Monterey

After leaving the cottage in Carmel on Tuesday, we set off on the 17 mile coastal drive from Carmel to Monterey, for which the locals enterprisingly (or greedily, depending how you look at it) charge each car $10.25. It was indeed very pretty and we stopped several times at places such as the photogenic Lone Cypress, and wee beaches where different coloured seals were lounging around on rocks. We stopped for a coffee at Pebble Beach golf resort on Spanish Bay, which was very smart. If I had realised just how smart I probably wouldn't have suggested it; it's clearly a private club and not a coffee stop for tourists. But they made us feel very welcome and it was an interesting glimpse into a different world!
Monterey is lovely! Formerly a fishing port which was featured in John Steinbeck’s novel “Cannery Row” it is now largely devoted to tourism. We sauntered around it taking in the atmosphere and had a delicious lunch in Lalla’s before heading towards San Francisco - and straight into a traffic jam on Route 101! The worst thing was that after being delayed for two hours there was absolutely no sign of what had caused it!
Anyway, eventually we arrived at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco and after checking in we set off to find something to eat. Our hotel is really well located just off Union Square, and Jamie found us a little soul food restaurant called Hops and Hominy which was excellent. I had an “Impossible Burger” which is vegetarian but supposed to taste like real meat - and it kind of does. But not quite.