From there we dropped by the house of our friends, Ty and Mina. Ty was at school, but we got to see Mina for a little while. We picked up the mail they have been holding for us as well as the Honda. We then went to the commissary and then met Ty and Mina at the fair. The Monterey County Fair is at the Fairgrounds, which is just down the street. It was fun to walk around, and Ty and Bill and I split a deep-fried Snickers bar. It was ... disappointing. However, I'm glad we tried it.
After the fair, Bill and I met one of his fellow Pashto students from DC, Kristin, at her house in Carmel and we went to a fondue restaurant in Carmel at the Barnyard. It was a lot of fun.
Saturday we woke up and headed to Gilroy to go to Camping World and look at RVs. We think we found the coach that we want. It has pretty much everything we want and a really good layout. The price was decent, and then the guy said that he'd give us the Labor Day Special to move it out. That could make the deal much sweeter. The question is, did we want that particular unit? It had a damage to the wood around one of the slides and we're not totally thrilled with the color scheme. We could order one from the factory, but we would lose a lot of negotiating power on the price. We are not going to rush this, so we're still mulling it over.
From the dealer we decided that we needed to do something more to make this a good day, so we went wine tasting at a few of the Santa Clara County wineries. They were really good and we enjoyed the tastings. Then we took the scenic route (lots of twisty turns) back to the coach. For the first time in years of camping, the dogs had discovered where the cat food was. And they ate my flowers. Bummer. I suppose no good time goes unpunished with these guys. Overall, though, it was a great Saturday.
That great Saturday was followed by a great Sunday. We went to San Francisco! It took two hours to get there and we went to have Sunday brunch at Greens, our favorite vegetarian restaurant. I had informed them of my allergy when we made the reservation several days ago and talked them through it again that morning. We started with flights of mimosas: orange, grapefruit, and black currant. They were all quite tasty. I got the eggplant sandwich. I had a few bites and then noticed red things. Bill saw them on the other half of the sandwich. We asked the waitress and she verified that it was paprika and apologized profusely. The maitre d' apologized and took our order for something else. I decided to try the potato pesto pizza. He also brought another flight of mimosas. The pizza was good, but my stomach was revolting from the paprika.
After lunch, we went to The Art of Shaving, where Bill got a spa shave and haircut. He seemed to really enjoy the experience. I got some good knitting time in. Here are the before, during, and after photos.
From San Fran, we headed home through Santa Cruz. We have been wanting to go to the Bonny Doon Cellar Door for a long time. We would have just missed it if we went Saturday. As it was, we got there just as they stopped the tastings, fifteen minutes before close. We purchased a few bottles of some really good wines. The tasting room is in a complex with tasting rooms from four other wineries as well as a microbrewery. We are going to have to go back and make a day of it!
Bonny Doon is hosting the Day of the Doon party in two weeks. It is a members only event. It's pretty pricey, but it is wine, wine, wine, and food. We asked about the menu and was assured that I could get a pepper free, vegetarian entree. We have been debating on going. It would be a lot of fun, I'm sure. It would be more fun if we had friends to go with. We'll work on that.
Monday we took the dogs to the Carmel City Beach. OMG!! They were in heaven! They ran and ran and ran! They made a few dog friends and ran like made. They were exhausted. We then took them back to the truck to get toweled off and then took a walk through Carmel. We ran into Kristin, who was just roaming around. She joined us for lunch at Forge in the Forest, a dog-friendly restaurant. In fact, they have a dog menu! They bring them a bowl of water. On the menu is kibble, hot dogs, hamburgers, and steak. We ordered our lunch (I had the portabella mushroom sandwich) and two hamburgers for the dogs. It came chopped up in a dog dish. It was awesome for them.
After lunch we got a little buzz at the coffee shop and headed out to find the dog-friendly winery tasting room in Carmel. It was out by the Barnyard, near the fondue place. We went in and the people were quite nice and the wines were good. It was right near The Treadmill, a running shop. I had heard about this place from a friend. We browsed for a few minutes before going to Taste Morgan. Then we headed back to the coach to relax with a bottle of Rose that we just bought. We were supposed to have dinner with Ty and Mina, but he didn't feel he got enough studying in for his final tomorrow, so he asked for a raincheck. I was looking forward to visiting with them, and getting to know Mina. She seems really sweet (Friday was the first time I have met her) but I am sure we will be spending quite a bit of time together over the next few months/years.
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