Me - under-the-sea....

Not really UNDER the sea. We'll kinda. It's a tunnel at the Monterey Aquarium that the waves (real or a wave machine?) swoosh over you. Phillip took this pic of me.

We spent the last couple of days in Monterey. We've been wanting to visit for years. The last time we were there was during our pre-kid years - over 20 years ago AND boy-howdy has the place changed!!!

It's very "commercial" now. I guess everything changes over time. We went to the aquarium and saw this strange fish. Looks like the back-half of his body has gone missing.



I saw this little guy too!



He was trying so hard to catch some winks, but kept getting bothered by click-happy humans like me! I guess I'd have this look of annoyance too!



After the aquarium, I needed to buy a light jacket, so we journeyed through the stores. The prices for souveniers (sp?) were very reasonable, I thought. However, when we got thirsty and wanted some WATER! things got a little out of hand. $2.99 EACH for those little bottles. $2.99! I had a hot chocolate at Ghiradelli's instead. Even they didn't serve water - only those little bottles. So, after walking the streets a while, we left and stopped by Trader Joes. There, I bought a 6-pack of water for $1.50. That's more like it. I bought 2.

Then we went down the coast towards Big Sur. The coastline is beautiful, but I personally think our Oregon coastline rivals it.



I love to travel, but I really appreciate home.

We didn't make it to Big Sur. The CA fires are everywhere and the signs said the road was closed at 30 miles. We drove 26 and started seeing the fire camps of firefighters, so we decided to stay out of their way and head back north to Monterey. Along the way, we stopped and I took some shots of someones house entryway/fence. (If this is your place, I love it!!!)



The courtyard entry. Gorgeous!

And then there's their driveway gate.



Nice, but I have to say, my driveway at home is a challenge for visibility and safety, but this driveway is on the main highway, and, well, let's just say, I found myself crossing my fingers that we didn't get T-boned pulling out onto the highway!

On to So. Cal. We are here for business meetings with the Mouse. We don't have plans to visit his park this trip. Plus, there's too much smoke in the state this trip. The skies are gross. Smog. Smoke. Even No. Cal wasn't pleasant. Oh well.
Hopefully, the air at home is nice.....