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