Pampered Glampers

From SF, we headed south to Carmel-by-the-Sea. Such a lovely name for a town. The campground was small with less than 40 sites, but it was nice – except that the showers only ran for 10 seconds at a time, requiring you to keep pressing the button. Silly…

At one point, we counted 7 Air Streams in the campground. This was the most we had seen on one location – and super high percentage given how small the campground was. As we were walking out of the registration office, we passed by someone who looked familiar, only to discover that they were our neighbors at the last campground, Marin RV park. They parked next to us here at Carmel too. They were visiting fro Holland, where they get 1 month off for vacation and had rented an RV to see some sights in America. We ran into them the next day on our hike as well. Small world.

We went in to town that evening looking for Clint Eastwood. Ha, not really, but it would have been cool to run into him. For those who may not know, Mr. Eastwood was once mayor of Carmel. B is a big fan of his. We took a walk on the beach and wandered around the town. Very cute, quaint and wealthy town.

We only had one full day to spend in Carmel as we planned our monthly pampering out of the camper day for Monday. Yes, we realize we had time out of the camper in SF – but this was a special trip to Big Sur and I didn’t want to white knuckle the drive down Rt. 1 with the camper in tow. Sow e did a double in Camel with a hike in Point Lobos State Reserve. It was an amazing hike of interconnected trails along the coastline with sea lions, cypress grove, bluff views and historical info. It was a bit foggy, which impeded the view – but we really enjoyed the hike & lunch afterwords in the picnic area. From there we went over to Monterey Coast to do a bike ride. Most of the ride was excellent once we got through the heavily trafficked area near the beach/town. We had planned a quick detour to the pro shop at Pebble Beach golf course, but when we arrived, it was $10.50 entrance fee just to get on the 17 Mile Drive to the shop, so Brian did a U-Turn and left, refused to pay that just so we could go spend money in their pro shop!

We were spent by the time we got back to camp that evening, but were happy to welcome a visitor, Tom cat, who decided he liked us enough to come by for some pets.

For a long time, I have wanted to visit Esalen Institute in Big Sur. They do a lot of different workshops, but the real calling for me was the healing water of their Hot Springs. They are open to the public from 1am – 3am if you reserve that morning. That was not in the cards for us, but if you book a massage, you can have access to the springs for an hour before and after your massage. It is built right in to the cliffside of the pacific ocean. It is absolutely magnificent.

That is from their website – I took a photo on our way down there before I saw the “no photography” sign.

No doubt the reason is that there are outdoor massages happening and bathing itself is clothing optional. We soaked for a while until they called us for our massages. It was the most sublime experience of my life. The full length window was open enough to hear the crashing waves. No need for canned spa music when that natural soul calming sound is available. I felt so relaxed and cared for when done, and we soaked for another hour or so before heading north to check in to our hotel for the night … another amazing once in a lifetime experience.

I booked an over the top expensive one night stay at the Post Ranch Inn. When we were at Cornell reunion weekend this year, one of the alums we were telling about our trip plans suggested this place as a real pamper treat. She indulges once every so often, so I took note and looked it up and thought it was crazy. But then, we are probably never going to do this again, so I went ahead and booked it. It was worth every minute and every penny. OH MY… We had champagne at check in and were driven over to our room – it’s not a hotel with a big building, but rather 39 guest rooms around the property. Our room, called “Pick” was right on the cast with a bench outside where we watched the sunset, possibly the most beautiful one I have seen in a long time. As we sat, a blue bird came to join us and a small buck popped up right in front of us. It was magical.

We went to the meditation pool, enjoyed dinner at their restaurant, Sierra Mar – where there was star gazing out on the balcony and we saw Jupiter, Saturn and an incredible close up of the moon’s surface. We made a fire when we got back to the room and enjoyed the last bit of the evening. We took a yoga class the next morning, enjoyed breakfast, soaked again, took a shower with the windows wide open as if outdoors and checked out at the very last minute we could (1PM). We ate, drank or took with us all of the complementary food & beverage. It was truly such an indulgent respite for these pampered glampers.

The drive along Highway 1 is stunning. For those of you that have been on this coastal stunner, you will no doubt concur – even if there are a few scary bits. It was a fog-free day on our way down and our way back, so we got to take in the beauty of this drive. On the way back, we stopped to do a hike in Andrew Molera State Park called “Beach, Bluffs, Panorama, Ridge and Creamery Meadow Loop”, an 8+ hike that had everything including over 1,300 feet elevation gain. When we were deciding whether we should do the hike or just go back to Carmel – Brian said, what else are we going to do? So, we hiked. It was quite exhausting but a super nice way to end our time in Big Sur.

We drove back to Carmel, stopped to replenish some items, saw some of the antique cars that were in for the car show (we missed that, started after we left), and headed back to camp where Tom (the cat) visited us again.

The next day, we were off to Yosemite.

What an experience.