We celebrated Mike’s birthday with a brief, mid-week holiday to Monterey and Carmel.

Leaving daily life behind for Carmel’s cool, coastal weather and quiet streets felt restorative.

Carmel, California, is a quiet, quaint oceanside town that’s worked hard to keep things that way, and who could blame them?

We had brunch at The Village Corner when we first arrived, and when they brought our bill, it was slipped into a paperback book rather than the usual vinyl folder. Enlarged black-and-white photos of famous people who live or lived in Carmel decorated the walls. Pulitzer Prize winner John Steinbeck is perhaps the most famous.

After brunch, we continued to the center of town and browsed shops and scouted places for dinner. Narrow alleyways and equally narrow stairways are prominent, adding charm to our meandering.

We had a fabulous meal on our first night at Pepi’s Little Napoli Bistro Italiano. The cozy ambiance felt like a warm hug with great service and tasty food. Instead of a large meal, we ordered four dishes to share. I should have skipped dessert, but where is the fun in that? At least we had a twenty-minute walk back to our hotel.

Carmel doesn’t have street lights at night, which proved a bit challenging as we traveled back up the gentle hill to our accommodations.  I wore low-heeled shoes, but heels nonetheless, since we were dressing for dinner. We traversed brick sidewalks, sandy step-downs, and in some places, no walkway at all. Mike was at my side and steadied me a few times, but it was the ultimate test of my new hips. It is fair to say they passed.

The following day, we drove to Cannery Row, immortalized by John Steinbeck in 1945. It wasn’t as I remembered from many years ago, and it is now a bit cheesy, though facades of many buildings still remain. We hung out on the beach at the base of a hotel and took in the vast view of the bay.

Since we were on holiday, we enjoyed ice cream for lunch on the patio at Ghirardelli Chocolate, then took the scenic drive along the Monterey coast. McAbee Beach and Pacific Grove Beach are pictured below

I found a nice linen shirt for Mike’s birthday, and I picked up a small selection of postcards at my favorite pharmacy. We laughed out loud at a display of muslin tea-towels on the back patio of a small shop called Ami Carmel. I quipped to the shop owner that she could charge admission. I bought my son, who is setting up house, the one that says “Stove is for display purposes only.”

Highlights included time spent reading and putting our feet up by the gas fireplace, afternoon naps, and snacking from the bag of taffy we picked up at the old-fashioned candy store.

Then, just like that, it was time to drive home as we considered our next getaway together.