This past summer Tehra had been asking me what i wanted to do for my 70th birthday in September. Seems that Birthdays that end in zero are seen as some milestone along the path of one's life and this was another one fast approaching for me. Measuring vista points that one can look back over the last 10 years and see what has been accomplished, what goals have been realized, and then again which ones have not, or not quite so much. I had been thinking about it for a while with no solution, all the while counting down the last months, weeks, days of my 60s. Then in late June i received an email from Bonnie Raitt's website notifying me that she and Roy Rogers would be giving a benefit concert for Investigative Journalism in Carmel, coincidentally where i was born, at the Sunset Center for the Arts, on my birthday...Wow! Talk about a fortunate happenstance! I had been listening to Bonnie Raitt since my teens and Roy Rogers almost as long. I talked it over with Tehra and we decided to get tickets and do the whole 'VIP meet and greet' thing and really celebrate the day. After purchasing tickets I booked us a room for a couple of nights at the Adobe Inn, which was a block or so away from the concert venue.
The Sunday drive down from Sonoma was pretty easy and took a couple of hours or so with not much traffic, thankfully, which is a rarity in this day and age of Bay Area roadways. We got to the Adobe Inn in the late afternoon, checked in and were given a nice room with a balcony and view of the ocean and could hear the wave breaking on the shore from our deck. We spent the evening walking around and relaxing. We chose A.W. Shucks on Ocean Ave for dinner. Tehra Really Liked their Bee's Knees cocktail and the Sculpin IPA was pretty tasty as well. We started with a dozen oysters and then a couple of nice salads. After that pleasant meal we strolled around town a little longer looking for a potential breakfast spot and who was also serving fish tacos for a meal the next day.
Of course I ordered the Fish Tacos and a Sierra Nevada Hazy IPA along with an order of fries to share (is that a great birthday lunch or what?!) and Tehra ordered the Crab Tacos. Both came with avocado salsa and slices, slaw, pickled onions, and their special pesto. We traded a taco each and I must say we both felt the fish tacos tasted better than the crab ones, though they were both quite good and were most assuredly 'did not go to waste' (well more to waist actually). Had not heard of a Maza Cake before but that had a good flavor as well. A good mix of beans they labeled a medley that was black and pinto beans with subtle sauce that went well with the tacos although i was not able to finish mine with all the other foods we had to eat. Mmmm what a lunch!
All in all i would highly recommend Flaherty's as the food and drink were yummy, the staff was friendly and efficient, and the atmosphere light and welcoming.
When I tell people that I was born in Carmel their eyes widen slightly and they almost always look at me as if I must have come from wealth and prosperity, which in my own way I feel I do, but not in the way they picture someone whom they picture is from Carmel. So I explain to them that our family never actually lived in Carmel. My dad was in the Navy and going to school in Monterey and it was just another whistle stop for our family and Carmel was the closest hospital when my Mom was ready to give birth. We actually moved on from there not long after I was born. From Monterey we moved up the coast to Vallejo (which, oddly enough, is another 2 chapters in my life separated by about 20 years).
Anyway, some years back my Mom gave me a copy of my birth announcement certificate from the hospital where i was born in Carmel-by-the Sea, with my big ol' baby footprints on it and my relevant vital statistics about my birth. The hospital is not in that building any longer but apparently the structure itself is still standing.
It was called the Grace Deere Velie Foundation Community Hospital, named after one of the members of the John Deere Tractor family. It was originally established as a Metabolic Clinic and was later converted to The Community Hospital. The hospital itself has long since moved on to bigger and better facilities nearby and is still serving the Monterey Peninsula which includes Carmel.
After our lunch, as we were walking down Lincoln Ave, we happened to go by the downtown Carmel Library Well I thought if anybody could point us in the right direction with this question they would be the ones. We entered and stepped up to a librarian at her terminal behind a counter. She asked how she could help us and I showed her the picture of my certificate asking her about the former hospital. She was so Very Helpful and told about the place as best she knew. She told us yes the building is still there but is not accessible to the public and is completely restricted to any kind of visiting. She showed us its location on a map and gave us easy directions to get there, or at least as close as we could get to it.
We cannot speak highly enough of how helpful and informative that librarian was for us. She went out of her way to provide us with a wealth of information about Carmel and some of the other buildings in town. Thank Goodness for our public libraries! Please do your best help support them. They are such a vital and indispensable part of our communities!
We figured it was too far to walk that day so we decided that we would drive by there on our way out of town the next day. Due to the fencing completely surrounding the property i think using a drone would be the best I could do. The best I was able to do, given the current visitation restraints was a screen shot from the Maps app 3D view of the property, but from what the friendly librarian said it's still all there and has been like this for a while.
After this we walked back to our room for another rest (man, this turning 70 thing, I swear) until it was time to get ready to go to the show. We were so looking forward to this!
The Sunset Center is a lovely venue at 9th & San Carlos near to 'downtown' Carmel. Quite the history it has and is a real pleasant place to enjoy whatever cultural event they put on. All of the volunteers were exceptionally friendly and helpful and we couldn't have asked for a better place to hear Roy and Bonnie. Turns out we had front row seats, but it was such a relatively small venue that i don't believe there really was a bad seat in the place.
This was a close as i could get to taking a picture of Roy Rogers as the artists had asked that no pictures or videos be taken during their performances and i could understand and honored their request. Besides, it was more than enough just to take is such great performances.
Roy played a fabulous solo set on 6-string and 12-string guitars. I had worked with Roy and his wife Gaynell about 20 years ago when they lived in Novato and i was selfishly sorry to see them move away. But they have found a home up in the Sierra foothills and we see him and the Delta Rhythm Kings when we can as they come through the area every so often. If you get the chance to see him/them live I highly recommend you do so. I guarantee you will have a great time and be impressed with his playing and singing. He truly is a master of the slide guitar!
After Roy finished there was a short break, then it was time for Bonnie and her band, or Her Boys as she calls them. They told us they were quite pleased to be playing in such an intimate hall after all of the larger theaters, amphitheaters, and halls they've been playing in. She talked about the dire need for investigative journalists and it was very gracious and generous of them to be donating all of the proceeds from the event to such a worthy cause. Investigative Journalism is unfortunately on the decline in this country with big business and the republican party doing all that they can to restrict a light being shown so they can crime all they want with nobody calling attention to the law-breaking they are doing. We too were so grateful our ticket monies were going to such great programs.
Anyway, she gave a great concert and it was evident they were having a good time playing and singing...it was really nice to see them smiling at each other as they played and pulling out old favorites and previewing some new tunes as well
I've been attending her shows since the 70s and will continue to, although in trying to reach as many fans as she can she has been playing those fairly sizeable venues as they tour, such as the last time we saw her when she played the Greek Theater in Berkeley. After this show they were heading up to Oakland for a couple of nights at the Fox Theater and onward from there. So being this close to them while they played was a special treat for us (and the rest of the audience as well.
And just so you know, the pictures of her and the band I took were at the end after she said it was OK to 'get your cameras out and take all the pictures you want'. She said it was a bit of a distraction in such a small place to see faces illuminated by phone screens blinking on and off. I really do get that.
Afterwards was the Meet and Greet time for us. We had to wait a while but it was quite understandable as she had just spent a lot of energy with her performance and I'm sure she needed to refresh and catch her breath. When it was finally our turn (after about 30 people in front of us) she looked at us and said 'ooh I love being with tall people' and then talked about her brothers being taller than she was and what a pleasant memory that was for her. She was very sweet but we kept it brief as we could tell she was looking forward to some rest (and so were we, for that matter).
