"The notion that such persons are gay of heart and carefree is curiously untrue. They lead, as a matter of fact, an existence of jumpiness and apprehension. They sit on the edge of the chair of Literature. In the house of Life they have the feeling that they have never taken off their overcoats."
- James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Geez, where has this chick been?

Yes, I got back from Carmel on Sunday and I feel horrid I haven't posted anything since Thursday so it looks like I'm still in Carmel which I guess I am mentally but I truly meant to post something else anything else before now but I had my weekly column to write and a post for tomorrow's Crime Fiction Collective (I'm reviewing Michele Scott's latest - check it out on Thursday) so I had the teeniest of excuses.

Annnyyyywwwhhooo...

Here's a bunch of pictures we took on our vacation, to tide you over until I think of something to say.

We stayed at Svendsgaard's Inn, which is easier to say than to spell. It's located down the street from the Hog's Breath Inn (Clint Eastwood's restaurant), and across the street from Brophy's Tavern, which serves good beer, food, and has several TVs to watch all the sports that were on all weekend.

It's beautifully landscaped with TONS of flowers. Color everywhere!
This is the view from our room. I'd love for my backyard to look like this, if I could grow anything.
From our home base, we ventured out on Thursday to walk around the town...

I SO want these dishes!

Went on a horseback ride out on Pebble Beach.
Pumpkin has to wear a muzzle because she eats too much.
Then drove up to Seaside to visit a local brewery. Beer tasting, wow!
Friday was wine tasting down along the 101. We began in Greenville at Scheid, then headed north to hit Paraiso, Hahn, Wrath, and finished it with Pessagno. Total count: 16 bottles. (One was free because we joined a wine club.)
Saturday was Monterey day. We met our lovely niece, Ashley, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She had a friend who loaned us their day passes to get into the aquarium. Score! The aquarium was having a special weekend about eating sustainable fish and seafood, so there was a different chef there, every hour, giving a cooking demo, followed by a free tasting. Double Score! I bought a cookbook by Barton Seaver, For Cod and Country. It's a really pretty book, but I bought it partly because Barton used the word "deleterious" in his presentation. Ya gotta love a man who throws around two-dollar words like he can afford it.

Dale's camera was taking FABulous pictures!


Inside the aquarium we also saw beautiful jellyfish, sea dragons, sea turtles, and weird sunfish. We saw a lot more, and took tons of pix, but I won't post them all here.


On Sunday, it was time to kiss the Central Coast good-bye and head home. It's only been 3 days, but I'm finally getting back into the swing of normal. I should be back to posting about writerly stuff soon.




2 comments:

Ali Trotta said...

Awesome photos!!! Looks like a fun time. :-) Thanks for sharing, Gayle!

Oh, btw, I had a horse once who had to wear a muzzle for the same reason. If she even looked at food, she gained ten pounds. hehe

Tameri Etherton said...

Love it! Looks like you had a fabulous time. Beer tasting and wine tasting followed by sustainable fish thing at the aquarium? Yeah, you had the best weekend ever!

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