Monday, November 27, 2006

Adventures

Hello, everyone! I'm back, safely, from a weekend of adventures. The only regret I have is that I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures to share...but then I've not been terribly good at posting pictures lately.

On Wednesday, I ran around like a turkey with it's head cut off trying to get everything ready for the trip. I had to go to the library and pay some fairly hefty fines in order to check out an audio book of Cannery Row as "on-board" entertainment for the drive. It was a good thing to have, although, I found that if I was at all tired the soothing nature of the narrator made it even harder to stay awake.

We left on Thursday a.m. (S, SS & I) for our trip down to Santa Cruz. On the way down, we stopped at Pidgeon Point Lighthouse. Although the lighthouse is closed due to structural instability, the view on the point of the coast and the ocean is phenomenal. It was only a few short miles from there to Ano Nuevos Reserve. We got our permit (which is a little silly, since they don't require you to pay for it or do anything to earn it...I suppose on busier days, it allows them to control who many people trek across the dunes) and started our walk to visit the sea lions.

Much of the reserve is made up of dunes and walking over them is quite a challenge, especially for someone without much stamina. I also found that it makes my hip and lower back somewhat sore. So after stopping at the first viewing area to see a few sea lions napping, S and SS left me to watch ants tromping through the sand while they went off to see more active beasts. It turns out that they weren't terribly active. S had us recreate the action by lying on our bellies in the sand.

From there we checked into our hotel, took a nap, then got dressed and headed out for dinner. It was an interesting experience. The food was good - we rotated our entrees, so we each got to try our different choices. They had spaeztle and red cabbage with the sauerbraten we ordered. The turkey dinner was quite good...and we shared pumpkin pie for desert. I knew that we had elevated "strange" to a new level when we kept getting looks from the fine people of Santa Cruz!

We weren't done with our day yet! We ventured out on the pier and found where the sea lions were sleeping underneath. We were separated from them by only a fence. It was really cool to see this great beasts so close. We, then, headed to the Boardwalk Arcades. We played some games and won some tickets to exchange for silly, cheap things. We basically just were silly. We ended our day at the Boardwalk Bowling Alley. I had to bowl left-handed because my right arm and shoulder were feeling really sore. I was quite proud of how I did. As a team, we bowled over 200. S is actually quite good at it, so we mostly had him to thank for the score.

We got up early the next morning to head out for our Elkhorn Slough Safari. It was chilly, but we got to see more sea lions, seals, sea otters (a huge raft of them), and tons of birds. It was a lovely day and a nice way to start out. We had lunch, then headed to the Elkhorn Slough Reserve. SS and I spent about a half an hour looking at things under their microscopes (I quickly graduated from feathers and snake skin, to my own hand and hair, then to US currency...that was way cool!). We took a walk around the reserve making lot's of stops to look into the water. Then it was on to Monterey.

We checked into our hotel and got all bundled up, then headed to Cannery Row for the Christmas tree lighting. After much speech-making and singing, the big event took only a second. We found the poor reindeer they had on display, then headed to dinner. We had a whirlpool available to us at the hotel, so SS and I spent some time luxuriating in the water. I think S was feeling a bit under the weather because he crawled in bed early.

We got to sleep in the next morning. It was lovely. Our first stop of the day was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. As you know, I'd visited there quite recently, but this time around we got to watch some of the feeding shows: the kelp forest and the sea otters. I love sea otters. They are just adorable. We also got to touch lot's of the critters in the touch pools. I hadn't realized that SS' bachelor degree was in marine biology. She pointed out the decorator crab to me and lot's of other fun stuff.

After lunch, we headed out to Gilroy. We only had time to check into our hotel and change clothes before we were off to Bonfante Gardens amusement park. They had their annual holiday lights. We got to ride several rides, eat at their holiday buffet, ride the train around the park, then watch the end of the holiday parade. Did you know that Santa has a security detail? Well, he does at Bonfante Gardens.

As we were shooed out of the park, we spent a lot of time watching the lights reflecting in one of the pools along the path out. Then we, literally, danced out of the park. It was a wonderful time.

Yesterday, we were up early and headed out to Pinnacles National Monument. We hiked up to Bear Gulch cave and through the cave. Then we hiked the Rim Trail. The views were spectacular. At one point, S, SS and I stood looking at a view and sang together. When we stopped, it was so silent. It was incredibly powerful. We climbed out onto this huge outcropping and sat together enjoying the view for a bit as well.

Then it was off to home. I didn't get in until 7 p.m. last night. I was in bed 2 hours later and slept more soundly than I have in a long time.

It was a fabulous trip.

5 comments:

Aravis said...

What an incredible time you had! It all sounds wonderful. :0)

Poor Santa. With all of the stalkers and paparazzi these days, it's not wonder he needed security. What is this world coming to?

LB said...

that sounds like a brilliant trip. Sea lions sound ace!

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a lot of fun, glad you had such a great weekend girlfriend :)

Charby said...

sea lions are well cool.

Did you see the shark again?!

Hyde said...

That's a funny image of you guys acting like sea lions. It gave me a much needed laugh...

:)

h