Trip

I've been away from politics for the past few days and feel better for it. In the meantime the wife and I visited Pacific Grove, Monterey, Sand City, and had our fill of seafood in some great restaurants. We did quite a number of things at the last second and two of them included taking in the new Indiana Jones movie, and going on a whale watching tour.

First, we stayed at a quaint little cottage in Pacific Grove, and I brought the portable DVD player from home. We watched some teleseries and the entire Tom Selleck-as-Jesse Stone film series -- instead of insipid broadcast TV, when we were in the room at night. Weather-wise, the days were primarily overcast with one specific exception: Monday.

We spent that day rambling about Monterey's Fisherman's Wharf and the muni pier then, at the last moment, decided we'd take the final whale-watching cruise offered by a charter at the end of the wharf, Monterey Whale Watching -- their 5:30 cruise.

We watched whales sounding from some distance away and then had three of them magically appear directly adjacent the boat. Try as I might, I mostly couldn't catch the whales conducting their most dynamic actions at the proper point in time. These few photos were my best take.

In all, it was a relaxing time and, oddly enough, traffic was half of what I expected.

There was one low point, however: the Monterey Bay Aquarium itself, on Sunday. Packed. Crammed. Asshole-to-elbow. And every illegal immigrant brought their Screaming Child. Hell, I have to be honest: every ethnicity brought their bevy of squalling children. Ahhh. My very own Private Hell. One visit mostly ruined by rude parents coddling ungoverned spawn.

But with that slight exception, the trip was quiet, calm, centered, relaxing.

How was your Memorial Day?

BZ