Greenfield and Monterey

Mar 12, 2015
We arrived at Yank's RV Park in Greenfield, CA to find a real nice park with all amenities. It appears to be pretty new. Greenfield is about 40 miles from Monterey which I didn't realize when making the reservations. We got set up and went to a couple of wineries for some local tastings. The first was Paraiso Vinyards in Soledad. The tasting room is on a hill above farmlands which shows the diversity of crops grown in the area. Since California is in such a drought it is great to see how well the crops are doing. The wines were quite tasty especially when paired with dark chocolate salted caramel cashews. Then it was on to Hahn Cellars where we tasted a good  selection of their red wines. We also had a good conversation with our hostess about Washington and California wine countries. Then back to the park for dinner and sit out by the fire. It was pretty windy early but it stilled just before 9.

Mar 13, 2015
After breakfast we drove into Carmel to explore the town. Carmel is a very quaint community where everyone picks up their mail at the post office because there are no house numbers on the homes. We saw the Hog's Breath Inn which was made famous in the Dirty Harry movies. There are a lot of upscale shops like Tiffany's and others. The homes around the town are usually more like cottages which are tucked into sides of the hills and leading down to the beach. Then it was off to Monterey via the 17 mile drive along the coast. Here there are palatial estates against hillside with views of the ocean. We drove along seeing several golf courses like Spyglass Hill and Pebble Beach. We stopped at Pebble Beach and went into the Tap Room at the Lodge for lunch

The bar in the Tap Room

The table menu in the Tap Room

And then there's the 18th hole at Pebble Beach.

After lunch we went into Monterey to stroll the streets and visit the shops. Monterey is a very nice town and is keyed to the tourists. The history of the town is also interesting as it was the sardine capitol of the US for many years . We headed back to the park for dinner and a relaxing evening.

Mar 14, 2015
We woke to another pretty day so after breakfast we drove to Pinnacles National Park in Soledad. This is the newest park in the National system having been named in 2013. We parked at the trailheads and began a trek of what we thought would be a gentle climb of about 1.3 miles. Well the trail was a lot steeper than we anticipated and we ended up walking about 3 miles. This is a very pretty park.

Then out to lunch at a nice local restaurant and back to the park. I took a swim and laid out in the sun before dinner. Tomorrow we head to Bodega Bay, CA.