Carmel California - A True Favorite

Carmel seems perfect in every way

CARMEL - Money is as abundant here as artichokes in Castroville, a small farming community north up the valley about 35 minutes by car in distance and an eternity in lifestyle.

Carmel seems perfect in every way. The streets are clean, the shops have a scrubbed, neat and opulent look with flourishing art galleries, boutiques, and restaurants that overflow with beautifully dressed and well manicured people. You can almost smell the money.

It’s a community of just about 5,000 and it’s on the sunny side of the Monterey Peninsula where fog camps off shore for three months of the year, July-September.

The golf courses are legend. You can play a round at the famous Pebble Beach Golf and Country Club for $200 (US). Golf cart is extra.

When you stand on the tee for the 18 holes, the waves are crashing against the rocks below you and the vista of shoreline, ocean, trees, and the vast green course make you want to stand there and never swing a club.

And there’s the town’s most famous resident, of course. Tough guy image and all, Clint Eastwood is a vital economic ingredient of Carmel.

Eastwood, the former Mayor of Carmel, owns a pub/restaurant in town called the Hog’s Breath Inn and a sheep ranch on the town’s edge that he converted into a small hotel and impressive restaurant combination called The Mission Ranch.

This is where Carmel people go for an evening of leisure and where Clint himself is stationed some evenings. Rule of the house is no autographs.

Famous people, resorts, golf courses, and money that flows with the ease of the tide - it’s a far cry from Castroville where farmers work 10, 000 acres of Artichokes from dawn to dusk and once a year get together for the annual artichoke festival in September.

You won’t find boutiques in Castroville. The dusty main street has hardware stores, a weathered hotel, car lot, grocery stores. On the outskirts of town is the world’s largest artichoke, a metal monster that graces the outside of a large green grocery.

Tourists come here for the once-a-year festival, a county fair atmosphere where you can get artichokes in every form known to the palate. People drive from San Francisco every September just to eat the artichokes - which are, really, just edible thistles.

You get artichokes that are fried, marinated, sautéed, boiled and in baked goods and Mexican tortillas or pita bread. If you eat anything in Castroville in September, it’s likely made with artichokes.

Yet, behind the exotic recipes and the fair-ground atmosphere is another reason why people go to Castroville, driving in from Carmel, Monterey, and other upscale communities.

It’s not just to see the farmers, to rub elbows with the earth people in an afternoon of soul-cleansing. They come here for the sense of community and pride - for seeing people being nothing more than what they are. No pretensions, just honest and straightforward hospitality and graciousness without motives.

It’s a short drive from Castroville back to Carmel and the bar at Clint’s Mission Ranch. That bar has its own character and, frankly, it’s more in keeping with most folks’ lifestyle than farming artichokes.

But next September, many of the people who frequent Clint’s bar, will make the drive from Carmel to Castroville, if for no other reason than to put the resorts and the golf courses into perspective.

Call your local travel agent for information on the Carmel area and other California destinations.

Author: Ray Chatelin and Toshi Chatelin