We took a trip down to Carmel and despite all of the maps, road signs, GPS’s, etc we missed the turnoff. We were looking for the Hwy 1 entrance to 17-mile drive so we can take it down into Carmel and after visiting Carmel we would re-enter 17-mile drive in Carmel and head up to Monterey. We missed the entrance to 17-mile drive and kept looking for it and the next thing we knew we were well south of Carmel… So we turned around and went straight into Carmel.
We parked in downtown Carmel, walked down to the beach. Christian and Evan went down the beach to the ocean, but that wasn’t really in the plan, so we rounded them up and walked back up the hill, walked around downtown a little bit and then got back in the car and entered 17-mile drive.
The scenery along the drive is great! We stopped at the Lone Cypress Tree and hung out a bit. Next we moved on to Seal and Bird Rock to eat lunch of sandwiches, chips, drinks. While there we took the opportunity to explore some rocks and tide pools, watched the birds and seals on the rocks and just relaxed.
We made another stop or two along the way and made it out at the Pacific Grove gate. We moved into Asilomar as it was recommended as a great place to visit for tide pools. Unfortunately, we came into Asilomar at high tide, so all of the tide pools we saw were underwater and not accessible, but at least we saw some at Bird Rock.
We made our final stop at Dennis the Menace park and Christian and Evan went off to play and have a good time while getting out some energy! The park was fun, many different activities – slides, mountain climbing walls, a rope bridge, a train to climb on.
(Dennis the Menace Park - on the train)
After getting home I took Christian and Evan to the beach so they can get wet and have fun in the ocean for a while --- and they did! We ate dinner, played some games and called it a night.
Again, the weather turned out to be fantastic! So much for the “forecast” !!!