One of my favorite things about Monterey is it’s Old Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s tiny and loaded with either restaurants or souvenier shops. I like how every single restaurant has someone standing outside giving out samples of their clam chowder. If I wasn’t already full from dinner, I’d say all these samples woulda gotten me full … so it just got me fuller. This is my second time sampling all of the clam chowders, and my decision is still the same: The restaurant with the best clam chowder is the Old Fisherman’s Grotto. I had to get myself a cup of their chowder to end the night (even though I just had dinner).

After dinner, we had to walk off the food so we went to Lovers Point Park, just a few blocks away from the restaurant. Well, we stayed mainly around the beach side, and I climbed up the rocks to grab a view of everything from atop. I spotted sea otters too, but they were too far away for my camera to capture.

We didn’t originally plan on having dinner at Passionfish. We were going to a cheaper restaurant, but that place was booked for a private party, so I figured, when in Rome …

This was the best meal I’ve had this year (I think). We had an avocado dungeness crab salad, a seafood calamari salad, sea scallops, and trout. This would be a place I’d want to go back to again the next I visit. I didn’t find anything interesting in the dessert menu, though, but I just had dessert before anyway, plus I planned on eating at least one more time after.

Such a nice beach. The sand is so soft that when I first stepped onto it, I sank. Dogs are able to roam around unleashed. Too bad it was cold, otherwise I would have dipped my feet into the water. Mom got a little too close and her pants got wet. Ha!

We had the best pork sandwich ever at Carmel Belle, located inside the Doud Craft Studios. It was a slow-cooked Berkshire pork with red onion-currant chutney on a ciabatta bread. How good was it? My mom didn’t want to eat because she was still full from breakfast and dessert, but I insisted that she take a bite. That bite eventually turned into half my sandwich. We also shared a canele, which is a French donut-like pastry. It seemed like it would be sweet but it wasn’t. It was just right! Carmel Belle is definitely one of my favorite places in the whole Monterey Bay area.

Other places we checked out around downtown were: Carmel Plaza, which was beautiful, and Carmel’s City Hall, which was tiny.

We ended with a quick stop at Carmel Bakery since we walked past by it. Honestly, I didn’t think that place would be that great, and I was right. It was just typical fast-paced bakery style. I was getting hungry though since my mom ate half my sandwich, but honestly, I really wanted to get their happy face cookie so I could have my mom take a picture like this:

This was the second non-food stop of our visit to Carmel. The Carmel Mission Basilica is definitely worth a visit if you’re: 1) into history, 2) into religion, or 3) have a checklist and need to get it out of the way. I fall under 2 and 3. $5 entrance, or $4 if you’re a senior (62+).

Our first non-food stop during our trip to Monterey Bay was at the Point Lobos State Reserve. The weather was muggy but that didn’t stop us from going. We hiked around for a bit but had to rush since I had an itinerary long enough to last  a whole weekend yet crammed into a day.

After breakfast, I had to have dessert. I know, I know, who does dessert after breakfast, right? I’m on a mini-vacation, so I can eat whatever I want in any order I want. Mom and I just shared a red velvet “baby cake”, which is Layers Cake’s version of a cupcake. Layers Cakes also seems to be the most popular place for cakes in Monterey. I thought it was just okay. The baby cake kind of reminded me of a Hostess Ho Hos, but nicer looking. I didn’t care much for their cookies either.

According to Yelp, The Breakfast Club seems to be the most popular place to dine in Seaside, so that was the first place I decided to eat to kick off the day. I can see why it’s so popular – HUGE portions and reasonable prices, and the food was pretty good. Not great, but definitely worth being a regular at if you live in the area. I first wanted a French toast, but when I saw bacon waffle on the menu (keyword: bacon), I just had to get it. Mom just got one pancake because she knew this was only the beginning of our food adventure.