Monday, May 5, 2014

The Good, The Bad, The Eastwood? by Alison Henderson

Like most of you, I'm sure, our movie blog theme this month - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - instantly called to my mind the image of Clint Eastwood. I've never been a big Eastwood fan, nor am I a fan or spaghetti westerns, but I have spent the past year living in Clint's hometown of Carmel, CA. These days he might be a cranky old geezer with a questionable hold on his marbles, who is getting a divorce as a result of cheating on his much younger wife with an even younger woman, but around here he's royalty. He has done, and continues to do, a lot of tangible good for the local community.

Over the years Clint has owned a number of notable local establishments. One of his former properties is the Hog's Breath Inn, a colorful restaurant in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea. We've never eaten there, but it doesn't matter because he sold it a few years back. However, he does still own one of my favorite properties on the coast, Mission Ranch.

Since it was a gorgeous day, I decided to pop over there and take some pictures to share with you. Mission Ranch is a serene collection of rustic cottages, along with a restaurant and tennis courts, right on the ocean. It's key attraction for me are the sheep grazing in the meadow. After all, what could possibly be more bucolic than this?



Here's one of the double cottages. Could you imagine yourself staying here, overlooking the sheep meadow and the bay?


And here's another one.



Word has it that Clint hangs out in the bar on Wednesday nights, but we've never checked. After all, now that we're locals, purposeful celebrity-spotting would probably be considered tacky. We'll just have to wait for the day we run into him on the street. In the meantime, we'll enjoy the sheep.

Alison
www.alisonhenderson.com
http://alisonhenderson.blogspot.com


10 comments:

Leah St. James said...

Thank you, Alison, for the photos! Somehow I never thought of Carmel (Ca.) and sheep in the same sentence. :-) But then I've never been west of the middle(ish) part of Iowa! I'm not a big fan of the spaghetti westerns or the Dirty Harry movies (although my husband and sons are so I've seen them many, many times), but I loved Eastwood in Gran Torino. Here's to your not-on-purpose close encounter, some day! :-)

Margo Hoornstra said...

Keep us posted when you finally meet him. Anyone remember Rowdy Yates of Rawhide. Now there was a dude. Beautiful pictures. Beautiful place. Thanks for sharing.

Liz Flaherty said...

Showing my age, I still love Rowdy Yates on Rawhide! Truthfully, I always liked the character Eastwood played (I think it was always the same one) but have never gotten to the point of enjoying full scale violence in movies, so...

I love the look of those cottages, though!

Jannine Gallant said...

I've always adored Clint. Make my day! Seriously, over 80 and cheating. That's kind of amazing if not admirable! LOL I've been to the Hog's Breath. Gotta love that name. Thanks for the fun post!

Margo Hoornstra said...

Have to jump back in here. Cheating at 80 is admirable! Gotta love THAT concept! LOL

Diane Burton said...

My fav Clint Eastwood movie is Two Mules for Sister Sara. OMG, so funny. There was even a momentary musical tribute to it in the last Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey, Jr. Back to your post, Alison, the photos are lovely. Thanks for the mini-tour.

Alison Henderson said...

I'm glad you enjoyed the photos, ladies. Mission Ranch is an incredibly peaceful place. As for Clint, I'm not sure which disturbs me more: an 80-year-old cheating or the thought of cheating with an 80-year-old man. LOL

Betsy Ashton said...

Let's try this comment gain. Google ate the previous one. My husband and I love Eastwood, although he's like the spaghetti westerns. Both of us like Dirty Harry. Gran Torino was less like Eastwood acting than about Eastwood being Eastwood. Least favorite movie: Paint Your Wagon. He tried and failed to sing. Sigh.

Leah St. James said...

I'd forgotten about Paint Your Wagon! Too funny.

Alicia Dean said...

I am a HUGE Eastwood fan. I don't care what he's doing or how old he is, I still find him incredibly sexy. Love the spaghetti westerns, love the dirty harry stuff. He's actually like, 84 or 85, right? One of my favorite movies is The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Bounty Hunter: "Man's gotta make a livin'"
Clint/Josey: "Dyin' ain't much of a livin'"
:-)
He had a lot of cool lines...sigh...love him! AND, what a beautiful place. Oh my gosh, can you imagine writing there??? Thank you for sharing the pics and the info.