Lontano In Vacanza!

Whilst the rest of the United Snakes of America wrestles with snow, ice, freezing rain, bad traffic, delayed borborigmus, flatulence, flooding, power outages, ice storms and Ebola -- the wife and I are celebrating our fourth anniversary (on Valentine's Day) at the Monterey Bay Inn, overlooking the wondrous and stellar Monterey Bay in bereft Fornicalia.

Last night we partook of Bubba Gump's (a simple but guilty pleasure), hosted by the effervescent Chantal. We strolled Cannery Row at night with minimal crowds. We fell asleep on the pillow-top bed to the sound of waves crashing -- as you can see -- literally and directly below the veranda.

Monday morning, we were greeted with seals barking, gulls singing and the sight of a fleet of otters, floating amidst the kelp, bobbing on cerulean waves. The sky was blue, the sea was green, clouds scudded past. We are here, in the fourth (top) floor corner suite, until this coming Sunday. There may be some rain on the horizon but, at this point, we don't much care. As you can see, we've had some feathered guests drop occasionally by.

Earlier today (Monday) we stopped at REI in Marina and purchased a pair of Vibram FiveFingers for my wife. I'm a little hesitant to do so for myself but, trooper that she is, she wore them for a good four hours after the purchase. They're not cheap; $90 for this pair. There is a separate "cloven hoof" model for State of Fornicalia politicians. They cost three times as much but, no problem, they're paid by taxpayer dollars.

We hit the Borders in Marina as well, and stocked up with some new books: The Fallen (Parts 1 & 2) for my wife, and T. Jefferson Parker's Iron River in trade paperback for me.

Tonight we're ordering room service from Schooners. Or perhaps some local pizza. We haven't yet decided.

The view is incredible. We can see directly across the bay to both Moss Landing (with its two huge towers) and, further to the west, Santa Cruz -- where I once worked for the S.O. But that's another story entirely.

Uh-oh. Knock at the door. Pizza's here. Gotta go.

BZ

[Click on photos to enlarge them significantly.]