The Carmel Mission is very nice, and right off Hwy 1. At the south end of Carmel, turn right on Rio Road, and it’s maybe a mile, at most, on the left side. They still have Mass there every Sunday. And right next door is Clint’s own Mission Ranch (hotel and event center). Very pricey, but fun to walk around and see the flock of sheep in the meadow. One of the best places around to watch the sunset.
Thanks. Ended up with the Embassy Suite in SLO since they will allow a family of 5 in one room. Best Western maxes out at 4, so we would need 2 rooms.
SLO should be fun. I think the mission and environs ought to be good for the kiddos. I haven’t been there for 30 years so looking forward to it.
Thanks all for the suggestions. We had a pretty great trip.
Details? What did you do on the trip? What were your favorite stops?
Ate at Phil’s in Moss Landing. Good stuff. Fun Stop.
Monterey aquarium was good.
Should have definitely skipped Carmel. Some classic car thing, bus loads of tourists, chinese restaurant was closed, ended up at a crappy Bistro for a stupid amount of money. Could have skipped 17 mile drive as well. Much better homes in my neighborhood. Beach there was fine and we played for a while but could have gone to a free beach instead.
Dennis the Menace Park was a cool and a big hit with the kiddos.
Jim’s Chinese restaurant is a hole in the wall with pretty decent Cantonese food for a great price. Hit the spot.
Going down highway 1 was great. Saw half a dozen or so whales right off shore feeding. They were on the surface, spyglassing, breaching, etc.
Ate at the hearst castle wine bar and burger place their by the pier. Definitely a good stop. China wife sampled an extra glass of wine while I took the kids to the beach by the pier. Okay beach. Sand wasn’t that great but the kiddos are happy standing in the waves. Win-win.
Elephant seals were cool but man do they smell ripe. Also had a metric buttload of Ferrari’s masserati’s and other fine roaring vehicles pass us in the opposite direction.
SLO was really cool and wish we had spent 2 nights there. Just played around the park near the mission and did a quick mission tour. Didn’t get to Los Osos but should have. Kids were antsy to get to Hollywood and Universal, so skipped Pismo (which I remember from college days as being shadeless hot).
We did about everything possible at Universal. And a special shout out to them for the accommodation they provide to special needs. My youngest is on the autism spectrum, so being able to go to thru the “fast line” or if wait times were more than 40 minutes they give you a chit and you come back after 40 minutes and can do the fast line.
My youngest (austism) loved all the rides and wasn’t the least bit scared even by the transformers ride, king kong 3D (pretty neat), jurrasic park, the BART earthquake. She loved Jurrasic Park and the Simpsons. Also, dancing with Sponge Bob was cool and then hanging out with Shaggy and Scooby Doo. Plus the water stuff in super silly fun land.
Eldest twin over came her fear and actually wanted to do Jurrasic Park a second time. And loved the animal show and special effects
My teenager liked Waterworld probably the best.
It was HOT in the afternoon, and we retreated to the pool at the Sheraton Hotel (all those nights in Chinese hotels on business pays off with a couple of free nights).
Balloon guy at the Sheraton was awesome. He made anything from Despicable Me.
Hung out with China Wife’s junior high classmate from Shanghai, then powered down to San Diego. Hung out with my father and extended family there. Two homes on one lot with real fun dogs and a pool. Did Coronado Beach one day. I had everyone boogie boarding. My youngest (autism spectrum) was fearless. She’s 9. I’d put her on the board, wait for a wave, then shove, and she’d go all the way up the beach (most of the time). And even a few times getting crushed and swallowing sea water, she would be “go again Daddy”. I even had a couple of times to show the kiddos the old man still had it and caught great waves, rode the curl and went all the way in. Good times.
My second eldest brother came into town for the last day we were there. I see him about twice a decade (which is enough!) but it was good to see him.
Port Lomas Seafood house has great food. Don’t miss it.
My father had been in the ICU with pneumonia, kidney failure and congestive heart issues about 6 weeks ago. I flew down to see him, and he had a dramatic turnaround and is almost back to pre ICU levels. Those WW2 combat vets are a tough bunch I tell ya. And my mother in Sacramento had another stroke not that long ago and moved to a retirement home, so it was good to see her. Neither parent can fly (nor drive any longer). So, good chance to take the kids and see them both.
Then it was two 12 hour days (with food stops) to drive to Seattle. Had a great late lunch in Eugene. Traffic sucked on the south side of Portland, but then smooth sailing the rest of the way.
Once again, thanks for the tips and tricks.
We also did the homeland trip and took a quick detour to Colusa, CA, where I went to elementary school. Drove through farmland for 10 miles from the freeway, passed the Indian Casino (probably the nicest thing in the county), drove past the municipal pool where I spent my summers (it is being rebuilt or torn down), my old Junior High (still there be some kind of arts center in the original building and a whole new junior high built next door), then to the house we built and lived in for most of those 8 years (now has a big ass tree in the front yard, the blue door is repainted, and someone added a brick façade to the front), drove by the elementary school (now the city hall and some kind of historic building), a newly built elementary school on the same grounds, my second grade classroom in something a little better than a temporary pod is still being used as a classroom 45 years later, took a photo of the tennis courts in a park where I learned to whack the ball, drove over the Sacramento River bridge and drove back, made a half assed attempt to find the church my father was the minister of for those years (on Bing maps I see we were about a block away), and then as we tried to get back to I-5 the GPS took us down a dirt road for about 20 miles past the national bird wildlife sanctuary.
While my wife and kids knew I had grown up in bumfuck California farm country, they were pretty amazed to see that I seriously under-exaggerated what it was like. Odd juxtaposition that my wife and kids grew up in Shanghai, and now within about 2 miles of several billionaires (Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Mrs. Costco, Jeff Bezos, etc)
Took a couple of pix standing in the front yard of our new house. There have been threads asking “would you knock on the door of your old home?” and I didn’t. We were there for about 2 minutes. If the occupants had come out, I would have said “hey, I lived here in the early 70’s” but I didn’t feel any strong urge to go see my old room or anything like that.
I’ll be surprised if I ever go back to Colusa although it was definitely worth the 45 minute detour to revisit.
Glad the trip went well! Sounds like everyone had a good time.
I don’t think you missed much by skipping Pismo. It’s my least favorite beach in the area.
Oh, you were there during Concorso week. That’s the biggest event all year for Carmel. If you’re not into cars, you have to plan ahead in order to avoid the crowds (they vary by place depending on what day it is). I actually was down there that weekend, too. If you don’t know the schedule, there’s a good chance you’ll be stuck in a huge traffic jam.
Friday: Stay away from Carmel Valley
Saturday: Stay away from Monterey
Sunday: Stay away from 17-M-D.
Wow, you must live in some ritzy area. But keep in mind that many of the homes are deliberately not visible from the street.
Might as well go to Asilomar. It’s basically the same beach, just in Pacific Grove, not 17-M-D.