Carmel

Carmel is a microcosm of California's architectural heritage, sited at one of the most scenic meetings of land and sea in the world. Mission San Carlos Borromeo became a root building for California's first regional building style, the Mission Revival. "Carmel City," as it was called in the 1880s, was marketed as a seaside resort for Catholics. Its pine-studded sand dunes survived the imposition of a standard American gridiron street pattern, with a Western, false-front main street, to become "Carmel-by-the-Sea." Artists, academics, and writers embraced the arts-and-crafts aesthetic of handcrafted homes built from native materials, informally sited in the landscape. In the mid-1920s, Tudor Revival and Spanish Romantic Revival styles enhanced the storybook quality of the community. Carmel's architectural character is primarily the product of working builders. Its design traditions have been interpreted and modified for modern times by noted architects, building designers, and craftsmen. Individual expression continues as an ongoing aesthetic theme.

Internationally acclaimed surf and ocean photographer, Aaron Chang travelled the world for Surfing magazine in search of the Endless Summer. After three decades of capturing waves, beach lifestyle and exotic landscapes around the world, Aaron wanted to show the natural beauty in his own backyard, San Diego, through his eyes. Aaron¿s most recent book project, SAN DIEGO: Through the Lens of Aaron Chang captures the natural beauty of the San Diego beaches and its coastal communities. This 116 page book is in it¿s 4th edition and is a best seller at Aaron¿s two San Diego based galleries, one downtown and the other in Solana Beach: AaronChang.com/galleries From the stunning beauty of Torrey Pines to coastal charm of Encinitas and Solana Beach, Aaron¿s interpretation of San Diego captures its special allure that attracts millions of visitors every year. Aaron has been nominated San Diego¿s `Ambassador of the Arts¿ 3 years running by the San Diego Tourism Authority. ¿My goal is for people to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us on a daily basis, but gets lost in our busy lives,¿ Aaron explains. A stunning sunset in Cardiff, to a winter swell in Del Mar, to the glamorous roof top views of a city in bloom, these images inspire the viewer to take a break. Look around. Life is good right here in our beautiful city, San Diego.

A local poet once described Carmel-by-the-Sea, with its haunting pines, fog, and white sand, as "our inevitable place." The area had been inhabited for more than 3,000 years when Fr. Junipero Serra chose the site for his mission headquarters in 1771. The romantic name, Carmel-by-the-Sea, was the gift of a group of women real estate developers, later used in advertising lots for "brain workers at in-door employment." Many Stanford and UC Berkeley professors, artists, writers, and musicians left a lasting legacy here in their art and in their rejection of largescale commercial development. Although impoverished artists may no longer afford to live here, many residents and millions of sojourners still consider the lovely village packed with galleries and eateries their "inevitable place."

This is a study of the Miocene Carmel flora of California, an evergreen laurel–oak forest that grew in a mild temperate (mean annual temperature of 15 degrees C), frost-free climate, with annual precipitation of about 760 mm (30 in.). Collectively, the Carmel and other Miocene floras like the San Pablo and Temblor (broad-leafed deciduous trees, with few evergreen species), the Puente (evergreen oak forest with chaparral species), the Mint Canyon, Ricardo, and Tehachapi (numerous arid subtropical scrub associated with oak woodland and chaparral species) suggest they foreshadowed a similar distribution of the different California vegetation zones today.

From the Ventana Wilderness, the Carmel River descends 36 miles through steep canyons into the spreading Carmel Valley. Rain-gorged in spring, it rushes to the Pacific Ocean at Carmel Bay. In summer, shallow riverbanks welcome deer, mountain lions, and waterfowl. For millennia, native tribes fished along the river, which was discovered in 1602 by Sebastian de Vizcaino. He called the waterway El Rio del Carmelo, describing it as "lined with black poplars and other trees of Castile." Ranches, dairies, and orchards thrived under Spanish, Mexican, and finally American flags. The Carmel River, like the valley it defines, has accommodated native, farmer, resident, and now the vacationer as it flows along through time. Today vineyards, tasting rooms, boutiques, and resorts decorate the rural landscape, beckoning visitors and locals alike.

The magnificence of the Monterey Peninsula has provided a welcome new lifestyle to Will Kempton. After fourteen years as a narcotics agent in New Jersey. Will believes he's found heaven on earth for his family in Carmel, where he is the Chief of Police. He has all but forgotten the grinding existence of his former life in Jersey. Suddenly, the serenity of the quaint village of Carmel is shattered by a series of vicious, seemingly random, murders. Chief Kempton leads an investigation unparalleled in local history. His tiny band of cops, well practiced in distributing parking tickets, is quickly overmatched, then completely overwhelmed, by the depravity of a truly malignant killer.

Carmel-by-the-Sea, The Early Years (1903-1913) describes the establishment of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, along with an overview of the history of the Carmel Mission and the Monterey Peninsula. The book's emphasis is on the development of Carmel as a Bohemian artists' and writers' colony at the start of the 20th century. The town's first decade of existence is described: the businesses and services offered, and the residential architecture. There are biographies of the well-known Bohemian artists, writers, poets, builders, and other notable residents and visitors in the early 1900's. This original group of settlers, the majority of whom came from Northern California's Bay Area, were distinctive individuals, who were drawn to the coastal village by its scenic beauty and the inspiration it provided for their intellectual pursuits. They set the tone that made Carmel-by-the-Sea a Bohemian enclave on the West Coast, and distinguished it as a unique place. These early residents and visitors left a significant and lasting impact on the future of the seaside town, which in turn attracted other creative talents to the area, through the years and still to this day. Carmel-by-the-Sea, The Early Years (1903-1913), preserves the literary, artistic, cultural, and architectural heritage of Carmel and the Monterey Peninsula region.