Song - Sunset Piper at the Inn at Spanish Bay
Every night at sunset, there appears a bagpiper to say goodnight to the links at Spanish Bay. He walks along the 18th hole with the ocean and sunset behind him. It is a sight to behold.
So several months ago I decided to plan a trip to Carmel with Mr. B for his birthday and to surprise him I invited all of the kids to join us for dinner at Spanish Bay!
The weekend was great....except for the weather and road conditions. In fact the hotel called me on Friday at noon saying they had no power nor did they have any idea as to when it would be restored so we could cancel.
But Mr. B is an adventurous sort and decided if we could get food and wine, then we should go!!! Talley Ho....
By the time we got to our hotel, the power had been restored, however the kids were staying at the Santa Cruz cabin and they didn't have power nor a break in the rain. The San Lorenzo River was close to flood stage - but Mr. B knew none of this as it was all a big surprise! There were a lot of secret texts going on.
Have you heard that Carmel is a dog friendly town? And it is, as is
our hotel - there were dogs everywhere. They were rather well behaved
too! As we came down the stairs for dinner Friday, at the Cypress Inn, there was my cousin, her husband and their new little four month old Cocker Spaniel, Romeo. They have a home in Carmel Valley and their power had been out all day so they drove into Carmel for dinner and we just bumped into each other! Romeo had a proper neck tie on for dinner - of course. I told you that they were well behaved!
Meanwhile we had intermittent breaks in the rain & wind in Carmel and spent Saturday shopping and poking in galleries.
We stopped in at the Tuck Box for Scones & Devon cream so we could practice for our upcoming trip to Britain. Is it cream first then preserves or preserves first then cream? So many tough decisions in life. It was so windy that the Tuck Box sign had been blown loose!
You can see that I decided to go with Olallieberry preserves first then the cream on my scone and all I can say is - mmmmmmmmmm......mmmmm....mmm...it was a mighty good choice!
Saturday nights dinner at Roy's was a grand surprise for Mr. B but it was freezing outside while waiting for the piper to arrive. We were seated around a big fire pit with blankets passed around by the waiters but still it was cold and windy. The picture above is the ocean whipping around that evening and the very top photo is of our piper. I'm still not sure how his fingers played the bagpipe when it was so cold outside.
Great dinner together where we were warm. The kids had stopped by Gayle's Bakery in Capitola and brought down a yummy cake - double chocolate with salted caramel.....yummmmmm!
Sunday we spent walking around Monterey with our son Jon and his friend Jackie. We had a great lunch and they introduced us to an outdoor granite bench that is warmed from within - they had to tear me away!
Monday we headed home in the pouring rain. It was a long drive with downed trees, mudslides, road closures, traffic accidents and flooding everywhere. Mr. B thought he could outsmart them and took several back roads - most made us turn around to only to try to find another route but one worked out great.
We made it home safely and are looking out our back window with our own creek on the rise.
Hope you are warm and dry where every you may live.
" The Carmel is a lovey little river. It isn't very long but in it's course it has everything a river should have. It...tumbles down a while, runs through shallows, ...crackles among round boulders, wanders lazily under sycamores, spills into pools where trout live. In the winter it becomes a torrent, ... and in the summer it is a place for children to wade in and for fisherman to wander in."
--John Steinbeck, Cannery Row
PS - at 4 am we had a blasting Emergency Alert on our cell phones - I thought the hotel was on fire but no it was to notify us that the Carmel River was flooding - I guess Mr. Steinbeck didn't have that joy! We had about 6 alarms on our way home on Sunday notifying us of flooding in our area - thanks - I didn't notice!
