Carmel-by-the-Sea

Saturday and Sunday we spent in Carmel-by-the-Sea eating incredible food and walking around.  On Friday night we ate at Casanova, a beautiful European restaurant, where we ate duck and herb-butter mushrooms and filet mignon on an outside patio.  Will picked an incredible wine called "Ad Astera" and I was toasty!

Then Saturday we woke earlier to run near Asilomar, which has a long packed sand path right alongside the ocean.  The water was an incredible shade of deep blue and the rocks were multicolored browns.  We ran to a little wooden structure alongside the path and gratefully sat in the shade; as we did so, a couple of deer came to graze right across the road, completely unafraid of the cars passing by.

Then back to Carmel, where we ate a late lunch at a restaurant called La Bicyclette -- a charming, romantic place owned by the same people as Casanova.  We were going to eat someplace different, but a kind elderly gentleman convinced Will that this was the place to go.  It had real flowers in vases, copper pots lining the ceiling, and an interior built to look like a European village.  I had sauerkraut and sausages, with a side of cream of artichoke soup with truffel oil.  It was amazing.

Then I fell asleep for ... two or so hours, and we walked around a now closed Carmel (apparently everything in Carmel closes at 6, aside from the restaurants).  Will found Sushi Heaven, a Japanese restaurant, on his iPhone, and we called it a night.