Pacific Grove

Write in the morning, wander in the afternoon. Today we visited the neighboring town of Pacific Grove and behaved like good tourists, stopping first at the Chamber of Commerce for a Historic Walking Tour map.

(We learned about the map from the book Insiders’ Guide: Monterey Peninsula by Tom Owens and Melanie Bellon Chatfield, which has been our bible two trips in a row. We never would have found the Sobranes Canyon Trail without Tom and Melanie, or the Heller Estate tasting room, or the Fresh Cream restaurant, where we had our best dinner last year.)

The walking tour was the ideal way to see this charming seaside town with its gabled Victorian inns and itsy Victorian cottages.

The Seven Gables on Ocean View Blvd. is the place to stay…



…if you like this sort of thing.



Our stroll took us past teensy houses with narrow pathways between and postage-stamp-sized gardens.



The door was open at St. Mary’s-by-the-Sea church, with its two Tiffany windows...



...so we went inside and crashed a wedding rehearsal.



Many homes bear discreet signs denoting the original owner and year the home was built.



Several homes are for sale. We pulled information sheets out of realtors’ boxes to read “Bougainvillae Cottage by the Sea, 1526 square feet, $1,249,000” and “Beautifully restored 1897 charmer, $1,197,000” and “Across from Jewell Park, 2 car garage, less than 100 yards to Peppers! Price upon request.”

Peppers, as it happens, is the main local hang and a terrific Mexicali restaurant. We stumbled on it entirely by accident and had lunch.



Pacific Grove is a lovely town on the ocean's edge. Not much nightlife, though. This is Main Street (Lighthouse Drive) around 6:30 on a Friday night. Dead as a doornail.