Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to All:   
      
    AK>  -----Beginning of the citation-----   
    AK>  The bus chugged westward. On both sides of the streets   
    AK>  were interesting buildings. The Cowboy's Retreat was a   
    AK>  log cabin fronted with flashing neon lights. The Emerald   
    AK>  Crown was a hotel shaped like a wedding cake with a carpet   
    AK>  that rolled down to the road like a green beach meeting   
    AK>  a tarmac sea.   
    AK>  ----- The end of the citation -----   
      
      
    AK>  What is a green beach, what is a tarmac sea, and how   
    AK>  can they meet?   
      
      
             The word "like" tells me the author is making a comparison here...   
   technically a simile.  I imagine the carpet as a lawn, possibly made of fake   
   grass, and the tarmac sea as a paved road.  Apparently one part of this lawn   
   ends at the side of the road, i.e. the lawn & the road come into contact.  I   
   also get the impression the lawn is uninterrupted by anything else such as a   
   fence, a bit of shrubbery, or a public walkway.  Maybe it's supposed to look   
   like the red carpet which is rolled out for visiting heads of state.  In any   
   case, the narrator is thinking of it as a beach adjacent to the sea....  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)