Cheryl Shops

The title of this post is a bit of a misnomer; while I had intended to show everything I wore at Car Week, we were having so much fun, we kind of forgot to shoot it all. Alas, I'm only featuring one outfit in this post, and it's what I wore on our last morning in Carmel-by-the-Sea. We decided not to go to the Concours d'Elegance, which is kind of the main event that ends Car Week, because we were worried about crowds, and I'm glad we didn't go, because our friends who did said they felt a little overwhelmed and unsafe, and they left pretty quickly. That said, we were happy to be back at Car Week (it was canceled last year). We saw a bunch of friends and cars, of course, and I will never turn down a getaway to Carmel. So here's what I wore on the last day of our trip.

I was compensated with free lodging and meals for this post, but all opinions are my own.

Carmel-by-the-Sea, California sounds like a magical place from its name alone, and once you’ve visited, you realize the magic is real. Conceived as an artists’ colony in the early 1900s, the town’s character is that of a village in a forest overlooking the beach, and it’s filled with straight-out-of-a-fairytale houses that all have imaginative names. (Fun fact: there are no street numbers in Carmel-by-the-Sea; residents go to the post office to pick up their mail.) The town is vigilant about preserving its beauty—trees cannot be torn down to accommodate new construction, buildings cannot be more than two stories tall, signs must be wood (or wood-like), and as a matter of public safety on its uneven sidewalks, you are required to have a permit to wear heels over 2 inches high (yes, that is an actual law!). It may sound like a lot of regulation, but the result is that Carmel-by-the-Sea is a truly special place filled with people and businesses that feel so devoted the unique character of the town. And what makes Carmel even more dear to my heart is that it’s the most dog-friendly town I’ve ever visited—in fact, all of the visitor maps note which businesses allow dogs!


Carmel is about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from San Francisco, which makes it perfect for a weekend trip (although we'd happily spend a week—or longer—there). Here’s what Sean, Zuni, and I did on our visit in November.

I was #blessed to spend a weekend in Carmel again—as you may recall, we go every August for car week, which I love, but this time was a totally different experience. For one, the town was waaaaay less crowded. For another, the weather was absolutely gorgeous; it’s normally foggy and chilly in the summer, but it was clear and crisp and surprisingly warm. I have a more in-depth post on my trip coming later this week, but in the meantime, here’s what I wore in Carmel last weekend.

Carmel-by-the-Sea is one of my favorite places in California, not to mention the world, so I always jump at a chance to go, even if it’s for Car Week. As I mentioned last week, August weather in Northern California can be all over the place, but we were really lucky last weekend with warm-ish weather; in years past, I’d been bundled in jeans and sweaters. Well, I was still wearing sweaters—it’s Northern California after all—but at least with dresses and skirts this time. Here’s what I wore last weekend in Carmel.