Just a couple hours drive down the coast from San Francisco is the village of Carmel-By-The-Sea, a self-consciously European community occupying one of the more attractive locations on earth. Sharing a small bay with the Pebble Beach Golf Links and several other world class golf courses, Carmel has been rated one of America's top ten resort destinations by Condé Nast Traveller magazine.
An overnight visit to Carmel rose to the top of the agenda when Torbin at Club Sportiva offered to loan me the club's red Maserati Spyder convertible for a short trip. Between San Francisco and Carmel is the Pacific Coast Highway, about two and a half hours of relatively open and highly scenic road. 
Club Sportiva does a highly professional job of checking members out on its vehicles, and that's a good thing. The Spyder, for example, has only four inches of ground clearance. Without the orientation I'd probably have had a close encounter with a gas station ramp.
But forget ground clearance - the Spyder is a great car on the open road. Nor were we the only people to appreciate it. I learned to maintain my composure when other drivers screamed as we passed, or as they passed us, but the first couple of times I was looking frantically around to see what pending doom was upon us.
We departed late morning of the first day, dressed in slip-on shoes, linen trousers, polo shirt and an odd jacket and wearing an old Panama hat that wouldn't have broken my heart if the wind had taken it. The Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay provided lunch, and we arrived at L'Auberge Carmel in time for a single malt and a cigar in the courtyard before dinner.
The next day we had a late breakfast, spent a few minutes at the beach and headed North to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Then lunch, and more open road to San Francisco.
At end of day we transferred our belongings back to our own car and took our leave of Club Sportiva's Spyder. For anyone that likes the experience of driving an open topped car as I do, two sunny days in a Maserati on the Pacific Coast Highway makes getting there most of the fun.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Lifestyle: Getting There is Most of The Fun
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8 comments:
Fond memories I have of the Pacific Coast Highway - except I was in a Ford rental car when I drove it......
Well, Will, it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it! Thanks for the vicarious vacation. Love the Monterey peninsula, and Big Sur isn’t too shabby either!
Here's a description of Carmel by Jack London, in his wonderful book, "The Valley of the Moon", written in 1913: They had taken the direct county road across the hills from Monterey, instead of the Seventeen Mile Drive around by the coast, so that Carmel Bay came upon them without any fore-glimmerings of its beauty. Dropping down through the pungent pines, they passed woods-embowered cottages, quaint and rustic, of artists and writers, and went on across wind-blown rolling sandhills held to place by sturdy lupine and nodding with pale California poppies. Saxon screamed in sudden wonder of delight, then caught her breath and gazed at the amazing peacock-blue of a breaker, shot through with golden sunlight, overfalling in a mile-long sweep and thundering into white ruin of foam on a crescent beach of sand scarcely less white.
Sounds and looks great. I've been the Bay Area only once for a job interview in San Francisco for a job in Japan. I would really love to see more of the area. I have a question. Would a polo shirt with an odd jacket be one exception to the rule of showing linen?
Jeffrey, it's been said that if you know the rules it's OK to break them. :-)
Will, I am glad you had a good time with Club Sportiva's Maserati Spyder! Good pics as well. If any of your readers are local, I am happy to arrange a personal tour of the private Clubhouse - if they use your name as the password... ;)
I get to Carmel several times a year, to the
world-renowned Bach Festival in July and early
August. and the Concours D' Elegance,
when I am feeling flush.
Sadly, Oxbridge, a small menswear
shop with an eclectic selection of British
haberdashery, has been gone for nearly a
decade,replaced by yet another gallery selling dubious art
Our daughter was married in Carmel in a ceremony overlooking the Pacific. It was memorable.
The Monterey Bay Area still retains its' charm despite being inundated with tourists.
I made the same drive one down the Coastal Highway one Thanksgiving Day -- no one on the rode save for the drop-top sports car I was following at 100 mph (with my favorite CD blaring through six speakers.)
After peaking in at Carmel and the golf courses, I enjoyed the incredible view of the Pacific Coast as I tooled home.
Still, I was not nattily attired, I did not have a Spyder, nor a Tee time. So alas, darn it, I'll have to do it all over. ;)
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