Raincharm’s Weblog

Today has been a recovery day. Unpacking,  shopping, and not much else.

We’ll see about tomorrow.

Just under 900 miles. (897.6)

425 miles in California, 308 in Oregon, and 165 in Washington  – roughly.

Left Monterey just before 7 AM, arrived home in Seattle at 9:00. Really pretty good for traffic, except through Portland.

Mt. Shasta

It may have seemed like a small delay when we passed it, but I was glad to be home 20 minutes earlier.

After saying that I realize I always thought my mother was very nice looking. I think it’s the set of the jaw or something.

I’m a bit tired, time for a snack (aka dinner).

A few days ago we went to Pacific Grove and walked south along the shore for a while.  Today we started further south and walked north, ending at the same place we stopped a few days ago. Coincidentally there is a restroom at that location.

We saw deer, beachy squirrels, harbor seals, sea otters, oyster catchers, a hawk, cormorants, and sea gulls. None of these are in the pictures, except coincidentally.

We started the day at Katy’s Diner in Carmel by the Sea. It was good food and their eccentricity is that they only accept cash. We knew this ahead of time so no problems. After the walk we retired to our home away from home made lunch and relaxed. Dinner will be from Pizza Factory to round of the day.

Our first excursion today was to Point Lobos for a scenic walk in the wind.

The second sojourn of the day was to the Monterey Aquarium. It is a great aquarium, quite expansive. It is a Thursday and not overly crowded, especially when we were closing out the place. The most impressive section was on jellyfish, a few of the many pictured below.

The large tanks, many of them, had diverse populations, including schools of fish. There were several touch tanks and the docents were very knowledgeable and forthcoming.

Over 12,000 steps and I am ready to be done for the day.

We returned to Carmel by the Sea today, expanding from 2 of us to 4. Carl arrived late last night. Late enough that no one was in bed until this morning.

We launched in time for lunch. Pepperoni Hot Honey pizza and a Greek salad at the Pizza Heaven. The next stop was Calhoun Estate Jewelery to see if they were interested in any watches or jewelery. They took a few pieces for a modest sum.

Finally time to hit the beach. The weather was sunny but considerably windier than our last visit. At about 60 degrees it was only warm when you could get out of the wind.

We have been hosted by my sister and brother-in-law at his parents house that is in the process of being sold as part of their estate. This means going through everything in the house. Not me, I have only participated marginally, but more on that another day. One of the treasures shared today were 2 beach towels, likely from the 60s. They have most recently been used to protect some of the fine art from the sun.

It would have been helpful if I had taken a picture of the neighborhood, but I didn’t.

We took a walk this afternoon along the drive that fronts the house. It’s about one to two miles, so not overly ambitious. There were hills involved. And there were frequent stops where we did take pictures.

The rest of the day was spent listening to liquidators. More on this another day.

Adjacent to the Pebble Beach Golf course, we walked a portion of the beach.

Misidentification of anything is on me.

We wandered the town for a while too, and had a good lunch. On the way back home we stopped for groceries to make a coconut curry with cod. We got everything on our list and were checking out when Pooh noticed that we hadn’t gotten any cod 🙄. Finished checking out, and then went back for the cod. At least we had not driven home. Cod was not on the list because it was so obvious.

Dinner is done, over 10,000 steps, time to relax.

The Monterey version. It was warm, if you were in the sun, and more importantly, out of the wind. I was comfortable with a jacket.

The flora. Patterns abound.

And some fauna

We also saw a sea otter. There were lots of water birds too, but nothing that I could successfully photograph.

A lovely lunch of clam chowder, garlic bread, and caprese salad.

Dinner of leftover spaghetti and a salad rounded out a successful day.

I started the day by sleeping in. As I was in the last few hours of yesterday’s drive I kept thinking, “The closer I get, the further away it is.” The last 60 miles took longer than the prior 100 miles.

Once we finally got ourselves (myself) together, we headed towards Pacific Grove. First up was lunch at Hops and Fog. Luckily it was not foggy.

We headed next for a walk along the cost. The tide was just starting to return so we could look into a few tidepools.

A bit of the fauna

All for today

This is the time I spent on the road today.

The first stop was the airport to drop off the boys for their flight to Phoenix for Spring Training. Actually the first stop was picking up Mark, Kevin spent the night at our house so he boarded the car there.

The stops along the way included 3 gas stations and 2 rest areas. The final stop is at my sister’s husband’s parent’s house, in Monterey, California.

A few pictures from the interior

More tomorrow, my brain is fried.