Well, the past weekend was Halloween, which meant one thing – we needed to hide from trick or treaters. We had planned to head to Mono Lake, but snow hit the Sierras early this year, and the pass was closed.

So we cancelled that trip and booked a hotel in Carmel, or Carmel-by-the-Sea. We headed down on Saturday morning and geocached our way down through Monterey to Carmel, stopping at The World’s Largest Artichoke on the way.

I haven’t been down to that area in quite a while and forgot how nice it was. We checked out Fort Ord, then wandered around downtown Monterey. One place we discovered was Coast Guard Pier, the end of which was covered with sea lions. They were lying up against the fence and you could just reach in and pet them. Not that they seemed to like that at all (started barking), but it sure beats Pier 39.

We went around the peninsula, watched the sunset over the Pacific and headed to Carmel. Then we took a walk from our hotel to find a place to eat downtown. Carmel is a nice and cute town, but it sure is dark. They don’t really believe in street lights. They do however believe in uneven sidewalks and oddly-placed trees. Hey Clint, how about springing a few bucks for better lighting? We ended up eating at The Hog’s Breath Inn, all decorated with Clint Eastwood stuff. Mmmm, steak.

The next morning we went out for more geocaching and touring. One of the odd things we saw downtown was the Batmobile. Yes, the batmobile from the 1989 movie. I’m not sure if someone was really going all out for Halloween or the dark knight is a Carmel resident, but a few hours later it was gone.

Later we headed down to Point Lobos State Preserve which was really nice. It’s actually worth the $8 entrance fee, even though we parked outside and walked in. We walked around the whole park and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, picking up a cache along the way. We even ran into a guy from New Hampshire and chatted for a bit.

Back up to Monterey, we found a few more caches, then took a butt-kicking hike up to the top of the Presidio of Monterey. There were great views from up there and we could still hear the sea lions on the pier.

It got dark depressingly early and we headed home soon after. We had a problem though – the trick or treaters would still be out. So we went out to eat at 7:30 to kill another hour. After a satisfying meal, we headed home to a neighborhood free of kids on a sugar high. Mission accomplished.