Presidents Day

Today was Presidents Day, the day when America celebrates George Washington's birthday. The Wikipedia article explains that in the 80's advertisers in many states expanded the theme of the public holiday to encompass Lincoln and Jefferson, although the state of Virginia (Washingtons home state) stuck with "George Washington Day". Following in the tradition of the Queens Birthday celebration, today is not Washington's birthday at all. Happy Birthday George!

To celebrate having a day off, we went to Carmel, current home of Clint Eastwood. The shopping district runs from the CA-1 down to the waterfront. It is a cosy town with tight streets, nice houses and lots of trees. There are lots of expensive cars in the streets, people walking dressed up dogs, inns and nice shops. I was looking at diamond rings in through one shop window, and I noticed that the 6 digit numbers on the tags were prices, not part numbers.

The Carmel beach has beautiful white sand. The sun was out and there was barely a cloud in the sky, but it was windy and cold, so we didn't stay out on the beach for too long. The people flying kites appreciated the wind.

We had lunch at The Cottage Restaurant. Having passed a few artichoke fields on the way in, we tried their Artichoke Soup. It was delicious, with the consistency of pumpkin soup and the flavour of artichokes. If you visit Carmel, we recommend stopping at The Cottage for soup and salad.

We also found a wine shop that specialises in southern hemisphere wines, appropriately named Southern Latitude Wines. Their prices seem to be the same as you would pay on wine.com, which is suprising for a physical store in a town like Carmel. We have been looking for a wine to keep for a few years, after Malcolm advised us to drink the 2003 Mont St John Pinot Noir we had set aside for that purpose. We picked up a Yalumba Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2002. We don't know that much about wine tasting, but the wine advocate gave this wine a good score. We also got bottles of Sauvignon Blanc and Rose' from New Zealand.

On the way back we passed a sign for "Capitola/Soquel", which I misread and thought "Why is there a street sign up for venture capitalists Sequoia Capital?" I guess we've been in the Bay Area for too long :)