Day 6 - Carmel by the Sea

We arrived in Carmel at the Vagabond’s House Inn and it was truly a magical little spot.  It was dark, the trees and courtyard were all lit up with twinkly white Christmas lights, it couldn’t have been a more perfect spot for us.

Randall was so nice and welcoming, and gave us great tips on the town and helped up make reservations at Demetra for 9:30pm so we were able to check-in, bring our luggage up to our room, and get ready to go out for dinner.  Our room was really really cute.  It had a very ocean breeze/cape cod-ish décor and feel and we couldn’t help but think our mom would have loved it. 

It had a fireplace (which we DID need to use here),  cute views of cottage rooftops that you might not expect to enjoy as a view but it was really very sweet.  Again there were some nice amenities in the washrooms – bathsalts..first time I’ve seen that somewhere, and even makeup wipes and organic soaps!

Upon check-in Randall showed up our room where he pointed out that there seemed to be a birthday card on the table, and we looked over to see a handmade birthday card and champagne sitting on ice waiting for us as a birthday gift for jen – SO AWESOME. 

This entire trip I’ve been really impressed with the level of service and friendliness we’ve received.   If there is anything I would suggest to travellers is that when you ask, and you shall receive.   In most places I made a point to note that it was my sister’s birthday trip and ask if they could provide anything special, and at no charge, most of them did!

We arrived just a few mins late to our reservation at Demetra (a greek/Italian restaurant).  A very small restaurant but such a tuscan warm feel and décor and we were made to feel like they had been expecting us as special guests.  There was music, dancing hugs, and oh yes, great good too!  Jen ordered a gyros salad, and I ordered the chicken brochette platter – and both were very tasty.   It was a really great welcome to the town after a long drive.

 

 

What was surprising about Carmel-by-the-Sea, also a really cute town, but bigger than Sonoma Square, is that all of the shops shut down relatively early, so walking to our restaurant that night, there weren’t many people around.  After dinner, we walked back to our B & B, turned on the fireplace, wrote some blogs, and went to bed.

The next morning, we set our alarm to get up early, as we wanted to head out on the 17 mile drive before our 11am food tour.  Woke up to a fantastic breakfast!

It was foggy still, and cold, so we weren’t sure if we should, but we did, and it was really nice.  I think it would be more enjoyable if you had more time to spend, and wasn’t so cold/foggy, but, on the other hand, we got some really great photos of the trees in the fog, which were really enchanting looking, which was nice.  We were so glad we had a convertible jeep as we were able to capture some really great shots as we were driving.

We made it to our food tour at 11am and once again, turns out we have a private tour as we end up being the only two on the tour that day which was great, made it feel like we were being shown around the town by a friend and all of the shop keepers were so friendly and it didn’t feel overly rehearsed – it just felt like a relaxing walk about, meeting shop keepers and restaurant management and trying their products.  It was really a great time.  We started with some cheese tasting, where I learned that there is apparently a town called Cheddar and that is where Cheddar got its name..I didn’t know that?!  We then moved on to try THE BEST, no joke, Gnocchi I’ve ever had.  It is made with flour rather than Spinach (I think?) and it was still steaming hot with parmesan on it..OMG soooooo yummy..and the setting couldn’t have been more perfect – the Casanova restaurant is known as the most romantic restaurant in town, and it truly is the most romantic and cute setting! 

Next we had a really educational tasting of olive oils and vinegars, which was really interesting.  We both had no idea that olive oils could take so different, depending on the region, the olive, etc.   Next, we went to an Italian deli where we tasted cured meats, wine, and gelato..salted caramel gelato OMG. 

After that, we headed to a shop that makes its own fruit vinegars and this was very unique so we bought a couple to bring home.   We also tasted some great wines at a local winery tasting room and saw some really unique art pieces at a local art gallery.  Last, but certainly not least, we tasted some sea salt caramels and truffles, which can you guess what I bought? Sea Salt Caramels for the road trip, and some other yummy goodies! Our tour guide was very professional, friendly, and as I said earlier, we felt as though we were being toured by a friend who had connections, which was really the kind of tour we were looking for.

We ended the day with a visit to the beach only 7 blocks down the hill, and a little more shopping.  Our favourite shop was called TWO SISTERS designs and we couldn’t help but notice that they had a picture of us in their window display:

 We bought some cute earrings (matching of course, I got the gold, jen got the silver) and we went back to our b & b where we were surprised to find happy hour, complimentary wine, cheese and snacks!  We chatted with Randall who helped us decide on a restaurant for dinner and we went to Christopher’s for a wonderful dinner and drinks, and then headed to Mundaka’s where we had heard there might be SOME aspect of nightlife.  We did find a small little spot with about 20-25 people, had a few drinks, some dancing, more tequila, and headed back to the B & B around 12:30 where we decided to put the top up on our jeep as it was rather cold and damp out.  We had a raccoon visitor and Jen freaked as she was sure that raccoons attack people, so we had to sit in the jeep until the raccoon disappeared.  Once the raccoon left we made our way back to the B & B and crashed for an early morning whale watching tour – more to come!