Monterey

I decided to come down out of the forest and spend a few days in Monterey. I brought my bathing suit, sun tan lotion and beach towels. Too bad I didn’t check the weather forecast, it’s cold and overcast. No worries, there's still plenty to do. I went to the Monterey Aquarium where they had really cool jellyfish and seahorse exhibits. I posted some pictures, I’m surprised at how good they came out using my cell phone. The next day I went to Fisherman’s Warf and took a whale watching cruise. It was pretty cold, but I had a great view sitting in front of the boat. We saw both blue whales and humpback whales. They were huge, but we only saw a tiny portion of them as they came up for air. We didn’t get the spectacular views of them breaching because they didn’t do any acrobatics. The most we saw were a few tail flips, but it was still pretty cool. The ride out and back were fine, but just sitting in the swaying boat brought on some queasiness, so I spent most of the time laying back against the wheelhouse with my eyes closed. I was soon joined by two other young women and a little boy. Someone gave us ginger candy which helped a bit. Every time the whales came up for air we’d all jump up and look, then go lay down till the next spotting. By this time, the sun had actually come out and we got a very nice tan. Back at the dock I spent at least 30 minutes watching some sea lions on a dock. Now that was entertainment! The dock was so crowded they were laying on top of each other. Every time one moved, it disturbed its neighbors, and they let the offender know in no uncertain terms. The dock was fenced on 3 sides and it was impressive watching the more agile sea lions climb up to sun themselves in top of the rail. When they weren’t sun bathing, they were swimming around the pier, doing all kind of jumps and quick turns. There were also 50 or so pelicans. They weren’t too active until a fishing boat came back. If you look at the picture, the pier right above the sea lion dock is a fish cleaning station. As the fishermen were cleaning the fish, they tossed the unwanted parts into the water below. It was funny to watch a swarm of pelicans descended on the water around the sea lion dock. That brought an abrupt end to the sun bathing. After walking around a bit, I had fish and chips and the most awesome chocolate, pecan, caramel covered apple for dessert. After all that, I came back to the hotel and took a nap!

I’m headed home today; taking the long way and driving up the coast.  It’s still overcast, but I’m hoping I can see some of the picturesque sites along HWY 1.  On the off chance that the sun actually comes out, I’ve got my bathing suit ready. 

Back in the forest, we’re still working on posting signs on all the OHV trails. We found some readymade signs from last year and I spent the better part of one morning plotting out the location of about 30 trails on a map. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the numbering system, so it was quite the challenge. The next day we loaded up the ATVs with our sign making equipment and hit the trails. That was much more fun!

I have about 6 more weeks here in California, then I’ll head up to Oregon and Washington. I’ve been trying to decide where to go this winter and I think I’ve settled on Tampa. As I was looking at the job market there, I found a full time (contractor) position as an Executive Assistant/Task Manager for SOCOM. I really like that kind of work. Crazy I know! As much as I don’t want to go back to work, I really need to pay off my truck and RV in order to really enjoy living on the road like this. It’s pretty expensive between the high cost of diesel, RV parks and doing all the fun tourist stuff

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