Monterey and Carmel

Growing up, Monterey was one of Nicole's favorite places to go. I'd never been, until last week. I like it. It's a fun place, and beautiful.

We started off in Carmel on Saturday. Browsing around the shops, we found a gorgeous leather jacket that looks really good on me, but not $900-good. I got a kick out of the fact that a lot of the shops have a little pail of dog treats on the counter, or a water dish outside the door. Carmel is a very dog-friendly place. The bottom tier of one of the fountains was a water dish.

The highlight of the cuisine was probably Isabella's Wharfside. It's on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey. I had the Salmon Basil Pasta (they make their own noodles in-house) – fresh steamed salmon with a cream sauce on linguine. Nicole had spinach ravioli stuffed with crab meat and topped with the sweetest marinara sauce we've ever had. The dipping oil had fresh minced garlic in it – very good. We split a creme brule for dessert.

The lowlight of the cuisine was lunch in Carmel. I won't call them out by name, but their "English-style" fish and chips were anything but. For one thing, the British don't bread their fish – they batter them. Second, the "California style" malt vinegar has no taste to it. The fish is soggy by the time you can taste it. On the plus side, the fries were nicely crispy, the coleslaw was interesting (it had pineapple in it), and the waitstaff were friendly.

Another culinary find was The Cheese Shop, tucked away in a shopping plaza in Carmel. We met a very friendly guy there who enjoyed handing out samples and explaining the history of the cheeses as much as we enjoyed tasting and listening. We stopped back by on our way home on Sunday to pick up a Welsh horseradish cheddar and Memoire – a gouda with truffles. With some French bread, fresh blueberries, and cranberry-grape juice, this was our lunch this afternoon.

I find I prefer Carmel's white beaches to Santa Cruz's brown ones, and I prefer the rocky coast to the beach. (Although this might change if I had a dog to play with.)

The Monterey Bay Aquarium was fun, getting to see all the underwater life. Otters are cute beyond words. They have some tide pools where you can pet the little critters; Nicole did, I didn't. The anchovies were kind of surreal to watch. Kids would definitely love the place.

Did I mention that Otters are cute?

We went to church with the Monterey Ward. Just sacrament meeting. We got there with time to walk around the grounds before it started. The chapel is on a wooded hillside, and it was foggy. Beautiful. We got to see a four-point buck laying in a thicket just off the parking lot.

Flickr photo set

Around Alcatraz

Today we went up to take a look at Alcatraz. We met up with some friends, and took a tour boat out around San Francisco Bay. We thought we were going to get to spend half an hour on the Rock itself, but the tour company's definition of "at" only means "circling around". But we still got a good tour of the bay (Flickr).

We stopped by the Boudin Bistro for lunch. They claim that their bakery there on Fisherman's Wharf is where sourdough bread bowls got started. Nicole and I both love clam chowder, so this seemed like a good place to have lunch. We learned an important lesson, too: If you go upstairs, where they have nice tables with linens and a view of the bay, they charge you twice as much for the exact same bowl of chowder as if you walk up to the counter downstairs. Something to remember for next time. The bread bowls were very good, though, as was the chowder.

We also stopped by Ghirardelli Square, which is just down the street. We decided not to tour the factory (long line) but we got a delicious cupcake from Kara's Cupcakes. Try them if you get the chance.

I also enjoyed walking through a bit of the financial district, with the skyscrapers and glass mixing in with century-old Greek architecture. Ah, capitalism.