Nick & Stephanie Visit Day 3

May 14th

 What's the point of visitors if you can't take them to  do things you've meant to do but haven't?  Case in point, today we're going to Asilomar State Park, because I wanted to.

 Iceplant!

 Sandy coastal trail.

 Artsy photo of a fence post.

Woooosh!

Enhance!

Mass of kelp.  The little air bladders go crunch if you step on them. 

 We also did 17-Mile Drive and saw the Lone Cypress, symbol of Pebble Beach.

We got snacks down at Monterey's Fisherman's Wharf.  It's a little smaller than SF's. 

We ended our adventuring with the Inn at Spanish Bay bagpiper.  

Because nothing says Spanish like bagpipes.

We went back home and continued to drink and play Goldeneye.

Nick & Stephanie left the following morning. 

This concludes our adventures for today.

Nick & Stephanie Visit Day 2

May 13th

We stayed at the Marines' Memorial Club & Hotel.  It had an amazing breakfast buffet. 

Also this view from the bar/restaurant.

We drove across the bridge! 

We were there!

As we now know, the Golden Gate Bridge is named for the strait over which it spans and not its color.

Hi Nick!

The plaza around the Lone Sailor.

The Lone Sailor represents a sailor's last view of the West Coast before shipping out. 

Oh, this is hard to read.  It says:

"This is a memorial to everyone who ever sailed out the Golden Gate in the service of their country - in the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, the Merchant Marine.

A ship heading for sea passes directly by this spot at the northern end of the Golden Gate.  Here the sailor feels the first long roll of the sea, the beginning of the endless horizon that leads to the far Pacific.

There is one last chance to look back at the city of San Francisco, shining on its hills, one last chance to look back at home.

Thousands and thousands of American seafarers have sailed past this place, in peace and war, to defend this country and its sea frontiers.  Many of them never returned.  This monument is dedicated to the ordinary sailors and marines who sailed from this place and did their duty."

Another photo of the SkiFree monster attacking the city.

There was a little dot in the water.  I think it's a guy in a single scull boat...or something.

We also did an escape room, in which we successfully escaped.  Woo!

Then we drove down to Monterey where drinking and Goldeneye occurred.

This concludes our adventures for today.

Nick & Stephanie Visit Day 1

May 12th

 We didn't take a ton of photos while Nick and Stephanie were visiting.  I'd asked Nick what he wanted to do while in the area for the weekend and he said drink and play Goldeneye.  So that's mostly what we did.   Anyway, here are the photos we took.

 Awkward selfie.  Is it still a selfie if there's a group of you?  Is it a groupie?

 Someone offered to take our photo.

 Artsy photo!

Photo of Dan taking the aforementioned artsy photo.

 Giant brick of a ship.

 We were down at Chrissy field and it was ridiculously windy.

 Hey, there's Alcatraz!

 It wasn't the best day to be walking around down here, again SUPER windy, but it was a good day for these folks.

 The brick might be bigger than Alcatraz.  Or perspective or something.

 We wandered around here a bit until we got tire of being beaten up by the wind.

Oh good, the SkiFree monster is still attacking the city.  He shows up at 2000m. 

 We went down to Fisherman's Wharf and had a great time playing games at the Musée Méchanique, which is basically a bunch of old arcade games and mechanical machines.  Most games take a quarter.  This submarine is docked outside the arcade.

This is neither here nor there, but I thought this acanthus looked like the purple tentacle from Day of the Tentacle. 

This concludes our adventures for today.

Camping: Arroyo Seco Day 2

May 6th

Today we went for a wandering hike in the opposite direction as yesterday.
But before we go on with today, I forgot to tell you about the people who ended up camping next to us last night.  They went to build a fire and were trying to break up branches by kicking them.  Dan lent them our hatchet.  Once they had enough wood, they realized they didn't have any sort of fire starter.  Dan lent them our matches.  I'm not sure if they'd ever been camping before.

A photo of Ta.

A photo of Dan taking a photo of Ta.

Ta is not excited about this photo.

Little tiny wildflowers.

Part of the trail, we think.

We were there!

And then we scrambled up a wall of dirt, because we missed the trail, and then saw a deer that Ta was totally oblivious of.  

Sometimes the trail went up, for a while.  It was hot.

Butterfly!

Artsy Yarrow.

Up around here we weren't sure if we were still on a trail or if we were following goats.

Mountains!

Another photo of Ta, the goodest girl.

Dragonfly sex? Or...maybe the brown one wants a hat.

Dan's artsy photo.

We stopped up here to have snacks.

Ta was excited to have some shade.

Around here we decided to head back down.  

We didn't know where the trail went or if it looped back or anything.

Ta and I were exhausted from the hike and both passed out in the tent.

I think this is an Acorn Woodpecker.  He's a bit puffy.

A less puffy woodpecker.

We checked the weather and it was supposed to rain all evening, night, and into the morning.  We decided to tear down the campsite and head home so we didn't have to pack all our wet stuff up in the morning.  I think it was a good test run for camping.

This concludes our adventures for today.