Originally we thought of stopping about halfway between Monterey and Santa Barbara, but in the end, we just couldn’t decided on where to stay, so we ended up driving the entire 4 hours. On the way we stopped at Carmel-by-the-Sea, often called simply Carmel. It is a small city in Monterey County, California, founded in 1902 and incorporated in 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, the town is known for its natural scenery and rich artistic history.
We briefly spoke with a real estate agent while looking in her window at properties in the area, some of the houses were selling for between 500k and 18 million dollars. This is where Clint Eastwood lives and was once the Mayor and is also the home of Pebble Beach golf course which is world famous.
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, also known as the Carmel Mission, is a Roman Catholic mission church in Carmel, California. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
It was the headquarters of the original upper Las Californias Province missions headed by Father Junpero Serra from 1770 until his death in 1784. The mission also was the seat of the padre presidente, Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen. It was destroyed in the mid-19th century, only to be restored beginning in 1884. It remains a parish church today. It is the only one to have its original bell tower dome.
Another 30 minutes down the road to the Big Sur, on a windy coastal road. Bixby Creek Bridge, also known as Bixby Bridge, is a reinforced concrete open-spandrel arch bridge in Big Sur, California. The bridge is located 13 miles (21 km) south of Carmel in Monterey County along California Highway One. They were also filming some movie, there were people dressed in 50’s outfits and a number of old 50’s cars that were parked on the side of the road and a number of the back of a car mover.
Bixby Creek Bridge is important historically because it introduced automobile travel to Big Sur, connecting the remote coastal towns to each other.
Another long drive back down highway 101 for another 4 hours to Santa Barbara.