By the Sea, By the Sea

First I'll address a couple of issues from the last post:
1) In deference to the monkey, I will include color pictures of food instead of black and white. In my defense, I've noticed that the more I drink, the more out of focus my pictures are. Surprising, no? And that lack of focus just isn't as blatantly evident in the black and whites.

2) I know I did a huge ole blog post about my camera when I first got it, but for those of you just tuning in, it's the Olympus Stylus 1030 SW. Thatboy has been using an Olympus since he first picked up a camera many many years ago so we are the proud owners of Olympus SLRs, Olympus DSLRs, and Olympus point and shoots. I can already vouch for it's sturdiness and waterproofness. Next week I'll be testing out its underwater capabilities.

Okay, on to the fun stuff.

There was WAY too much wine drank on Friday, so Saturday morning we slept in and then headed for a hangover remedy - Katy's Place, a breakfast joint in a quaint little cottage.

Once again, Thatboy declared me the breakfast winner with my Sonora Eggs Benedict winning out over his vanilla blueberry caramel crepes. Luckily I am a fantastic sharer.

We decided to spend our last day in Carmel in the actual village of Carmel. We began walking up and down the streets, stopping in to boutiques and art galleries.

We saw some amazing sculptures, watercolors, digital paintings, and even an ancient Chinese art of silk embroidery. The village of Carmel reminds me of a village from Beauty and the Beast - "Little town, it's a quiet village...." and full of dogs! Which we always love to see, although it makes us miss our own little boy.

For lunch, we went to Nico's, which was also recommended to us by the same person who recommend Georis. So far she's 2 for 2! We sat in a little courtyard surrounded by bougainvillea and enjoyed our Italian lunch.

Thatboy decided to take a page from my book and ordered the Nico's pizza - the theme for this weekend was "If they're going to put their name on it, it's got to be good."

I went with my all time favorite - gnocchi. This time in a gorgonzola sauce.

Good and full, we continued to stroll around the town.

Eventually we made our way down to the beach.

We weren't the only ones enjoying the warm weather, the beach was packed. It's such a beautiful beach, and my favorite kind with warm white sands that stretch forever. We sat on the beach and watched the waves and the seals.

Then it was back up for more walking and a quick stop for coffee and candy before heading back to our hotel to get ready for our final dinner.

We headed to Grasings where we loaded up on pink drink after pink drink. It is clear my husband is secure in his masculinity. We each chose the tasting menu for dinner, but like a good couple, we chose different selections for each course.

For the first course, Thatboy had mussels and clams. He thought the mussels were some of the best he's ever had.

I had an endive salad with beets, point reyes blue cheese, and nueske bacon. The creaminess of the blue cheese had me unwilling to share.

For our entrees, Thatboy ordered the salmon. While he thought the inside was perfect, he decided he didn't like the crispiness pan frying gives the outside.

I had the short rib which was SO much more amazing than the one at Cassanova. And the horseradish mashed potatoes? Don't even get me started on their creaminess and hidden kick.

For dessert, Thatboy had the cappuccino creme brulee and I had the peach and blackberry cobbler. His was too sweet for me, but I loved the way my ice cream melted down over the hot fruit. Yum! I still couldn't finish it though.

We tried to get to bed early because of our early flight the next morning, but even waking up early didn't mar the absolute fabulousness of the trip. We definitely loved Carmel. I told Thatboy I'd move there in a heartbeat, which is saying a lot for me! He's usually the one who wants to move where ever we're vacationing.