San Francisco Day 3

From California 2010

This morning Jose and I got up pretty early and drove down to Carmel-by-the-Sea.  The main downtown area is pretty touristy, with nice, upscale shopping and dining.  We had brunch at this quaint place called The Cottage.  I had a delicious meal - the Cottage Special - little pancakes, "bangers" - English sausage, eggs and a side of toast.  Jose wasn't as thrilled with his eggs benedict - he said the hollandaise was very vinegary.

We drove along "Scenic Drive", stopping a little along the way, with nice views of the ocean, beaches and rocks.

We took route 1 out to the Point Lobos Ecological Reserve, which was absolutely breathtaking.  Sea lions basking on the rocks, rock arches in the water, little hidden beaches, a cypress grove... you could spend all day there but we only saw one side of it.  Jose even took a little nap in the car while I explored China Cove.

We wanted to see Monterey and Jose had rehearsal tonight at 8, so we headed there... it wasn't as compact and pretty as Carmel, but we had a very pleasant snack on Cannery Road and drove around a little bit.  We weren't all that impressed, didn't have time for the aquarium, so we headed back to San Francisco but took route 1 most of the way.

From California 2010

So many of the views on the way back were so beautiful, and we were approaching sunset so the light was great.  We stopped at a couple places along the way, most notably Pigeon Point lighthouse and Pescadero Beach.

Jose dropped me off downtown on his way to rehearsal, and I took the bus toward the house.  I stopped off at the Marina district and had a great dinner at Ristorante Parma, where they had carbonara that was not made with cream.  It had a definite chicken stock flavor but it was really good.  I also had some chocolate raspberry cake for dessert.

People in the restaurant were kind of weird (not the staff they were great - the patrons).  The guy next to me literally asked for a custom pasta dish, specifying all the ingredients.  The woman next to me wanted a seafood dish with different seafood but they didn't have shrimp so she couldn't have what she wanted, but she talked about how she wanted her shrimp.  I don't understand why people to go restaurants, wanting something really specific.  I have no idea where they were from.