We left Saturday morning and headed down to Santa Cruz first. We decided to go to Café Brasil, this breakfast place that Mango had recommended.
Potato Scramble: Sautéed Potatoes with Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Green Onions, and Onions, Topped with Mozzarella Cheese, Salsa and Sour Cream (Like how they made it look like an egg? Cute, huh?)
Half Order of Banana Pancakes
Cocota: Two Soft Poached Eggs Topped with Our Cocota (Toasted White Flour with Tobasco, Worcheshire, and Milk) Sauce
I really liked the potato scramble I ordered, and the banana pancakes that we shared were good. I often crave salty food for breakfast, but because I don't eat eggs, I'm often only left with sweet options, like waffles and pancakes. The potato "scramble" was perfect since it didn't have any eggs! Shweetie said his cocota was not bad.
Afterward, we headed for the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, which was surprisingly packed. It turns out that there was some chowder competition going on, so there were tons of people walking around sampling chowder from about 50 different booths. We got there at the tail end of the competition (plus we were pretty full), so we didn't sample any.
Instead we spent most of our time at the carousel. Shweetie was having fun photographing the people on the horses as they went by, and I had fun watching people try to throw the rings into the clown's mouth. I was even convinced to take a couple of rides on the carousel myself. I was really bad at throwing the rings, though I did hit the metal around the clown's mouth once or twice.
After we finally tired of watching and riding the carousel, we walked all the way down to the end of the boardwalk and then back along the beach. It was cold, but it didn't start sprinkling until the end of our time there.
That night, we drove to the Monterey area and headed straight to dinner at a place in Pacific Grove that had gotten good reviews on Yelp, called Red House Café. The place was really cute and homey, and the service was friendly. Even better, the food was all absolutely delicious.
Ravioli, Served with a Lemon Beurre Blanc Sauce
Soup of the Day, Potato Leek
Salmon Filet, with Au Gratin Potatoes, Sautéed Vegetables and a Chive Beurre Blanc Sauce
Clafoutis with Berries
Hot Chocolate with Sprinkles
Prices were affordable, and we also had a $25 Restaurant.com gift certificate, so dinner ended up being a steal! Next time we're in the area, we want to go here for breakfast or lunch.
After dinner, we headed over to the Marriott for the night. We'd gotten a good deal through Priceline, and our room was nice and comfortable. We also ended up getting free parking, since there was a covered lot just a block away that was free in the evenings and on Sundays. Score!
The next morning, we checked out and then headed to Carmel for breakfast. I'd found another place on Yelp that I wanted to try, called Katy's Place. Food was not bad, but this place wasn't the amazing find like Red House Café had been. I'm glad we checked it out, but I don't think we'll be back here again.
Cheese-Filled Blintzes Covered with Fresh Berries, Served with Sour Cream
Dungeness Crab Benedict, Nestled on a Bed of Fresh Spinach
It started to really rain after brunch, but we headed down to Cannery Row in Monterey anyway, just to wander around and burn off some of our lunch. We ducked into a number of shops, partly to browse but mostly to get out of the downpour. We also wandered through the InterContinental, the other place we could potentially have gotten through Priceline. I thought the Marriott was a good deal and I had no problems with our room, but I wished that we'd gotten the InterContinental instead because it was just absolutely GORGEOUS. For starters, the hotel is practically brand new, and it overlooks the water. The whole hotel is light and airy and very "zen," and the public bathrooms were absolutely lovely as are the guest rooms (which I peeked into, since housekeeping had the door to one room propped open as they worked on it). I know I've raved about The Carneros Inn before, and this place probably rivals it in terms of embracing its surroundings and being a beautifully appointed hotel. I hope we'll someday stay here.
We didn't stick around Monterey too long, since we weren't planning to go to the aquarium, and since we couldn't really take any pictures due to the weather. We ended up heading back home earlier than expected, which was fine with me, since I had to go back to work the next day after having had a whole week off, and I wanted some time to decompress from our little trip. Along the way, though, we stopped in the South Bay for dinner at one of Shweetie's favorite places, Yoshinoya. Some things never change.
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