What a pumpkin

This post isn't going to be much but some adorable pictures.  Last month our adorable Gordon Setter Koal passed.  He was 14 so it was hard on all of us.  But I am comforted by the fact that he was 14 and had once hell of a life.  He traveled a lot.  He used to go camping with us when we were children, and then later with my parents in the RV.  He was the guardian of the feather comforter.  An outside dog for 12 years that adapted really quickly to being an inside dog.  Hoarder of toys, who loved to pull pop bottles of the table.  Unpacker of suitcases.  Wearer of silly shirts.  He was a pumpkin.  He was pretty loved.

Wild Thing: Sea Horsies

Sea horsies!  I was lucky enough to see several sea horse exhibits over last few years.  The Monterrey Bay Aquarium, the Aquarium at the Mall of America, the Minnesota Zoo, the Oregon Cost Museum.  Lots of them, and they are an amazing creatures.  They are so tiny and so perfect. 

Boats

Still in San Francisco!  We went to the Maritime National Historic Site (or what ever it is called).  It was totes cool, I like boats.  And they had all kinds.  There were old timey boats, a submarine and other fun and exciting things!

Across the Bay

Wow! I just realized that I haven't written about my time in San Francisco at all!  Fear not this will be remedied.  The only time that I went to San Francisco it was in March or April of 2008.  I had just finished my first winter at Snow Lodge and I went traveling with my parents to the southwest.  I haven't really blogged about this trip at all which is a shame cause it was great!  My younger bro was living in the San Francisco area at the time.  So we stopped by.

Wild Thing: Sea Lions!

 So, yeah, sorry about the long time between posts.... Anyways on to the post!  So Oregon, I love Oregon.  The coast is beautiful simply beautiful and I love it, the California coasts (Monterrey in case you forgot).  Sea lions are everywhere on the coast!  This is a good thing in my world, even if they are loud little buggers.  But they are adorable, loud little buggers.






















So once I posted a post that mentioned sea lions and posted a video clip cause on the Oregon trip my camera was acting up.  I have some pictures from that trip, but I got a bunch on the Monterrey trip!!! So Monterrey, I think I walked everywhere for days, it was amazing, and there was a municipal pier about halfway between Cannery Row <3 and Fisherman's Wharf!

 

It was amazing about a half mile and there were some seals playing, and some sea lions just lying about.  And then at the end of the pier, there was literally hundreds of them.  It was a bit smelly and loud, but they were kinda cute just sleeping around.  The day before I left, I went whale watching, and as we were leaving the marina there were some just hanging out, playing and sleeping in the most adorable fashion.

Wild Thing: Pelicans

So back to Monterrey with you blog!  I can't stay away from the coast it would seem.  Maybe I need to travel more. My posts seem to be Monterrey...Yellowstone...Yellowstone...Niagara...Monterrey....you get the picture... So Pelicans...yeah they're pretty flippin' cool.  And there are tons of them.  (I've seen 'em in Yellowstone too)  I don't know a lot about them as birdies.  But I kinda like them!

So the Monterrey pelicans were like birds possessed.  They were always attacking the fishies.  Diving down to the water.  I'd be walking along, or sitting and enjoying the view and then splash.  I'd look up and see nothing, then go back to what I was doing and splash splash... look up nothing.  It took a while, but finally I caught on to what they were doing... tricksy little birds.

The ones in yellowstone probably do the same thing, but I never saw them do that.  They were usually flying or sitting on the water, doing lame bird things.  I saw some once that were bobbing for fishies.  But that is as close as it gets.

Into the Sunset

Sunrise Sunset quickly flow the days... mumble, mumble.

I love Fiddler on the Roof.  But honestly that has nothing to do with this blog post.  Beyond the fact that sunsets and are mentioned in both.  And I love Fiddler on the Roof and I love sunsets.  I've seen some spectacular ones in my travels.  Seen some amazing ones at home too, but I usually don't have access to my camera or am too lazy to go and get it instead of just enjoying the sunset.  Or I am driving, and trust me, not the time for pictures.

I think some of my favorite have been over water.  And then some have been in the mountains.  Like flowers I just can't pick a favorite. Chalk it up to my indecisive nature.  That is also the reason that up until about a month ago, my background changed almost daily, sometimes a few times a day.  But I digress, I have been very lucky to have seen so many amazing sunsets. 

Petals: Monterrey

I know, I know I've already dedicated an entire posts to gardens in Monterrey, and here is another one.  But hey, at least I finally got one about the aquarium off.  I have a hell of a lot of Monterrey flower photos.
=D  <-- don't mind crazy smile guy over here, he's not that creepy honest...don't judge me...
Okay moving on.  Monterrey, what can I say, but glorious!

Sourrounded by Water

"Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream." John Steinbeck: Cannery Row.

So I have finally gotten around to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.  Not sure I why I was putting this one off.  Probably because there are so many pictures of the joint.  So the Monterrey Bay Aquarium is at the end of Cannery Row in Monterey California.  It is housed in an old cannery.  So it has a very unique feel to it.

Petals: Antelope Valley

Spring of 2008 I went on a desert trip with my parents.  One of the major highlights of the trip was the California poppies.  There is a poppy preserve in Antelope Valley California.  The spring we were there was a record year.  They had hundreds of poppies, and the year before they only had 50.

Waterfalls, Waterfalls

  So I mentioned in a previous post, that Niagara Falls is on the top of my waterfall list.  In my travels I have seen many of them, I seek them out, there is something awesome about the sheer volume of power they harness.  Something primal, some connection with something greater than I.

Into The Garden...

Old Monterrey Custom House

So, I think I am on a Monterrey kick.  I am really okay with that.  I loved Monterrey and spent a wonderful week there.  It exposed me to a part of Cali that I could totally live in.  And the city was unbelievably charming.  You could tell that it had been laid out before roads had cars.
Gardens, I think I mentioned in a previous post that there were gardens everywhere.  And there were.  I think that my friend was a block away from 2, and there were plenty more less than 10 minutes away.  Sweet.  Some days I wish I could garden, but alas I have a black thumb, kinda.  I do have a lavender plant that my dearest friend Ken gave me a year and a half ago, that is still alive.  It was tense for a few months after the initial re-potting.  But so far so good.  And now I digress....


This one wasn't in a garden, but it was a tree alongside the road as I headed to Cannery Row.  Everything is right with the world when it all comes back to Steinbeck.   I thought this was the coolest flower and having never seen one like it before I took a picture.  In hopes that someone could tell me what it is.

Fuchsia

Pink Hydrangea

So the garden I think I spent the most time in was at the old Custom House, which is a visitor center/museum but it was not open when I was in town.  Drat it all.  This garden was awesome.  There were actually two parts, a front path with cacti and other desert plants and then a back courtyard.  This had hydrangeas, fuchsia, lilies, and orange trees in it.  As well as a wide variety of other flowers. 

There is something special about green spaces.  I don't know if they are calming or something else.  But I am drawn to them like nothing else, except maybe for waterfalls.  Maybe it is the vibrancy or the life around but I could get lost in a garden.

The one on the right another that I fell in love with, but had no clue what it was.  The of course there is the rose, always a favorite.  And that one seems like a good one to leave you with.

John Steinbeck and the Artichoke Queen

And since I got my home work all caught up, I don't feel bad about blogging and wasting my productive time one something so much more fun!


Cannery Row once was actually a place filled with Sardine Canneries.  Now it is filled with cheesy gift shops.  And yet I still loved it.






But they do still celebrate John Steinbeck and his books.  This map of Cannery Row, shows everything would have been.




At the Steinbeck Museum in Salinas it would have been much cooler if they had big books of John Steinbeck books, that I actually enjoyed.  I never actually finished reading this one.



 


 
Then there was the Pearl.  The book that nearly ruined Steinbeck for high school students every where.  Yeah, not my favorite, but I did see the building where he wrote it.  That was cool.



And I blame Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday for the romantic delusion that I have that it would be cool to live in an old boiler.  And yes, there would be curtains, regardless of the fact there are no windows.









And did I mention that Marlyn Monroe was once the Artichoke Queen?  Yep, true story.  Miss California Artichoke Queen 1947.

All Things Steinbeck

So, I am going to try different styles for these first few posts.  I need to see what works with what, as with the Y'Stone post, that lends itself well to wordy posts.  Some that I have might just be more picture based.  I am letting the posts do what they want.

Beach in Monterrey CA

So, since I left Yellowstone, I have gone on to major trips.  The first one was a year ago this Halloween.  I went to visit my dear friend Ashley out in Monterrey California.  Ashley and I have been friends for years, since our Waldsee days.  And she know of my deep love of John Steinbeck, especially of Cannery Row which coincidentally enough is in Monterrey.  So armed with my vacation pay, I hoped on a plane and headed for the coast and headed to Monterrey the Mecca for my Steinbeck lovin' heart.

Oooh look a courtyard, California is chalk full of them, and they are pretty with gardens.  So the first thing I did was walk to the harbour just to get my bearings, and of course to call my bestest friend.

 Yep, a harbor, boats, pretty much a standard view from my trip.  This was by Fisherman's Wharf.  I spent a quite a bit of time here, it was a wonderful spot to drink coffee, read, write or enjoy the gorgeous weather.

John Steinbeck

The best thing was that everything that I wanted to see was in walking distance. So that meant I could walk to Cannery Row.  Now, I was expecting a commercialized Cannery Row, I had no delusions that it would not be a tourist destination.  And it delivered, but it still had a feel about it, too me at least, that reminded me of the book and what it must have been like back in the days of sardine canning. 

Old Cannery Boilers

At the very end of Cannery Row, in an old cannery building is the Monterrey bay Aquarium.  It is a wonderful place, very open, and designed well, that and they have programs and speakers there all day.  I watched on sharks, it was very interesting.  The rest of the row is lined with shops and restaurants.  There are some museums and the old buildings are fixed up and are part of a walking tour.  

The other thing about Monterrey that was awesome was not only was there a city wide "path of history", but on almost every block in Old Monterrey, there were public gardens.  And I love gardens, so of course I went though each one at least twice.  Taking pictures of flowers is one of my favorite things to do.  Ashley and I also went to Carmel-by-the-Sea (did you know that Clint Eastwood used to be mayor there?), Salinas-to the Steinbeck Museum, and Pacific Grove.  Carmel-by-the-Sea, was a little tourist, boutique, ridiculously expensive town.  Had a great beach.  The Steinbeck museum in Salinas will probably have its own post dedicated to it.  

Full Moon Rise, seen while whale watching

While in Monterrey I went whale watching.  It was an amazing few hours on a boat.  We didn't see much, but we did see 2 whales and several dolphins.  And if you look in the water when the boat is leaving the harbor, you can see hundreds of jelly fish, now what could be cooler than that?