Carmel

More narrative?  Let me see.  I didn't take any notes on this day.  It was a travel day.  We must have gotten up.  I'm pretty sure of that part.  I went to the lobby in my t-shirt and harem pants which is basically my pajamas and got us coffee and croissants.  I'm sure of that, too.  And surely we packed.  I do know now that we left the bluetooth speaker we were using in the room.  Discovered that when we got home.

Then I went to pick up the rental car.  The place was only a few blocks from the hotel.  It was a crummy place and the rental people were shitty.  I do remember a 14 year old girl with her family walking in cutoffs so short that the bottom of her butt cheeks were perpetually showing.  Her dad and mom smiled.  Everyone was happy.  I wondered who they voted for in the last presidential election.  The parents, I mean.

I picked Ili up at the hotel and we were off.  Travel is so much easier now.  I turned on Maps and it showed me how to get out of town without getting stuck in the Pride Parade.  It was Sunday and many streets were closed.  But with the soothing artificial voice guiding me, I was out of town in no time.

We were headed for Carmel, and before too long, we were in the beautiful golden fields of the northern California countryside, me jabbering away about the beauty of the land and the sin of human populations and development.  Oh, to have been here in the '50s, I crowed.  What a state.  What a life.

We pulled into Carmel-By-The-Sea mid-afternoon.  Ili had picked out a few potential hotels.  The first one we stopped at was Playa del Carmel.  If you go, you stay, too.  It is a fabulous place, more fabulous than I can say.  We were lucky.  They had a room left.  We took it.  They gave us sangria.  Good wines began at five.  The champagne breakfast was complimentary as were the fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and milk at night.  The staff was the best I've ever experienced.  It was a staff from an old film.  I can't explain.  The terraced gardens, the pool. . . .

We got stuck.  We would never leave.  If possible, we would make this our permanent home.

But it was still early.  We headed into town.