After the ice cream and battery charging, we headed toward 17 mile...

Monterey, CA

Hello. I know it's been a while, but in this episode:

How Hotwire.com nearly turned us into the stranded travelers looking for a room at the inn late at night!

The Monterey charity volunteer/conman/"street performer"

17 Mile Drive

Dead cameras leading to a feeling of loathing at Lover's Point

And "I wonder where we can find WIFI and electrical outlets"

Let's see, so we're basically to our last day of adventures pre-Oceanside.

The evening we arrived in Carmel-by-the-Sea, we just wandered around enjoying the view for a bit, then we decided to check out the neat little downtown area and eat dinner. It's a very nice little town full of art galleries at every other door, restaurants, B&Bs, and even nice little gift shops.  It was especially nice because even the gift shops took care to keep things nice--they even decorated the newspaper boxes (those big obnoxious, brightly-colored things on street corners) to fit in the decor by looking like wooden crates. Cool stuff... not to mention all the artwork to see...

We decided on some Thai, where Cara posed with the menu in the low lighting next to a nice wooden gal:

We had a nice meal and tried to work our magic with hotels.com/hotwire. We were in luck and stayed at a local hotel of which I haven't much recollection--so little that I had to quit writing this blog the other day until Cara refreshed my memory.

Part of the reason I'd forgotten was probably because of the next day's activities. We got up, had a quick breakfast before the hotel worker cleaned it up (the only part I remember), and we headed to Monterey.

I dropped Cara off at the Aquarium area and looked for a parking spot, which brought a first/surprise.  I saw a decent sized grocery store, so I thought I'd buy something small and park for the hour or two we'd be there. To my surprise, there was a guy standing and the corner of the store, and as I was refilling my jug of water, I thought "Nehhhh, he can't really be scoping out the parking lot..." Welp, he was. So as I walked out of the parking lot toward the aquarium, he kindly asked me to move my car.  That was a first, but at least he didn't just call the towing company.

We didn't go in the aquarium, which was a bit pricey, but we enjoyed the view of the water and wildlife behind it (look for the little, glossy heads breaking the water's surface):

Then we saw that they had a free trolley to the harbor, so we waited for that and in the mean time, wandered around the shops. That's when we were--stopped--by a regular looking guy with an unusual spiel:

(Turns around abruptly and puts his hand, palm forward, at eye level) "Stop... we have a report of a beautiful smile on your face (looking at Cara) about 10 feet back... and this is a Beautiful Smile-Free Zone (handing her a bumper sticker that says so...)" We giggle, wondering what in the world's going on. "I'm just kidding of course, and my names... and I'm from... (had some interesting, but probably bogus, press-pass type credentials hanging from his neck) and we're collecting money this holiday weekend for veterens, veterens' families, and... (it seems like he mentioned all the possibilities including homeless, 9/11 victimes, etc but I can't really remember. It's a kind of a blur.) And, sir, it looks like we might have some incriminating evidence against you... do you recall this? (hands me a Farfrompuking bumper sticker)" We giggle awkwardly again, still in a bit of a blur. "So just wondering if you can contribute..."

At this point, I know I only have a five and a twenty in my pocket. So, I look at Cara, saying "Uhm, not sure if I have anything," hoping she has say, a dollar or maybe a few nickles.  Sadly, she doesn't take the bait, and I panic and cough up five bucks for 2 lousy bumper stickers--but FOR A GOOD CAUSE, of course.

And there you have it, the The Monterey charity volunteer/conman/"street performer".

We say "street performer" because that was the best way I could think of to make myself feel better after handing over the fiver.  I told Cara, well, he really did have a nice act, so if he were, say, covered in silver paint and acting like a statue, we would have given him a few bucks and gotten no stickers, so...

Whatever, at least he had an impressive act, if not a legitimate, charitable foundation.

Then, we took the trolley to the harbor where we went on a nice walk and took a few pics.

We explored first, and discovered this first--Cara's clearly a natural:

(The posting she's pointing toward is a Earthquake Warning about the building being unstable!)

Then we went to the Wharf:

And we had some very good Clam Chowder to-go from Crabby Jim's--a nice little restaurant on the Wharf with a fun name:

Then we decided to walk back to our car, parked near the aquarium, on the a nice waterline path (where we wished we could jog everyday). Here's one of the views:

A beautiful view, and a delicious lunch.

Another view, this is the end of the Wharf:

And then some of the little guys and gals that call it home, even though they're a bit hard to see:

 

We really enjoyed the walk, but were happy to get back to our car and see other areas.  You might notice those are smaller pictures and I'm not sure but I think that's because our camera began to die so those are phone pictures...

That influenced our next stop: Lover's point, a scenic, coastal park with steps down to the beach and a some beautiful rocks (I took a few pics, some more useless than others):

 

 

One lovely one of the Point...

And after setting up the tripod, the only one together before the battery died:

Which naturally led to this, caught with my camera phone:

Ta Da! 

Dead cameras leading to a feeling of loathing at Lover's Point!

Next: "I wonder where we can find WIFI and electrical outlets"

Our answer, after driving into town:

This was an interesting ice cream shop, with walls plastered with 60's and 70's memorabilia, mostly of the Beatles. Most important, after the tasty ice cream, were the outlets and wifi for researching the 17 mile drive.

Batteries reccharged, we made two more stops, one of the first lighthouses on the west coast and the butterfly sanctuary, free of any butterflies...

It was kind of funny because it was this spot that's famous for butterflies stopping there on the flight south, but when you get there it's a totally empty, small park-like area with two trails about 100 yards in length.

The fun part was that we were walking back wondering "is that it?" when we saw a little fawn, right on the path! No wings on it but that was a sight! Unfortunately, we don't seem to have pics for you and I'm not sure how to get video to work--all the documentation we have of the lil' thing...

But, I guess that makes for a good cliff hanger for next episode--as you you probably grumbled a few mintues ago, this one's gotten too long!

So, next time, the stranded travelers and 17 mile drive...

Our last State Capitol, Napa Valley, Carmel-by-the-Sea

Yay! We processed Cara's Board of Nursing License Application!! Yay!

Why am I trying to make that sound exciting, you say? Well, because it really was the LEAST exciting moment you could imagine--totally anticlimactic:

The office was on the 3rd floor of a plain looking building in some office park; it was a tiny room with 8 pastel-colored chairs, one glass window, and a not-so-talkative receptionist. We filled out one paper, turned in the papers we'd printed out weeks before, and filled out a check for the fee.

Annnnd, so the receptionist said, we were all set! That was it! No receipt, no indication of when it will be processed, no celebratory lights and sirens, not even balloons and confetti, nothing.

Not exciting, and as you'll recall, this was the moment we drove across the country in three days for! Hey hey! We didn't want to take our time ENJOY ourselves, anyway!

But, we'd suceeded at what we needed to do, which was exciting, at least in theory.  Also, Cara went ahead and called the receptionist back and finally got the answer we were looking for: we could check online for the status of our application... (not something she thought she should share with Cara when Cara asked before leaving...?) The good news since: she had her license 5 days later, in plenty of time before being in charge of ICU patients.

And thus began our trip to our (temporary) home in San Diego! With a few trips on the way.

For the first, we drove to the Capitol building from the boring office park. The Capitol was a pleasant surprise-- fun and interesting, and quite lovely:

That's a guy on a horse with some sort of javelin item. Not sure if he was once a Californian legislator or not...
(Oh-- and you should click on that to bring up the big version. I only just noticed this picture gets even better-- Is he about to use the javelin against a bear that is mauling his horse?! Wow.)

We had no idea what to expect, but it turns out that you can go inside and peruse around. The first floor is no longer the home of the Governor's office, etc. That's across the street now, and the first floor rooms are now the recreated offices of the 1900s, as you'll see below. There's a very elaborate lobby as soon as you walk in, and they have some volunteers there answering questions and so forth. Pretty neat...

Secretary of State's Main Office, 1902:

After the first floor, we went up to the third so we could sit in the balcony and observe the state's GOVERNMENT AT WORK!

That's when we got to hear a few state legislators talk about two HOT topics, one of which was Water Softeners!  Actually, I can't really remember anything other than that water softeners was one topic... sorry to disappoint.

(The most "interesting" points:
-one legislator argued for the senate to keep in mind that this would cost apartment complex owners, LIKE HIM, thousands of dollars... and he wasn't even trying to act like this was about other owners. Straight up, it was about him.  I wasn't sure that was really an appropriate point but who knows.
-Almost every legislator was doing something OTHER than listening to the person talking about the issue at hand... chatting with each other, eating snacks, texting, etc. So it was funny to see that one of the most powerful rooms in the state of California probably looked worse than almost every elementary school classroom in the state.)

After that, we ate downstairs at the cafeteria. Tasty Lasagna and Coke:

Next, we drove to Napa Valley. We avoided highways, which meant a more scenic drive:

 

Lots of curvy, hilly roads finally took us to our first tasting room:

 

And second, which had a beautiful patio area.  We enjoyed some of it's specialty, the sparkling type, some cheese, and some lovely views:

Then we got a picture with a huge bottle!

On our way out, nice landscaping:

And for our friends in Akron!

Since it was still early in the evening, we decided to head toward the Monterey/Carmel area.  Here's the first photo I took after parking the car along Carmel's seaside sidewalk:

And the view to the left of that...

 

We'll report all that fun in the next episode, including how Hotwire.com nearly turned us into the stranded travelers looking for a room at the inn late at night!*

Plus, 

The Monterey charity volunteer/conman/"street performer"
17 Mile Drive 
Dead cameras leading to a feeling of loathing at Lover's Point 
and "I wonder where we can we find WIFI and electrical outlets."

*It really wasn't all that dire, just a lots of talking to customer service and a long night.