Scones & Swaptions: Out of Office: Carmel, Monterrey, Pebble Beach

We began Day 2 (Monday) of the Baby-Free California Coast Road Trip with a visit to Carmel, and while puttering around the shops there I discovered - to the delight of my Victorian Literature inner groupie - "Jane Austen at Home," a store filled with Austen-era household items and totebags with titles ranging from "Tolerable" to "I heart Darcy." My Austen geek enthusiasm was a bit curbed by not having a fellow Austen-ite to share it with (my husband mainly feeling baffled by my obsession with all things JA), but it was a fun stop, along with innumerable other art galleries and stores that we meandered through in Carmel.

From Carmel we explored the "17 mile drive," a stretch of private road that circles through a scenic coastal stretch near Pebble Beach. There are frequent stops along the route, as well as several public golf courses where we got out to look around, including the Inn at Spanish Bay and, of course, the most famous: Pebble Beach. Pebble Beach was a particularly interesting stop this week as (unbeknownst to us) Monday kicked off a week-long marathon of classic car events in the Monterrey area, ending on Sunday with the famous Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegence, one of the premier shows for classic and prototype cars in the country. The local scuttlebut indicated that many of the Concours d'Elegence cars would in fact be in Carmel the following day for Concours on the Avenue, so we penciled that in for Tuesday morning. (Bonus, COTA in Carmel is free while general admission for PBCDE begins at $300 a pop and goes up from there).

A few shots along the way, top to bottom: Spanish Bay Links course & green, Chris at Point Joe, Spanish Bay Beach, Fanshell Overlook, & the Lone Cypress

To continue our marathon day, we headed over to Monterrey. Chris had never visited the aquarium, so we arrived at 5pm - not realizing that the aquarium closed at 6pm. Good news: discounted end-of-day tickets, basically empty aquarium. Bad news: one must keep up a good clip of a pace to see everything at Monterrey Aquarium in an hour! While certain attractions probably didn't get as much attention from us as they deserved, we did in fact make it to every exhibit. I personally hate jellyfish, but the beauty of these seduced even my wary heart: