I have found that when you are deeply troubled, there are things you get from the silent devoted companionship of a dog that you can get from no other source.
~ Doris Day
I’m staying at the Cypress Inn in Carmel, a two-story white brick structure in the middle of town.
I chose the hotel mainly because it’s pet-friendly. And boy, is it ever pet friendly! That’s because Doris Day, devoted animal activist as well as actress and singer, once owned the hotel and decreed that pets be allowed to stay there. It was the first pet-friendly hotel in Carmel.
The ghost of Doris Day permeates the hotel. Posters of her movies line the hallways — Pillow Talk, Teacher’s Pet, Love Me or Leave Me, The Man Who Knew Too Much — and her movies play constantly on the TV in the bar (with no sound). The night I had dinner there, What Happened To Jane was playing.
My room here is nice, but it feels a bit cramped after the spacious room-with-balcony I had in Morro Bay. It’s on the second floor but there’s no balcony, just windows that look out onto the street. I think Annie misses the balcony. I know I do.
I will be here for five days. I’m working, of course, so I have to fit my sight-seeing into early morning, noon, and late afternoon. I want to have lunch at Mission Ranch, an hotel and restaurant owned by Clint Eastwood. I plan to do the famous 17-mile Scenic Drive that takes you through Monterrey and Pebble Beach and reportedly offers some of the most dramatic scenery on the Central Coast. Other than that, I will just explore my surroundings, find some good food, and absorb the atmosphere of Carmel-by-the-Sea.
P.S. Remember the song Que Sera Sera? The tape is playing in my head as I write this . . . whatever will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see . . . Doris Day introduced the song in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), singing it to her and Jimmy Stewart’s onscreen son before he was kidnapped. It won the Oscar for Best Song that year. (Source: wikipedia.org)