Weekend Wanderings

This weekend, in order to escape the 90 degree temperatures here at home, we headed to one of our favorite places: Monterey Bay.  It is always nice and cool at the coast and we had a fun time running on the beach and walking around the charming town of Carmel-by-the-Sea.  I purposely packed my camera so that I could share our trip here.  But when I whipped it out, no memory card space and no battery.  Ugh.  My husband was able to snap a couple of pictures though, so here we go:

This is lupine growing on the dunes of Asilomar State Beach.  This is one of my favorite beaches.  The conference center was designed by Julia Morgan, one of my favorite architects.  A boardwalk leads you from the conference grounds through a dune system that is under restoration.  The dunes have been planted with native grasses and flowers like this lupine.  The path leads you to a lovely wide beach and when you hit the tides right, some amazing tide pools.  We didn't hit the tides right yesterday, but we still had fun scrambling on the rocks and running on the sand. 

Carmel has so many wonderful window box plantings.  This lovely box is outside the Cottage of Sweets.  We always stop here for our afternoon snack.  I didn't post a link to their website, because, quite frankly, the site is rather lame.  The chocolate and ambiance is not lame, however, and is a must when we visit.  Love the purples violas.

It is details like this heart shaped lock, that I love.  This is the front door to the restaurant Casanova, where we ate dinner.  I just read that this is considered one of Carmel's most romantic restaurants.  Hmm, we showed up with three kids and a dog. They accommodated us nicely then.  We had the garden terrace all to ourselves, dog included.  They even brought Daisy her own water dish.  The food was amazing, the setting beautiful and the service, friendly.  The only down side was I was too full to try dessert.  Just as well, the kids were getting antsy.  Next time...

Another lovely container.  Some heuchera and sedum, I think. The contrasts here make a stunning combo.

Finally, another charming courtyard.   This one has a rather dramatic pool and fountain surrounded by more gorgeous containers. If you click on the photo you can see Daniel amidst the flowers on the right.  How would you like to have lunch on this terrace?  Well, thanks for joining me for this weeks' Weekend Wanderings.  I hope you enjoyed your visit.