Finally...... a real trip away

This last weekend we finally made it for a desperately needed weekend getaway. Our dog sitter was nice enough to provide the woosie dog Atilla a warm place to stay while we were away... Thanks Kevin!

We set our sights on Monterey and headed down the freeway for warmer climates and oh yes.. it was warm. Saturday the weather was so nice... no wind, temperature in the 60's... yes... 60's in December........ah so nice. We checked in at our quaint little hotel, The Knights Inn, which had great reviews online and didn't look too bad. After entering the room it looked very nice, newly remodeled.. not bad at all............but.....

After checking in, we took a drive down the coast (Hwy 1) towards the Big Sur area and made a few stops along the way. The weather was perfect for taking pictures and we did........we took pictures... oh did we take pictures.

This photo is of the Bixby Bridge (built back in 1932) and of the coastline around the bridge. If you look carefully, you can see a home on the left near the point but what you cannot see is the wooden stairs that used to go down to the sea which appear to have been lost in a previous storm. Sorry but you couldn't have forced either of us down "those" stairs!

We continued south to Julia Pfeiffer State Park south of Big Sur and took in the sights and sounds of this waterfall that dumps into the ocean. By now it was approaching sunset and Chris was clicking away with her camera and caught these stunning photos. (I'm so proud)

Just as we were gathering to leave Chris told me to look behind me and wow, what a sight ... what a great finish to a beautiful day.

After the sun finally set we hopped back in the truck and headed north.. back to Monterey. If you have never been to Monterey, is partly a quaint city with great history along the bay and part tourist trap. It was founded back in the 1700's and since I could never do its' history justice, read all about it here:http://www.monterey.org/museum/history.html. The city has a beautiful shoreline with trails for walking and some great golf courses, most notably "Pebble Beach".

Saturday night was as not as much "fun" as the day had been. We found out that even though the room looked pretty decent, it let in all types of sounds which include the non-stop traffic and our neighbors. Most of the affordable hotels in Monterey are along a couple strips and are just above "dive" in quality and they all face the busy streets so you will have noise. Visiting in the winter in the best time in our opinion because not only is there less traffic, the hotels prices are 1/4 to 1/3 of the summer prices!! Oh yeah, back to our hotel..... The best part of the whole hotel.. was the floor! Yes.. the floor was the most entertaining thing. During the hotel remodeling they put in marble or marble-like tiling in the bathroom area. Invisible to our naked eye however, these tiles were cooled with 0 Kelvin cooling systems that made you either wear shoes or hop around like a idiot and since shoes would just be silly.......

Sunday rolled around after a long night in a noisy hotel and we hit the road again. Heading back South again on Hwy 1 we had to stop near Carmel (again a quaint little sea side town known best for architecture of local homes). But back to the story.... we had to stop at the Black Bear Diner for breakfast......if you have never been to one........ go there (enough said).

Sunday we stopped at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and walked through the red woods and snapped a couple photos Pfeiffer waterfall. This is one of our favorites from the location.

Our last stop before heading home was a quick visit to Point Lobos State Preserve. This area along the coast was set aside back in the early 1900's due in part to its' unique trees, the Monterey Cypress, found nowhere else in the world. The preserve is as much an underwater preserve as well, popular for scuba divers and other recreationalists. My favorite part is the rocks on the West end of the park where the seals hang out and bark like my dog Atilla!!! he he he

Happy Tripping!!!!

Big Announcement - Furniture!

Not much "interesting" has happened over the last 2 weeks other than getting adjusted to apartment life again. Chris and I were extremely excited for Saturday though as we had our sofa delivered. YES....... Up until now, the living room consisted of the TV, DVD player and a foam bed cushion. You would not believe how much we all take sofa's for granted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We spent almost the entire weekend watching movies on the new sofa.

Another exciting change has been the arrival of our child Atilla! He came to live with us last Saturday and oh what a change for the poor guy. He used to live in an apartment, then we moved to CA and he lived in a house for 4 years now he's back to an apartment again. The first few days Chris had a stalker, everywhere she went so did Atilla. Amazing how loving a dog can be when he's not sure what is going on! He's getting more settled now though and we are all much happier to have a relaxed dog even ....er cat........er dog.......well, whatever the furball is. One little happy family.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is almost here already? I hope you are aware of the great things in your life that you can be grateful for........my list just goes on and one and keeps getting longer! If I'm slow to post, Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm happy to announce that the hardest part of moving into the new apartment is over!!! Schewwww...... Now once the sore muscles, sprained ankles and pinched nerves go away we'll be able to stand upright again and go out in public. Oh, it wasn't that bad and we survived and we're both very happy to actually see each other on a daily basis.


Obviously for good reason I won't post our new mailing address or phone number here but if somehow forget to send it to you and you want to contact us, please send us an email and we'll fire that information off to you.


Yes I know..... you have read to the end of the entry already and are yearning for more and thinking "is that it?" but unfortunately that is all for the moment. We will try to get more relavant news posted soon.


Cheers!!!!

It Finally Rained!!!

Happy October 1st everyone and oh how it started. Today Chris and I were driving around, she said, "You know the first of the month is lucky". Oh how she was right. At that time, we were off to tour an apartment complex in Pleasanton, CA that would take dogs and... people too! I knew where we were driving and Chris did too and she was driving.. I was riding and to my surprise we went right on past where I knew we were going. On we went, over around a couple left turns down the straight-away and finally to our destination which was NOT where we were planning to go. Chris thought she had been to the complex we were enroute to fortunately for us both, she took us to a place she and her mother had visited last year.


We decided, hey, we're here lets take a look at the place and see how nice the apartments are, the parking, the amenities and of course the most important and scary thing - the price. Before the day was over, we had done it, our first place together!! Soooooo exciting. And to top if off, we received some rain too, the first rain I can recall since April or May. Yes, as you can see the month started out with a surprise. We move in at the end of the month so if anyone has any extra "C" notes lying around feel free to send them our way for those good old move-in deposits!

As always I loooove to share our photos so here are a couple from this Spring in Yosemite National Park. The first photo is of Yosemite Falls and the later is obviously a photo of Chris and I (I am the one on the right!) with Bridal Veil falls in the distant.

October is Almost Here

Wow, can you believe October is almost here? Where does the time go? This past week was not an exciting week and "if" we are able to squeeze in some traveling, it will have to happen tomorrow.

Since we have nothing "new" to share, we will share something from our Labor Day journey! We had the opportunit to visit a new area for us, the Lassen Volcanic National Park in north central California. The area is a highly active geothermal area, similar but in a much smaller scale than Yellowstone. Mount Lassen last erupted in 1917 so we are seeing history in the making, the trees in some areas are almost 90 years young and luckily for us, humans were there taking photo's in 1917 as well. It is a scenic area, there are great views and some creatures for the viewing though the word "wild" doesn't exactly apply to them all.














While in the park, we took a nice walk around Manzanita Lake on the West side of the mountain. Chris took a beautiful photo of the peak which I feel is worthy of sharing... so enjoy and imagine yourself there!



On our return trip home we decided to take the scenic route across the state to the West and down Hwy 101 through Humboldt Redwood State Park. Now if you have never seen large Redwood trees, there is no way to truely describe them and photos will never do them justice. Some of these trees are 2000-3000 years old and are large enough that in the past, some parks felt cutting a tunnel for cars was the impressive thing to do. Though it is impressive in one way it is saddening in another. Here is another photo that shows the scale of these massive trees, though the photo is not a great shot, my pickup in the background is about 18 1/2 feet long and those are just the average trees! It is humbling, awe inspiring and calming just to be amoungst them.........

Thank you for checking in, happy traveling!

The dog days of summer......

Well they are almost over but Atilla is looking forward to the cooler weather. As you can see by the photo, the poor furry guy has been waiting all summer for the weather to cool off.

He's just hoping there is a move in the near future to a climate more appropriate than the temperatures in the central valley of Cali! When that happens, we will be sure to let you know.

Visit from Chris P

This last week Mark was lucky enough to have a friend from Wyoming visit. Chris P. was in the area for a training class and spent the week in the area which allowed us to treat him to some local cuisine and show him some sights. Although we did not get to see enough of him, it was great to get together and re-hash some old experiences as well as catch up on some of the newer events in our lives. Next time, hopefully he will visit with his family! Thanks for the visit Chris P!

You can visit Chris's Blog at Chris's Blogspot

Greetings Friends and Family

Welcome to the inaugural posting for our new web site intended to keep everyone up to date with activities in our lives and a place to share some of our thoughts and photos.

Thanks for joining us!