The Undiscovered Monterey Peninsula 3.2

Carmel-by-the-Sea (Part 3)

This week let’s tour Carmel’s downtown commercial hub and zip out to Carmel Mission for a second or two.

Note: You can find Part 1 of our Carmel series here. You can find Part 2 here.

It’s so funny…when we first started writing this series two weeks ago we had no idea if we would have enough material for three posts, but over the last few weeks it turns out we’ve taken enough photos that we probably could have gone on a few more weeks. That’ll happen when you spend two consecutive weekends tooling around town with the wife and grandkids—pretty much a perfect blend of work and play, if you ask us.

By the way, contrary to what we said last week, our grandkids ended up liking Carmel a lot more than we thought they would. In fact, when we showed our ten-year-old granddaughter the fairy tale houses we covered last week, she ended up convinced that Carmel was the best place in the world to live. Our grandson, well, once he saw the window display of the Carmel Bakery and Coffee Co. with a promise that we would return after we were through doing the “boring stuff,” he became incredibly focused and cooperative. Funny how that works.

But we digress. The truth of that matter is that we have an exciting SSCS announcement tentatively scheduled for next week’s post, and the week after that we have an interview with a representative of an often overlooked industry partner, so we have to end this series today. Which means we have a surfeit of photos that we positively, absolutely have to burn off. That being the case, we’ll keep the words to a minimum and the images to a maximum. In an effort not to clutter up this post with unnecessary verbiage, where possible we’ve provided links to websites that provide more information on each of these locations.

Today our tour begins in downtown Carmel—largely up and down its main drag, Ocean Avenue—which has a charm that few other commercial districts can match. City Hall is reflective of the vibe:

Even the fire station is not without its charms:

Devendorf Park, right off of Ocean Avenue, adds a nice splash of green to its surroundings:

Downtown Carmel is chock full of inns, hotels, and motels in all shapes, sizes and forms, including the Hofsas House with its unique European charm…

…and the stately, historic Cypress Inn, once owned by actress Doris Day:

One of the more unique aspects of downtown Carmel is the dozens of small courtyards and passageways that you encounter in every block. Some are cozy and inviting…

…while some look like a portal to a secret, mysterious world:

Speaking of mysterious worlds, if you’re looking for the White Rabbit or his good friend and associate Alice, you might consider taking a climb up these stairs:

It’s not all stores, restaurants and inns, though. Carmel’s “neighborhood church,” the Church of the Wayfarer has existed just off of Ocean Avenue for over 100 years:

Its generous grounds are not only visually stunning but are large enough to emulate a secret garden in which you might find the occasional fairy:

We’ll conclude this gallery with a shot of Carmel Mission, a.k.a. Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo…

…and its courtyard.

Well, we hope you’ve enjoyed this pictorial tour, which certainly was fun while it lasted. But don’t worry; the best is yet to come. If you don’t believe us, just keep reading us every Thursday.