WHALE WATCHING

This past Monday & Tuesday we made an impromptu trip to Monterey with two goals in mind – take a whale watching boat tour & see the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Carmel that we missed last time.  Both were accomplished along with some hiking at Point Lobos State Reserve.

A Frank Lloyd Wright designed home on the ocean in Carmel.

Once again, Lou found someplace we’ve driven by many times but never visited. Point Lobos turned out to be a highlight of our quick trip.  We spent about three hours of easy hiking through a Monterey Cypress grove, seeing sea lions, birds & harbor seals as well as beautiful coves & rocks.

Scenery along the cliffs in Point Lobos State Reserve.

I love gnarly old trees!

A harbor seal & a sea gull taking an afternoon snooze.



Some more of the gorgeous scenery along the trails.

The kelp beneath the blue green water made for an interesting photo op.

This harbor seal looked up on cue to have his picture taken - cute.

A cave formation & a see through arch offshore from Carmel.

There had to be at least one flower that caught my attention. :-)

An historic whaling cabin near an old abalone cannery.

After a great dinner at Bubba Gump’s on Cannery Row & a free night at the Comfort Inn (with credit card points), we headed to Old Fisherman’s Wharf for our whale watching trip – a three hour tour. Fortunately, we fared better than Gilligan & friends returning uneventfully to the dock.

The main street along Cannery Row with its shops & restaurants.

Our whale watching boat as we waited to board.

We saw several humpback whales who put on quite a show. After the first couple of attempts at photos, I gave up & just watched them. Lou kept at it & got a couple of pictures to at least prove we did see them. One time, three of them came up near our boat & we could hear them breathing!  What an experience!

Lou waiting for the journey to begin.

Me looking for the next whale sighting.

Here is a glimpse of a whale tail that Lou caught on film (or is it pixels now?)

One of the larger humpbacks as he surfaced for some air.

Of course, I couldn’t resist lots of boat & harbor photos.  Here are a few of them.





The sea lions relaxing on the harbor rocks.

These guys look like a sculpture but they were real.

We ended our two day getaway with a visit to the Museum of Monterey to see an exhibit from the Monterey Pop Festival that I attended 45 years ago – yikes, am I old!

This was Janis Joplin's dining room table & chair.



Of all the fabulous bands at the festival, I only saw Ravi Shankar. Geez, what a waste! Oh, well, at least I can say I was there.



MANY FACES OF CHARLEY ELLEN

Only in my wildest dreams could I have imagined being this blessed!  After 11 years of living 100 miles away from my son & daughter-in-law, they are now a mere 10 miles away. And, best of all, my adorable little granddaughter, Charley Ellen, is in my life on a weekly basis. 

Charley is now ten months old. She rolls, scoots & commando crawls to get where she wants to go.

My passion in life was being a full time, stay-at-home-mom.  Allison has made the decision to be a SAHM (just learned this acronym!) with Darrin’s full support.  There is now a name for much of what I muddled through on my own – attachment parenting.  Allison has taken raising Charley to a whole new art form compared to my efforts 36 years ago & I couldn’t be happier for all of us! They are fantastic parents!

Nothing in my life has come close to equaling my love for being a mom until I was honored with being “Oma”.  I cannot tell you the joy that I feel to sit on the floor & play with Charley.  Or the way my heart melts when that little girl smiles at me.  Or the pure love that envelops me when she reaches out her arms to come to me.

Of course, I offer to watch Charley as often as I can to let Allison do some things without a baby strapped to her.  We have settled into a sort of routine of me heading to their house when Charley wakes from her morning nap (I wait for my “she’s awake!” text) then arrive to feed her lunch followed by our play time. 

On one such occasion last week, I brought along my camera.

My little sweetie pie is all of about 15 pounds now & she is just so dang cute!

Charley playing peek-a-boo. She thinks when she covers her head we can't see her - adorable!