So we left Yosemite and marvelled at its tranquility. We drove southwest through California and saw vast groves of trees – growing almonds and pistachio. We’ve never seen those before. I was reminded of the Mediterranean and Israel as there were stalls by the side of the road selling these nuts and cherries, strawberries, oranges, peaches and some watermelon
Like other parts of California it’s not just the sites but also the smells. San Francisco smelt of the bay trees, Yosemite smelt of pine and forest, and this drive through the state smelt of … . . garlic! That’s right – alongside the fruit and nut stalls were garlic stalls. Anyone for garlic ice cream with garlic jelly?
We arrived in Carmel – and it’s very quaint. Very individual shops, in old buildings, no multinationals, apart from Tiffanys, and certainly no McDonalds. Its clearly upmarket – look at the photo of the “pictures” displaying properties for sale – they look like oil paintings in those frames, look at the price!
It’s all centred around a main street and there are so many flowers. It reminded me of Zichron Ya’akov – except the pacific ocean is at the end of the road, and it’s alot cooler
We’ve seen the sea and dipped our toes. Even without children we can be childish – we love the sea. It’s got a breeze that keeps the burning sun down to a cool 20C but the difference between here and Scarborough is the cloudless deep blue sky and the sea is blue not brown. The beach has white sand with no litter in sight
Tomorrow we have to be up early to have completed 3 hours driving to get to Hearst’s Castle by 12 noon. I think I got the timing of that wrong!