LOL in December I've been going to Carmel-by-the-Sea/Pebble Beach zones. If I withdrew my comfortable upper middle class life savings and rubbed it on someone's face on the Monterey Peninsula, there'd be a story in the crime section about a homeless Florida man who assaulted a resident with a piece of toilet paper. Because after 42 years my life's work ain't "money" there.
1 2nd year of living in SF, friend from Eugene drives down in his 64 Dart (slant 6 for the win!). We go surfing down the coast into Big Sur (where I discover the racoon army that I thought I left behind in Oregon....in Big Sur, they're way, way more organized). Anyway, he is an architecture nut and wants to do the 17 mile drive, so we get to the gate and, geeze, how much was it then, $5? I pay thinking, "well, I'm never doing this again, what a waste of money" Gate keepers look at car, look at surfboards, looks at us, sniffs, rolls eyes, takes the money, says, "Go on." We don't actually see much due to all the landscaping, but the lone cypress area has a nice view once you get out of the car?
2 Carmel beach sand is super nice...shame the beach break doesn't hold much size.
3 Friend #2's mom lives in Carmel. She works at the Goodwill there. Best darn Goodwill I have ever been in. Rich people tend to be on the thinner side and some had enough protein growing up to get tall....Goodwill type stores elsewhere are for the heavier sorts.