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Area Specialist Covering: Carmel, Pebble Beach, Pacific Grove, Carmel Valley, Monterey
The Monterey Peninsula
The Monterey Peninsula is a vibrant Mecca for history and culture, fine art and wine, outdoor adventure, surfing, horseback riding, bicycling, hiking, tennis, shopping and golf. It all unfolds around the bold and beautiful Monterey Bay, one of 11 U.S. marine sanctuaries, as well as the pristine white sands of Carmel Bay, the bold rich history of Monterey, the rugged coastline of Big Sur, and the verdant vineyards and wildflower meadows of Carmel Valley. We can’t leave out Pacific Grove, Butterfly Town USA, where Lover’s Point, Point Pinos Lighthouse, and the ever changing surf waves along colorful coastline offer a home where time stands still and every few months Lighthouse Avenue is blocked off for a Parade. Historic houses, coastal castles, music festivals, car shows, and world class dining and shopping distinguish the area, but its charm lies in the people and their sense of place. It is easy to see why the picturesque peninsula has been called the greatest meeting of land, sea and sky. We don’t question the ever present demand for real estate on the Monterey Peninsula.
Carmel-by-the-Sea
Out for a morning jog along Scenic Drive, residents of Carmel-by-the-Sea sometimes need to stop rehearsing their speech or writing their book and turn toward the blue Pacific Ocean, framed by an arc of white sand, to remember why they came to Carmel and why visitors return time and time again. Born at the turn of the 19th century – before sandswept potato patches were planted with cypress and pine, the 1906 earthquake shook artists and writers out of the city, and Frank Devendorf and Frank Powers incorporated their vision for a Bohemian enclave by the sea – Carmel was a quiet stretch of sand along an unforgiving coastline.
Nearly 150 years earlier, Father Junipero Serra saw, on a slope overlooking the sea, his vision for San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, the jewel of his missions and, ultimately, the heartbreak of his ministry; where he chose his final resting place. Today, the mission rises like an anachronism out of a community of custom houses, and elementary school, and the historic Mission Ranch Resort.
Today, the paring of scenic beauty and small-town charm, fun dining and fine wines, art and architecture, and shopping and sightseeing makes this strolling village on the most popular destinations along the California coastline.
Cresting the hill atop Carmel-by-the-Sea is the legendary Sunset Center, a 718-seat theater and cultural hub of the city. Once an elementary school, the center underwent a $21.4 million renovation in 2003.
The most celebrated performance series at the Sunset Center and other venues around town is the summer’s Carmel Bach Festival, a world class event. Also at the top of town is Carmel Plaza, a shopping center that in its Old World architecture showcases a variety of boutiques and restaurants. Ocean Avenue from the beach up to the park is enchanting and locals say “Time slows down here”.
By afternoon, as the fog rolls in to shroud the village, beachcombers come uptown to shop, sip something steaming, and decide where to dine for the evening.
Pebble Beach
Some say we owe the spectacular beauty of Pebble Beach to Mother Nature. Others contend the credit belongs to Samuel F.B. Morse-or, at least perhaps, the preservation of the area’s natural splendor as he developed it for some of the finest scenery, celebration, golf, and glamorous living in the world.
“Profits are incidental to the orderly projection of subdivisions that will not mar the rare beauty of this place,” said the legendary Del Monte Company president. “Pebble Beach is one spot on 1,100miles of gorgeous coastline, which will remain completely unspoiled.” And, for the most part, it is.
For more than 100 years, people have felt the allure of the scenic beauty that drew Morse to the Del Monte Forest. Legend has it that, at the turn of the last century, visitors in horse-drawn carriages traveled the coastline and stopped at a particular beach to picnic and bathe, attracted by the glistening pebbles that washed ashore.
The popularity of this place-with its curious Lone Cypress, whose gnarled branches reach out to sea from its perch like a sentinel-led to the 1908 construction of a travel lodge. Today, The Lodge at Pebble Beach remains a gracious statement to timeless elegance, the hub of a luxurious community, and a special stop along 17-Mile Drive.
The legend and lore of the toll road that winds through the forest and along the coast for a mere 9.6 miles includes 21 vista points and multiple golf courses, including The Links at Spanish Bay, Monterey Peninsula Country Club, Spyglass Hill, Poppy Hills, Cypress Point, Pebble Beach Golf Links, and Peter Hay Golf Links.
In 1947, crooner Bing Crosby brought his tournament to town to establish a winter golfing tradition-now the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Golf Tournament-still fondly remembered as “The Crosby Clam Bake.” Other celebrations include the Pebble Beach Tennis Challenge, polo and equestrian competitions, and the world-class Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the premier pageant of the elegant automobile held every August. Pebble Beach remains a haven for scenery, celebration, golf, and glamorous living.
Pacific Grove
Residents of the coastal hillside community feel like they live in the country’s last hometown. Visitors to Pacific Grove can easily see why. Evidence shows up in the 1905 trolley car that carries locals on errands and guests on a tour through town. It appears in Victorian inns, craftsman cottages, and board-and-batten bungalows. It is evident in the main street (Lighthouse Boulevard), flanked by bistros, boutiques, cafes, and cultural centers.
Pacific Grove is a close and conscious community that gathers every April to celebrate its heritage with a Good Old Days Festival staged as a street fair.
The community began in 1875, when Methodists arrived to host an annual religious retreat by the bay. Erecting tent cabins throughout the coastal pine grove, they set up camp with an air of establishment, as though this temporary town might endure the test of time. Only 14 years later, in 1889, the hallowed haven was incorporated in the City of Pacific Grove.
One of the most popular and persisting tributes to the Methodist retreat is Lover’s Point. While the craggy coastal outcropping was once a reference to religion, it is now an inspired site for weddings and romance, family gatherings, and solitary moments by the sea.
Despite some 15 churches in town, the still quaint town is known less for religious affiliations than for Point Pinos Lighthouse, the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the West Coast, and for its Monarch Butterfly sanctuary celebrated with a festival each October, its Victorian architecture, and its annual riot of fuchsia-colored ice plant blooming along the coastal reaches of town.
Pacific Grove’s ocean-view municipal golf course is known as the “poor man’s Pebble Beach” because of its proximity and architectural similarity to the famous links.
Pacific Grove Art Center encourages art appreciation through free exhibitions, lectures, poetry readings, and concerts. Meanwhile, Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History explores local natural phenomena.
What has become known as “America’s Last Hometown” also may have been among its first. It has been documented in a recent archeological study as the site of an early enclave of Native Americans, who established their coastal community in what would become Pacific Grove some 7,150 years ago. Whether first or last, it is always good to come home or vacation in Pacific Grove.
(GL GuestLife)
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