After a comfy night at cousin Keith and Catherine's along with a hearty breakfast, I continued along the path leading into Monterey. Lots was happening with festival preparations for this weekend starting tonight. I passed through the Veterans Park, the default camping area about 6 miles before the mission. My route carried me through beautiful forests and eventually down through the famous 17-mile drive and on to Carmel's Scenic Drive (just had to have someone take a picture of me).
In all, about 12 miles to Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo, my 8th mission so far. It served as the headquarters for the other 20! A huge complex. Noteworthy is that Padre Serra is also buried here (just to the left of the altar), at the second mission he founded. The Basilica is undergoing a massive earthquake stabilization retrofit project, but it's still open for visitors. The complex is quite huge with exhibits giving a good flavor of mission life.
