adventures with charbilditha

I clutched my caffeinated beverage in hand, backpack in tow, wind blowing through my non-bieber-like hair as we rolled into Monterey like a group of well-manner school children on a class field trip. Labor Day certainly wasn’t going to be the boring sit-at-home-and-bbq day I had envisioned it to be. No…we were on an adventure! Our plan was to grab a quick lunch and head down to the marina and pick up some bikes and invade some of the tourist points along the water. We parked, sunblocked, and grabbed our stuff and headed to town, picking up clam chowder samples along the route like marathon runners filling up on water (only thicker and saltier). We peered high and low for a bathroom first because the search helped us get adjusted to the lay of the land (and the coffee from the car-ride was working its magic).

the hood of monterey - clearly one of the rougher areas

After the pit-stop, we moseyed farther inland to the rougher areas of Monterey and ended up face-to-face with a falafel/swarma/gyro place. While the place looked exciting and new, and had many exuberant review on yelp, it was Labor Day and we were americans goshdarnit (well most of us were…), so we ended up getting sandwiches at a deli closer to the bike-rental place. After an engaging meal over sandwich/soup/fruit/omelette and a lively discussion about youth group and the differences between jam and jelly, we finished up and headed down to Adventures by the Sea to rent our surrey (read: bikepath tank). Ohh yes, this thing was legit. The surrey could fit up to 6 (although we saw 7-8 asian tourists on one), but only four people could pedal. The surrey came with two steering wheels, but only one works (otherwise it’d be bad news).

the guy adjusting our surrey for us

The guy adjusted the pedals for us (we didn’t realize till a bit later why the pedals needed to be bent back to original shape…) and we were ready to storm the tourist spots! As we breezed down the bikepath at electric-wheelchair speeds (we were overtaken by a few pre-schoolers on tricycles), we came up on our first bikepath obstacle: two poles in the middle of the road (presumably to keep cars from driving down the bikepath) just wide enough to fit the surrey with 6” of room on either side, followed by a slight ramp down to the street where oncoming traffic was flowing. This was pretty much at every block. No sweat. As we inched closer to the poles, we slowed to fit our surrey through (chariots of fire going through my head the whole time) and sped-up into oncoming car traffic (who were gracious enough to stop for us – they must’ve been intimidated by our bikepath-tank). We incurred a few battle-scars on our surrey by the end of the trip, but all was well.

Our first stop was Lover’s Point, a nice rocky place that juts out into the water surrounded by sandy beaches, pristine water, and Asian tourists rocking the murse/fannypack combo and DSLRs with lenses slightly smaller than the Hubble telescope. After doing a 12-point turn to park our surrey (it doesn’t maneuver as well as an electric-wheelchair), we made our way out to the rocks to check out the scenery and dodge the birds. We stayed for a while (it was quite windy) before retreating to the safety of our surrey.

We then headed in the opposite direction to visit the Marina and Fisherman’s Wharf (looks kinda like the SF one, but smaller). We go through the same set of obstacles heading back the other direction, avoiding the harrowing perils of the poles and dodging the narrow misses of tricycles cutting us off on the road (freakin kids…). We quickly park our surrey across from the wharf and head down the street where the shops are. After wandering through a few of the shops and checking out the local scenery, we head back toward our surrey, hoping and praying that we didn’t get ticketed or towed. We made the decision to check out nearby Carmel as well, cuz, you know, it’s a wonderful place and, heck, any town that elects Clint Eastwood as mayor must be A-Ok. After a 4-point turn (we were getting better at surrey parking), we returned the surrey and headed back to the car for the scenic drive down to the beautiful city of Carmel-by-the-Sea.

hehe...

mmm...desserts...

so much plaid...

Carmel is an interesting town. Founded in 1902, this town is notable for being long connected to artistic history. Carmel is known for its dog-friendly atmosphere, and apparently has several unusual laws; including a ban on high-heeled shoes unless you obtain a permit from the city first (Clint must’ve gotten that one passed during his term…). As we drove through town, the parking gods smiled upon us, and lo-and-behold, a spot open up right by where we wanted to be. We were able to walk around the town before supper to check out the local shopping area, with shops that had lots and lots of fancy candles and plaid clothing, and the nearby beach, where the people who buy plaid clothing go to frolic along the sand.

post-dinner affogato

For dinner, we headed back up to the main part of Carmel and found a place called Basil (4 stars on yelp), which had pastas and seafood. The wait-staff were a bit confused, but probably because it was early. The menu was fairly simple, but the food was very good. We mostly went with the black fettucine with calamari, with Billy being the adventurous one and going with the prosciutto tortellini. For dessert we went with a gluten-free chocolate cake and a Bailey’s affogato. All in all a good meal, and we all felt satisfied before beginning the arduous journey back home (thanks for driving, Billy!).

le coffee shop

We hit up a coffee place in downtown Carmel featuring an otter logo, and an old probat roaster on display so you know the beans are roasted there. This way Billy was able to get enough juice to get us back to davis safely. The drive back was long and traffic-laden, but we passed the time with lively banter and making plans for future food outings. All in all, it was a mighty fine way to spend a Labor Day holiday.