Lots of fog. The sun tried to come thru here and there.
And a big, beautiful beach. We could see seals and otters playing just offshore, but not quite close enough to photograph. So here's a bird :-)
Being from hurricane country, this sure doesn't look like a smart place to build houses?!? They might not have hurricanes here, but I'm sure they get some pretty good storms.
We actually thought that there was plenty of space between the trees in the direction of the satellite. But, we were wrong!
We were here to visit another old friend - Arynne. Arynne and I have known each other since 9th grade ... 36 years ago. We stay in touch. She even traveled with us on our France river barge trip in 2001. You can see photos of that trip here. Arynne is an artist - she created the weaving that hangs over our bed. She made it specifically for me. I asked for it to represent my love of the mountains and the sea.
Arynne also makes jewelry. You can see her jewelry at her website Ancient Charms. Here she is outside her home in the Aptos hills.
And here we are in her very artistic bedroom! The bed is on a kind of loft over the stairway with really cool 'porthole' type windows.
You can see the room better in this picture.
She took the day off work and we went to Monterey Bay Aquarium. This is in the Cannery Row area of Monterey.
The kelp bed aquarium was pretty amazing.
We also saw the adorable otters but didn't get a very good picture of them. Big news was that they had a great white shark who had been there for 20 days - longer than any had survived in captivity before. She's only 4 months old and is pretty small. See if you can find the spectacular creature in this next photo. It's a Sea Dragon - like a frilly seahorse.
They also had a whole wing devoted to jelly fish! It was fascinating. We had a great time exploring, then found a wine tasting room to end our day, then back 'home' to Brighton Beach. Such a beautiful area!
The house is the next 3 levels. Here is a view from the bottom looking up.
This means LOTS of stairs - we got our excercise setting up their network between the first and third levels! It also means great views. Here's the living room. You can't see it thru the fog and haze, but they're looking out over Oakland and San Francisco Bay.
Oh yea, here's Lanz and Blake!
We had great conversations. The kind that are only possible with people you've known a LONG time - over 35 years for me and Lanz.
Now we're headed south towards Monterey to visit another old friend Arynne.
Time to stow and go.
Lots of people come here to go boating and fishing.
We're here, of course, to support the Wi-Fi system. Our neighbors told us that they were unable to get connected, so Jim took a look at their computer. Here he is and, yes indeed, he was unable to get a signal.
He picked up the computer and turned around and, voila! he was connected. Sometimes it's just that simple. Jim recommended they get an external (USB) Wi-Fi adapter because they have a little more power and you can move just the adapter around rather than the whole computer. These folks just sold their house and are still working regular jobs in the area so Internet was pretty important to them. They love the Wi-Fi and Jim was a real hero.
Odie wanted to make sure I told everyone that he's doing great. He had so many emails sending him well-wishes! I took his stitches out this week, and I'd say he's 100%. What do you think?
We're close enough that we went to Oakland to visit my old friend Lanz. Lanz and I have known each other since 8th grade (1967) and we've actually stayed in touch all these years! Here's a view from their deck overlooking the San Francisco Bay!
Pretty dramatic scene with the sunset poking thru the fog bank. But, what's really impressive, is that this is the view from their living room! We plan to visit again on our way south, maybe then I'll take some photos of Lanz and Blake where their eyes aren't closed :-( - and I can post those.
Meanwhile, we're here at Sugar Barge RV Park and we've given a few seminars. Such cool stuff!
