RogersSpring 2015

Ocean Ave, Carmel, California:  We finally hit the Pacific Ocean.  A quick left turn and we headed south past Monterey, on to Carmel and took a ride down Ocean Ave and a quick stop at the beach.  We've drove Hwy One 20 years ago on a road trip from SF to SD and had driven the Ave before and visited the beach. Neither of us showed any interest in parking and walking store to store looking at stuff people think they need to buy.   We've seen it all over America in tourist areas, shops galore.  True, it's a little more pricy in Carmel.  We're both not in to it, we're actually trying get rid of stuff, down sizing, getting ready for Laie.   But I did love the motifs of the shops and the neighborhood.

After our quick drive by, I dropped Barbara at the Camel Mission Inn, our domicile for the night.   THAT'S RIGHT!  We treated ourselves to a one night stay in a cute little hotel off of Hwy One in Carmel before 3 days of dry camping in Big Sur.   A bit pricy, what the heck, we easily convinced ourselves that we deserved it.

I quickly hopped on my bike with camera and road back up Hwy One and then down Ocean Ave again and stole some photos of the now busy main drive of Carmel.  I pushed my bike across the sand dunes down to the waters edge and then found a shore line drive and captured images of the quaint houses in the neighborhood.  Quite a hilly ride but I put in an hour and a half on the bike, maybe 10 miles exploring all of Carmel.  Charming town, good ride.