Mills-Monterey! Day 2

Deep breaths. I'm scared about how long this post is going to be.

Saturday morning we went to Tommy's. I've blogged about this place before, so I'll just remind you all why I love it so much: everything under $3. Yup.

We are so cool sitting at the bar.

We both ordered the Tommy's special - eggs, pancakes, hash browns, and bacon (or sausage if that's your thing).

After breakfast we drove from Marina to Carmel. The plan was to start as far south as possible and hit up the tourist spots as we headed north. First stop, the Carmel Mission!

The Mission itself isn't that tall looking, but somehow when Kmills stood in front of it and I snapped this picture, it looked so much taller! Optical illusion making is one of Kerry's hidden talents. Inside the choir was practicing. It was nice to see the inside because last time I was here (for Easter mass) we had to stand in the entrance because of how packed it was!

There's something so pretty about the Catholic Missions. Kinda creepy how people are buried right there in the church - reminded us of our trip to Westmister Abbey back in the summer of 2007, where patriots like Oliver Cromwell, scientists like Isaac Newton, poets like Chaucer, etc are buried under your feet!

Throwback pic on right: Okay so this guy's not dead - but it is from our trip to London, and yes, I want everyone to know we met Zac Efron... plus, I didn't take any Westmister Abbey pictures :)

We played around in the strange room, taking fun mirror pictures, then we went outside and painted.

Isn't Kerry's picture coming together beautifully? She's such a talented artist.

There was a small little fair. We rubbed olive oil on our hands to make them smooth....

Then we passed through their gift shop. Kerry begged me to get her BibleOpoly but I refused to spend another dime on buying her versions of Monopoly. I've already given her Birdopoly, Elvis edition Monopoly, The Lord of the Rings edition Monopoly, and Sponge Bob Square Pants edition....





Next stop: Carmel-by-the-sea's Ocean Avenue!

We walked around for a while with one major destination in mind: the Cottage of Sweets! I've blogged about this place a lot too so here's why I love it: SWEETS, sold in a COTTAGE.

Kerry chose white chocolate covered pretzel balls and salted carmel fudge. I went with chocolate covered gummy bears in memory of Natalie, peanut butter chocolate malt balls (my recent favorite), and their peanut butter squares.

We grabbed coffee from a cafe up the street and then walked down to the beautiful beach to enjoy our treats.

  

Continuing on our journey, we drove 17 Mile Drive the back way through Carmel towards Pebble Beach. They still had some of the tents up from the US Open, which was going on the week before.

Look! It's the Lone Cypress ("a salt pruned tree which is the official symbol of Pebble Beach and a frequent fixture of television broadcasts from this area" Wikipedia... and since I know you are curious: "Salt pruning is the process by which saline mists generated by seawater are driven ashore by winds to alter the shape of trees over considerable times throughout the growth cycle of the affected plant... [it] selectively degrades foliage and branches on the windward side of the plant facing the body of saline water. The resultant growth form is an asymmetrical plant form, swept back away from the ocean")

Much to our delight there was a wedding party that arrived via trolley to take pictures. When they abandoned their vehicle to walk down to the Lone Cypress, we hijacked it for our own pictures hah!

The 17 Mile Drive continued on along the coast. We drove through Pacific Grove and then parked on Lighthouse. After a quick stop in the liquor store nearby and then another quick stop at Nob Hill for a light lunch of fruits, we walked to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Get ready for a compilation of Kerry Mills at the Aquarium photos:

Kerry with the jellyfish

Kerry with the crazy looking seahorses

Kerry with this cow statue

Kerry getting ZAPped!

The clam shell! Max if you are reading this: this is my first time actually seeing the clam shell at the Aquarium. Up until recently I didn't think it existed, only in your photoshopping abilities.

We left the aquarium and walked up and down Cannery Row. We stopped in the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for a second and I saw these chocolate covered potato chips. Weird!!

When we were driving back to my house, I spotted Mrs. Delish's Cupcake Boutique. I was literally like "WTF?? Since WHEN has that been there?" Kerry, I don't know if I said that out loud, but I was definitely thinking it! Since Kerry's visit I've read a review about the place on Special Edible's blog. I really want to go check that place out soon!

P.S. If you are local to Monterey I suggest you start following that blog because the author, Mark Anderson, works for Monterey County Weekly and reviews a lot of awesome local spots!
P.P.S. Also, if you don't yet, pick up a copy of the Weekly or read their stuff online. LOVE the local paper. I hear about neat events and free stuff from it. Oh and they have the Best Of list that I'm trying to tackle.

We decided to get Baan Thai takeout for dinner. We picked the pumpkin curry (no surprise, if you know me) and pad thai. Kerry let me order, so I of course chose extra hot. The combination of EXTREME heat and an ongoing sinus cold made it impossible to taste our high class $2 bottle of wine.

Empty! :)

Victor, Max, Maren, and Tyler came over (except that Tyler now lives here so I can't really phrase it that way anymore haha) and we busted out the deck of cards!

King's cup is always such a fun game to play.... especially when the rule made up is you have to say your appointed nickname before you say ANYTHING. Slippy Slappy Hippy Happy Trippy Trappy. TOUGH STUFF.

Slappy and Hippy make me Happy.

Sarah was there too - her bro showed us his new tattoo. Then Tyler iced her. Despite the fact that she was on her way to bed, she took it like a champ on one knee!

Then we went downtown.... if you take one good look at the picture below you'll realize how much fun we were having at the Mucky Duck.... such a good dance spot ;)

Not pictured: our trip to the Hippodrome "club" that had cages ... annnnddd yes - we did dance in them.

Cottage of Sweets, revisited.

My first blog post about the Cottage of Sweets was back in the beginning of February. You can read about it here in case you missed it!

Tucked between Monte Verde and Lincoln streets in Carmel, lies a rustic cottage. Stuffed full of succulent fudges, truffles, sours, and sweets, this place is on my Must Visit list when I have visitors. While at the happy hour at Carmel Mission Inn, both Natalie and I were baffled when Sarah told us that she had never been before. Wha? No WAY! But what about that time when we.... Nope.

As we strolled down Ocean Avenue, I spotted this cute lamp shade in a window. Much of Carmel's allure comes from the countless window shopping opportunities. As we got closer to the Cottage of Sweets, we saw this old car and decided to get all goofy touristy and pose with it :)

The Cottage of Sweets is the peanut butter to my tummy's jelly. It is the black to my white. It is my favorite candy store... ever. How adorable is this?

I bought a bag of their Peanut Butter Malt balls. OH MY GOODNESS. Delicious! I've never seen anything like them... I was ridiculously pleased with my purchase. You bite in to the chocolate outside, assuming it's all normal. BUT! There is actually a whole other layer between the chocolate layer and malt inside that is oozing with peanut buttery goodness. The only problem is that they disappeared in merely a day :( I also got two of my go-to peanut butter squares. I also tried the cappuccino square. I didn't think either square was as good as I hoped. The peanut butter square seemed a little off that day (unusual, because normally that's my favorite) and the cappuccino one had barely any hint of espresso/coffee/anything.

Natalie did most of her orders from this side of the shop (below). She bought sour patch kids and chocolate covered gummy bears, one of her favorite things the cottage carries. Sarah had a dark chocolate turtle (I think?) and something else. Why did I not pay attention and/or take pictures? Can somebody answer that for me? I blame the PB Malt Balls!

Here's us enjoying our tasty treats! The adventure continued up the street at Carmel Bakery and Coffee Co... you can read about it here.

Monterey Bay Coastal Trail

Saturday morning I took Lukefrancis (my bicycle) on an oceanside bike ride. I had roughly an hour and a half to spare :) so I pedaled down General Jim Moore towards Hwy 1. I was a little nervous when I pedaled down a one way street, but my instinct was good and I found the Monterey Bay Coastal Bike Trail.

The trail stretches from Castroville to Pebble Beach. Most of the trail I was on was an actual bike path, but some bits were along a road or behind the stores of Sand City. The views were spectacular, it was sunny out, a cool breeze, lovely riding conditions indeed! The whole trail is about 30 miles long - I rode from Fort Ord to Robert S. Beach, and back. However, I did manage to not-so-gracefully unclip from my right pedal, accidentally lose my balance while still hooked into my left pedal, and fall like a tree to the ground. Now my left shoulder is super sore.

Nicole - bring Maple down here and let's go for a ride on this same trail... All the way to the Cottage of Sweets!

Cottage of Sweets

How perfectly February of me to post about my favorite candy shop. In the WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD! A few years ago my mom, sister, and I were visiting Carmel's Ocean Avenue. We stopped in the Cottage of Sweets (Ocean Ave between Monte Verde and Lincoln, Carmel). This place is amazing.

First of all, it looks like the cottage from Hansel & Gretel. It belongs in a scary kid-eating fairytale for goodness' sake. (BTW - German fairy tales are weird.) You walk in and see jars of candy, shelves of fudge, and canisters of different sized jawbreakers.

During my first visit to the Cottage of Sweets I bought some chocolate covered raisins and sour belts. Then my aunt Marilyn and uncle Rem came to visit (maybe 4 years ago). Marilyn showed me the way! She bought an assortment of their truffles and some fudge. Their fudge is homemade and so yummy! I must admit that I have not ordered it since that fateful day. I have, however, ordered [at least one] peanut butter truffle since then!

Let me say that again: PEA-NUT-BUT-TER-TRUF-FLE.

They use the most amazing peanut butter!

Three Cottage of Sweets trips ago, my mom, sister, and I were once again roaming Ocean Avenue. We walked in and to my dismay there were no more square-shaped peanut butter truffles! CRY. CRY. SOBBBB. All of their truffles are now a domed-pyramid-like shape. Alas! They have a smaller version of the old PB truffle, it's called a Peanut Butter square. It's cute (still too small though).

Kyle bought me two PB squares and a few sour belts. As I enjoyed my candy (LOVE CANDY), we walked down to the beach and watched the surfers and dog owners....