Well, hey there, friends! We’re on a literal coast-to-coast travel binge, so I thought I’d check in and catch you up on our adventures.
As you’ve read here before, Emily and Gareth choose a half marathon to run together every Spring, and boy, was I happy when they chose to run the Big Sur race! Because. . .
. . . THESE VIEWS!! I mean, come on! This is insane!
The last weekend of April, Emily flew from NYC to Denver, where we met her at the airport and jumped on our flight to San Jose. We picked up our rental car and drove about two hours to Carmel. It was such a fun drive full of a lot of reminiscing because we lived in the Bay Area for four years when the kids were little. One of the best things we did when living there was to treat our weekends like we were tourists. Nearly every weekend, we picked a different beach to enjoy, explored a different part of San Francisco, or found a new place to hike. This area is not the easiest place to live. It’s crowded, the traffic is bad, it’s CRAZY expensive . . . BUT. . . in terms of having easy access to some of the most spectacular places . . . living here was incredible!
Because our kids were little, most of our adventures around here were day-trips. So although we drove through Carmel and Big Sur, we didn’t get to just plant ourselves here and soak it in. So for three days last weekend we were happily planted at the Tickle Pink Inn in the Carmel Highlands. I can’t think of a better spot to soak in the views while being spoiled by their lovely staff. We were greeted with a bottle of champagne and chocolates.
Every morning they put out a beautiful complimentary breakfast with delicious egg bites, bacon, and freshly baked muffins and pastries. Each afternoon they baked chocolate chip cookies! And in the evenings they put out a wonderful wine and cheese spread.
We enjoyed all of these treats from this terrace (with plenty of heaters and fireplaces) overlooking the spectacular coastline.
Not a bad way to kick off a Race Weekend with my two runners!
On Saturday, we drove down the coast to Big Sur to take in the views and check out the course. The half marathon and full marathon are actually run on Hwy 1 (which skirts the coastline), making it easily one of the most beautiful races in the country . . . decided by me. 🤓 As beautiful as it is, it is also a trek with almost constant hills, which I’ve been told by my two runners makes it really challenging. The upside is that because of the logistics of the race course, the “half marathon” for this event is only 11 miles (only??) instead of the usual 13.1 miles.
We stopped at the Big Sur Roadhouse for a delicious lunch (of which I have no photos). 😏 It’s tucked in the woods and backs to a river, with a wonderful deck to take it all in.
We arrived back at our hotel to enjoy some time in the cliffside hot tub. Not gonna lie, concentrating on my book was tricky. It had stiff competition from the VIEW!
That evening, we wandered around Carmel-by-the-Sea and had a beautiful pre-race dinner. Carmel is lovely, with fairy tale cottages and little secret alleyways. It’s the perfect little town for meandering!
Sunday morning, these two were up dark and early for their big run. You know it’s a special race course when they stop running to take a selfie with the view!
The great news is they finished! The bad news is that I missed it. 😭 As I mentioned, the race takes place on Hwy 1, which is the only way to get anywhere. I dropped them at their shuttle at 5:30 am, and drove back to the hotel to enjoy (more sleep), coffee and breakfast. They had given us a schedule for escorted car caravans that would allow spectators to drive to the finish line area. I got in line at 8:15 for my 8:30 caravan time, then they cancelled that time slot. So I had to sit and wait until they decided to let another caravan go at 9:45. Bummer.
I don’t run races, but I absolutely love being at the finish line! If you want to be inspired, uplifted, and/or restore your faith in humanity – go to the finish line of a half marathon or marathon. Witnessing the crowd support, the atheletes, and the vibrating positivity in the air is truly awesome, in every sense of the word. So missing it for my two runners this year was really a bummer.
Nonetheless, they hunkered down in a Safeway (lol!) and I made my way to them when they finally released my corral of cars. We went into Carmel and my runners enjoyed a well-earned juevos rancheros! And then we were trapped. Until after the whole race. Because, once again, they kept cancelling driving caravan times that would allow us to get back to our hotel.
We eventually got back to our hotel later in the afternoon, which allowed everyone to nap before we enjoyed a victory dinner at the Pacifics Edge ~ which was happily located in the hotel next door ~ so an easy walk!
I just have to put this photo right here and ask the question: if anyone has any ideas to allow me to wake up like this everyday – let me know!!
After our last yummy breakfast at the Tickle Pink Inn, we checked out and headed over to Point Lobos State Reserve for some “active recovery”. No regrets! It was beautiful.
AND . . . we stumbled upon this . . .
AWWW! So incredibly cool to be there for Pupping Season! We didn’t see any baby seals actually being born, but we saw lots of new babies with their mamas doing exactly what I would be doing if I were their shoes (er – flippers) . . . laying in the sun and sleeping.
We spent a picture-perfect morning hiking, seal spotting, and beachcombing. Then it was time to drive up the coast to our next destination . . .
Thank you for coming along with me today! I’ll be back here tomorrow with all the details of our next stop!
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