CARMEL AND MONTEREY – BEAUTY BY THE OCEAN

Get your maps out as we continue our California road tour.  About two and half hours southwest of Modesto, you will find the Cities of Carmel-by-the-Sea or Carmel, and Monterey.  Located on the Monterey Peninsula, they are about four miles apart and are situated on the Pacific Ocean.  The towns are filled with quaint buildings filled with great shops (probably not what you are looking to buy) selling a little bit of everything.  The white sand beaches are clean and inviting and are washed daily by the waters of the Pacific.  When we visited the beach in Carmel in 1994, our boys were young – 6, 8, and 12.  The waves are so strong, they knocked our youngest boy Ben off his feet and started pulling him out into the water!   He thought it was great fun at the time.  Dangerous too!

You will also find many famous golf courses on the Peninsula, but none as famous as the Pebble Beach Golf Course.  It is a beautiful, 18-hole course where professional play like the US Open regularly takes place.  It is very expensive to play this course, about $500 per round, so not just anyone plays here.  If you ever take up this sport as you get older, you should put this course on your list of places to play at least one time.  You can see pictures of each hole and its proximity to the ocean by clicking here.  Since the golf course is also located on the Pacific Ocean, I’m sure more than one ball has been hit into the water never to be seen again. 

Another tourist attraction is what is known as the 17-mile Drive.   I am not sure why it is called 17-Mile when in fact it is only a little over 9 miles long.  It is a controlled access roadway which winds past million dollar homes and the famous golf courses.  This is a toll road, charging about $10 per car to enter.   The Lone Cypress, a famous landmark and symbol for Pebble Beach, can be seen on the drive.   It sits atop a rock where it has stood for over 200 years, some say 250 years; and information on the internet indicates it is cabled to keep it from falling into the ocean. 

The Point Pinos Lighthouse on the peninsula at Pacific Grove is the longest, continually operating lighthouse on the West Coast.  I have not visited this lighthouse, but thought I would share about it since lighthouses are common along the waterways.  The coast is very rocky so the light shines to warn the ships that transit the waterways off the coast.  Did you know that we have some famous lighthouses in NC?  Do you know where they are located?  Have you been to any of the NC lighthouses?  I have visited three on the Outer Banks, the Currituck Lighthouse, the Bodie Lighthouse, and the Hatteras Lighthouse.  Each is very different.  I think my favorite is the Currituck Lighthouse because of its location and the scenic surroundings. 

Currituck Lighthouse, Corolla, NC

Well, that ends today’s tour.  You might not have enjoyed this as much I did, but it is beautiful area and the ocean is gorgeous, and I love the ocean. 

Have a great day.