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Had breakfast at the hotel, fresh fruit, muesli, toast, yogurt, banana and for Martin cinnamon roll. A really nice day beckoned. Temps high seventies. We wanted to see more of Monterey especially the pier. We walked to cannery row which is a main attraction. Saw the aquarium that was featured in the big blue programme. Along the way saw harbour seal in the water. Amazing. We walked down a long pier and found that at the end were all of these harbour seals making load noises and laying in the sun. A barred gate protects them from us. Even more amazing...... Stopped at the main pier and had cold drinks. Got back to the hotel and picked up the car for the short trip to Carmel. Left Monterey at around 12 and drive back to Carmel which is about three miles away the speed limit all around Carmel is 25mph. The intersections make all vehicles stop, there are no traffic lights and you have to proceed with caution. Not sure whose right of way appears to be first one that goes!!! Found a good parking garage which was not expensive. All of Carmel reminds me of Disney in that it is low building s and everything looks neat, very neat. Martin says it reminds him of the TV programme the prisoner and the village. We walk outside and immediately you can see wealth, Porsches, Mercedes, smart boutiques, no prices, South sea black pearls and art gallery's, again no prices. We found a food store that sold normal things as well as crisps which were truffle flavour... The layout was confusing as it was sometimes difficult to know if you were going up or down. All the shops lined the streets which were in a grid style. We found a cafe in a shopping mall. This Mall had a shop selling tacky Turkish blue things. Perhaps they are the new interior design thing for the rich. I have one of those in my house so perhaps not so tacky... The menu looked fairly healthy so I had a salad while Martin had a selection of local cheeses with toasted bread and dips. My salad also had blue cheese crumbled over. Very nice. Fuelled up we walked around and went in a few shops. Finally we made it down to the sea. There was a lovely long beach with quite rough waves coming in. Bathing was forbidden due to the strong currents. I did put my feet in the water brrrrr cold as Teignmouth. Standing there I suddenly saw a dolphin not very far out. Absolutely incredible. One more sighting then the dolphin was gone. The water is meant to be deep and the beach slopes away suddenly. Hence no swimming.
Time was marching on and we had to leave to travel to San Francisco. This is at least two hours so decided to take the shorter route as the Pacific highway did not continue.
We drove down the 101 This did not take as long as we thought and we passed through San Jose And Belmont.The traffic going the other way was grid locked across all five lanes. Martin thought we had to turn off to another road so I went across five lanes came off the road to is over that we had gone wrong. First mistake of the holiday so not bad going. Got the iPhone out and sat nav our way back. Martin and I still talking.......
The traffic got heavier the close to San Francisco we got. Eventually almost at a stand still. This was worse than the LA freeways. We kept going and eventually got off the main road to try and navigate around the streets leading to our hotel. Our hotel was just off union square which is one of the main central places in San Francisco. Once in the main part of the city the roads got mad with pedestrians everywhere, taxis all over the place and trams to avoid. Not sure how we got there but the Handlery loomed up. We then had to drive around the back ( a block) to park the car.
We won't take the car out until we go.... Say no more........
Booked into our hotel which looked very posh. Had concerges on hand. We were on the second floor. Opened the door and wow. We had two full site queen beds, and a sofa and sitting area. Still one bed each...
Whilst I was bushed we had it eaten since 12 and it was now almost 8pm.
Out we went and people were very where. It was as busy as Times Square in New York. Not quite what I was expecting. All the shops were open and it was like the middle of the day. Very noisy.. We eventually found a place and ate. So tired dragged ourselves back to the hotel and crashed out. Looking forward to whale watching and some quiet. Early start to morrow so up at 6 ish.
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