December 8, 2001
Time for another trip, but we need a sea fix - off to Monterey!
Breakfast was the the Mission Cafe in San Juan Batista, but the ratings are missing so we will have to return.
We wandered and walk past the seals and otters and Lover's Point (Anne's first serious view of them) and checked into the Lighthouse Lodge.
Afternoon brought shopping for a green jacket for David, more wanderings, and dinner at Rappas at the end of the wharf.
Morning brought rain and no hot water in the shower. None.
Breakfast was at the Tuck Box, and I don't regard the rating too seriously because I was so enchanted just being there again, finally, after several attempts. My parents were married at Carmel by The Sea, and had tea and crumpets at the Tuck Box before leaving for their honeymoon. Marcia Stevenson and I spent a week in Carmel at her grandmother's beach house in high school, and took tea and muffins at the Tuck Box, and I have failed to return since then. Some things do not change, and while the Tuck Box is smaller now, and quite crowded where it used to have outside tables in a tiny, sweet courtyard that is now rented out to another store. It is the same atmosphere, the same sweet place.
A stuffed sea otter purchased that afternoon was promptly named Tuck. Shopping at the American Canning area was useless except for another silver bracelet.
On the way home, we made the usual stop at the Moss Landing junk stores and book store, whose prices have soared and our purchases have decreased, leaving only with a Foxfire book, a welding book and a beading book. The book store is a heavenly place on a rainy or foggy day. A sky light our favorite room provides a wonderful sound of rain while you casually browse through the endless shelves of knowledge.
Walmart in Los Banos on the way home included jeans for Anne, Christmas presents for Jena and Anne's first hot flash, I believe. Wow. A clear, cold sky and dinner at the Wool Grower's Inn in Los Banos was a natural ending to another great escape.