Spring Break! (Woo Hoo!): Part Three

A trip to the Winchester Mystery House was a risk. Its very touristy and we had never been there and tolerance for walking around aimlessly was pretty low. But the kids caught wind of our discussion and were all for it so away we went. The 160-room Victorian mansion was built by Winchester heiress, Sarah Winchester. It has some rather unusual details. Like stairs that lead to the ceiling and doors that open to an 8-foot drop into a sink.

Here are grandma and grandpa perusing the guns at the gun museum. Grandma excitedly pointed out that she has the very same model as one of the guns in the case. What? You don't have a gun-totin' granny? Your loss:



One of the many narrow stairways. The steps were a very shallow rise (about 2" tall) and were often so tiny there was not room for an average foot on them (Sarah was a mere 4'10" and lived alone) requiring some of us to walk sideways. This switchback stairway had 44 tiny steps and took 7 turns.



In the end, our risk paid off. We all agreed that the house was even more interesting and bizarre than we imagined it would be.

Our last fandango was a trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea. We decided to head straight for town to have some lunch. Happily, there was plenty of room for us at our favorite lunch spot, The Tuck Box:



After walking around town and going into some shops we stopped in a quiet courtyard and took some pictures:







Then a stop to the bakery and back to the van:





Stay tuned for the final installment: 17 Mile Drive.