We've also added some more pics to our photo album. Most of them are of the Jellies at the Monterey Aquarium. The picture captioned as the "... sardine tank" is incorrect, it should be "... anchovy tank". We'll fix that later.
This was a week of a lot of rest. We spent 5 days at the KOA in Santa Cruz. A great spot with lots of trees and a good fire pit for the evening. It also seems that our jackalope craze has been replaced by a raccoon craze. We were visited by a raccoon at the RV park in San Francisco and again at the KOA in Santa Cruz. Creatures of opportunity they have found that campground areas can be places of easy pickin's. We make sure all is put away before retiring for the night. While Brian enjoyed a duck walking across his foot in San Antonio ... Kris nearly had a raccoon walking across her foot in Santa Cruz.
Monday was Carmel in the morning followed by the Monterey Aquarium in the afternoon. Carmel is quite twee with lots of galleries and upscale shops. A tad on the expensive side, but nice and compact and easy to wander around. The Monterey Aquarium is just such a neat place to go. Our favorites are the sea otters...
... and the jellies...
Tuesday was the biggie for me, Brian, to spend at Pebble Beach catching glimpses of some of the pros at the US Open during a practice round. The biggest of the biggies was Phil Mickelson...
The biggest of the Canadians was Mike Weir...
A whack of folks had congregated at the 17th tee to get a glimpse of "Tiger" but apparently he walked off the course after the 13th hole (must have seen some floozies heading for the clubhouse ;-o ). So joining a group of "autograph hounds" between the 16th and 17th holes, I collected a bunch of autographs. For some, everyone in the crowd would put their heads together and try to figure out exactly who it was that provided the autograph :-))) One guy we weren't sure about until somebody said... "oh him, he won the British Open a couple of years ago"... who knew? Anyway, lots of fun and finished with a Mike Weir autograph.
Our last day in Santa Cruz we toodled around the town, had lunch in a cute cafe and then headed for the beach. It was a bit late in the afternoon and we were debating whether to take the boogie board; maybe the water would be cold but the surf looked pretty good. As this was a State beach, there was a fee to get in and a nice ranger girl working in the kiosk. We asked about the water and the rip current (not wanting to freeze off any body parts or end up in Mexico). She said the rip was not too bad and as for the water temperature .... her words ...'What's your mil?" our mil???? mailing address?? military number?? tax rate?? not a clue. Turns out she was asking about the thickenss of our wetsuits. When we figured this out and told her our mill was nil - just bathing suits and rash guards her eyes got very round and she said "then its gonna be real cold". She was right - we splashed around in the surf for a bit, got soaked by a giant wave and retreated to the beach to sit on the sand in the sun.
Friday we headed up the coast to Petaluma, leaving the "Artichoke Center of the World" area for the former "Chicken Capital of the World". At one time Petaluma was the largest poultry producing place in the country. Most of that is gone along with most of the "hatcheries" but some old hatcheries and warehouses still stand and have been converted into some pretty cool apartments and other businesses along the river. We came across one funky little cafe where we had an excellent lunch then returned for their afternoon "extremely happy hour" for some wine and an appy of warm goat cheese with fresh stawberries and figs... very nice indeed!
Sunday we headed out to the coast #1 highway up to Fort Bragg. Huge dairy farms west of Petaluma out towards Bodega Bay. Going up the #1 highway, the "Shoreline Highway", is a beautiful drive and much nicer, albeit quite a bit slower than going up the 101, the "Coast Highway" which is inland and much more like a freeway. Note...Do not take the #1 highway if you are in any sort of hurry! The views are fabulous though...
In Fort Bragg we stayed at a very nice RV campground with lots of trees and space around us. Compare this picture from the one last week when we stayed in San Francisco...
Fort Bragg...
San Francisco...
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