her'es another shot of The Tuck Box built by Hugh Comstock in 1927.
Someone suggested to Mike to stop by Galante Vineyards & Winery for a tasting. It's a cute tasting room with a western vibe.
The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo hosts a huge wine competition....Galante won several awards in March 2011 for their wines. Pretty cool!
This chair takes me back to my Texas roots...
Here's another one of the Comstock Fairy tale Cottages....this one is called Hansel (he made a sister cottage called Gretel) and housed his wife's collection of dolls.
After visiting Carmel, we decidied to drive a bit further along the PCH. We crossed gorgeous views of the Pacific.
Don't let the sunshine fool you...it's was a chilly 58 degrees!
The next few pictures you see are of the famous 17-mile drive in Pebble Beach.
The Lone Tree
"Excuse me sir, could I bother you for a sunflower seed?"
GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
On Thursday morning we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. We've been meaning to do this and finally decided Thursday morning was the time to make the trek!
The size of the cables....unbelievably huge!
And the walking begins...
Headed back to China.
View of SF and the Bay Bridge.
WINE COUNTRY
Friday ended up being quite a rainy day, but we didn't let the rain stop us with our plans to visit a few wineries.
This cow called Miss Moo-lot was made out of corks.
Downtown Sonoma.
Mike is a fan of La Crema wines, so we decided to stop by their tasting room in Healdsburg.
Our last stop of the day came to us by a recommendatino from Mike's co-worker. It's called Pride Mountain Winery and sits atop a mountain....absolutely beautiful. I can only imagine how pretty it is in the sunshine.
In the caves.
The pretty mural in their tasting room.
oh what fun you have had on your day trips. The photos look great. I'd like to walk across the Goldengate!!
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