Spring trips: Monterey

I'm in the middle of a ridiculous string of consecutive weekends traveling:

5/10 - Houston, for Blanc's wedding
5/17 - NYC, for Alix's graduation
5/24 - Monterey, to visit with my sister and my brother
5/31 - LA, for Gina's wedding
6/7 - NYC, for my birthday and Keiko and my 1 yr anniversary of our 1st date
6/14 - NYC, for Alexandra's graduation
6/21 - NYC, for my annual Director's meeting at work

I am racking up the frequent flyer points on JetBlue, let me tell you. In fact, the 5/17 trip to NYC was free. I haven't written about the Monterey trip, so I'll do that now...

Keiko came in Wed night; it works out that the evening JetBlue flight out of JFK gets in around midnight, well after my last Wed night lesson ends. We crashed early, since my sister and her husband Dan were arriving late the next morning. Now, the original plan had us all heading straight to Half Moon Bay and having lunch there, but if you recall from my post about the NYC trip, I had slept through my flight, and as a consequence had to move a lesson onto Thursday at lunchtime. So, the trip got off to a somewhat inauspicious start when (a) we were 20 minutes late picking up Dan and my sister, and (b) I had to tell them to amuse themselves in downtown Palo Alto for a couple hours while I tutored.

Apparently, the 3 of them had a nice lunch somewhere, and when I was done we headed to HMB to pick up stuff for the trip. We had decided to take the coastal route down the PCH all the way to Monterey, which is a gorgeous drive. Because of our late departure, we hit traffic, and ended up barely making it down to the Martine Inn in Monterey just barely in time to change clothes and head to our dinner reservation. Since my sister was a party to this trip, we had fancy things like dinner reservations and itineraries of what we were doing on a given day. All that structure's a little much for me, but hey, I'm flexible.


The view from the front of the Martine Inn.












Sadly, I'd forgotten to print out directions to the restaurant, and the verbal directions involved a tunnel, and a street we couldn't find. But we knew it was near the wharf, wherever that was, so I just hugged the coast as much as possible, and we eventually blundered into the place, a mere 25 minutes late for our reservation. For me, this is a solid performance.

Fortunately, it's Thursday night, so the restaurant wasn't too packed, and we got seated. The food was yummy- a lot of seafood, predictably, but the best part was watching Dan attempt to get help choosing an entree from the waiter.


Dan: "Excuse me, I'm trying to choose between [entree A] and [entree B]. Can you recommend one of them to me?"

Waiter: "Well, is there one in particular you're leaning toward?"

Dan (looking confused): "Well, no, that's the problem. Which one is better?"

Waiter: "'Cause if there's one you're leaning toward, you should go with that."

Dan: "Uh, true, but-"

Waiter: "Which one jumped out at you first? That's probably the one you should go with."

Dan: "Well, technically entree A, but that's becau-"

Waiter: "Then I'd recommend that one, since it jumped out at you first."

Dan: "-se it's the first thing on the menu, so of course you see it fir- you know what, I'll just take entree A. Thanks."


Laszlo has a theory that you can tell the direction of the overall macroeconomy by examining the quality of service in places like restaurants and big box stores. When the economy is doing well, smarter, more skilled people get the better jobs, leaving all the entry level service jobs for, not to put too fine a point on it, dumb people. And dumb people are terrible at customer service. When the economy is doing shitty, smart people start losing better jobs, and supplanting the dumb people in the entry level service jobs. But smart people make for much better customer service.

Based on this theory, our experience in the restaurant says that the economy should be turning the corner any day now.

After knocking back a bunch of food and a bottle of wine, we headed back to the inn and turned in early. Keiko and I were particularly looking forward to the first part of Friday's itinerary, which I had lobbied hard for: sleeping in. Although we have a mutual fondness for Bed & Breakfasts, our track record for getting up in time to attend breakfast is pretty dismal, and Friday was no exception. So we had little food in our bellies as we headed out for item 2 on the itinerary: Monterey county wine tasting.

The first place we went was Chateau Julien, which had gorgeous grounds, and, I must say, decidely mediocre wine. We were all pretty disappointed. But the next place, Bernardus, was a jackpot. Everything tasted good, and some of it was really good, so Keiko bought me a couple bottles for my birthday and we headed to their restaurant for a late lunch.

Chateau Julien
















Dan and my sister at Chateau Julien












Lunch at Bernardus was great, sitting outdoors in the sun, sipping awesome wine, etc. When we were done we realized we were all ready for a nap, so we headed back to the Martine Inn. Of course, being me, once there I got sidetracked by the 1950's era race cars that the owner of the Inn has stashed in a garage on the property, and then by exploring all the various halls and passages that led to other rooms, and then by the secret door that was hidden behind a giant mirror, which I believe leads into the wing of the building that the owner lives in, and then by the old pool table in the salon, where I dispatched Keiko a couple of times [for the record, she's actually pretty good], and then by the early evening wine & cheese that the Inn serves, and then by the sea lions that you can see playing in the water from the big bay windows in the room where they serve the wine & cheese. In short, ADD = no nap.


Sea lions on the beach by the Inn. These creatures understand how to live.











Check out that rack...













Eventually, it was time to get ready for dinner. When I said earlier that I'd forgotten to print out directions to the restaurant Thursday night, what I meant by that was that I'd forgotten to print out directions to every place we were going that weekend. Fortunately, this restaurant was actually situated on the wharf itself, and we'd discovered how to get into that area the night before, so we were only about 10 minutes late for this reservation, owing largely to having to park on the other side of the earth.

As you might guess, this was another place that largely served seafood, but I found some great pasta and had that. And we could see sea lions playing in the water as we watched the sun set. That, plus great champagne, made for another great meal.

After the meal, we were slated to head to the theatre to watch the Chronicles of Narnia. What transpired was a 45 minute blundering about of the entire Monterey peninsula, asking several different people where the giant mall with the giant theatre complex was, with no one giving even remotely helpful directions, until we realized what we really needed right then:

A teenager.

Sure enough, at the closest coffeeshop a 16 year boy gave us perfect directions to the mall/theatre, and we managed to get in just as the movie started. For the record, it was quite good. I really enjoyed the books when I read them as a kid, and I'm thus far enjoying the conversion to a cinematic format.

From there, we awaited the arrival of my little brother Mikie, and his new girlfriend Nini. No one in the family had yet met Nini, so my sister and I were very much looking forward to this. Mikie, you see, is a bit of a player, and he doesn't very often acquire GF's, nor keep them for terribly long when he does acquire them. For several years now, my sister had spoken wistfully of Mikie's last GF, "Darlene- Such A Nice Girl!" [henceforth referred to as Darlene-SANG] Well, she didn't last because Mikie, in a bold show of caring and empathy, helped Darlene-SANG's parents plan a surprise 21st birthday for her, and then that night, at around 10pm, after all the other guests had arrived, Mikie called up to say that he was on South Padre Island with his frat buddies, because it was his last possible frat event (he was about to graduate from college).

Naturally, Darlene-SANG was a bit upset by this. Crushed, really. Which, BTW, Mikie had a hard time fathoming. My sister felt so embarrassed for Mikie that she sent Darlene-SANG flowers on his behalf. But that was really the beginning of a pretty quick ending for that relationship.

My personal favorite Mikie story occurs a couple years earlier, when he and I were both home for the holidays. He and I were staying down in Willie's room, in the cat-shit-smelling basement, while Willie crashed at some of his stoner friends' places. This was not an imposition on Willie- he was a lot like an outdoor cat. He would disappear for days on end, and so you just put out some pizza rolls on a plate and eventually he'd turn up hungry and eat them.

As I was walking back from the bathroom in the basement, to our shared bedroom, I could hear Mikie on the phone:

Mikie: "Dude, if you're not comin', then it's just me and Nana [his best friend] and like 6 or 8 chicks in the hot tub tonight."

(pause as friend presumably is speaking...)

Mikie: "Well don't you worry about that, 'cause Big Daddy M can handle those ladies..."

Me: "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"

I was rolling on the floor- I nearly burst something. BIG DADDY M??? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Mikie was seriously annoyed.

Anyway, so Mikie had a new GF, and we were excited to meet her. They were driving up from San Diego, which is a pretty long drive, so they got in pretty late and we had to wait until Saturday morning to meet Nini. For the record, we like her. She is American, but grew up in Saudi Arabia, where her parents still work. She is smart, cute, and seems to be able to handle the Mikie-ness of Mikie, which is a pretty critical quality to have.

After meeting Nini, we went to grab lunch down by the Monterey Aquarium, which is awesome. Not the lunch, which was disappointing (I had disappointing fish & chips- Barbara's Fishtrap in HMB has the best fish & chips around), but the Aquarium. Our group broke down into the following components:

Me: happy to spend hours looking at all the exhibits, including putting my hands in the touch ponds to play with all kinds of slimy, scaly, bizarre-looking creatures of the sea

Keiko: happy to humor my desire to do the above, while keeping herself amused by taking pictures

Dan, my sister, Mikie, and Nini: bored after 90 min and ready to please-can-we-get-the-hell-out-of-here

I think we ended up spending 2.5 hours there, and I could easily have stayed longer. Fish are mesmerizing.


Jellyfish. I love this shot. It's quite good, which is how you know Keiko took it, not me.


















Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...













Funky cool eels...


















I kept waiting for one of them to tap dance, but no such luck. I think these penguins all have sad feet.











Sneaky dude, waiting patiently...














Look! Sea anemonemonemonees...










Sand dollars! Tons of 'em. It's like Nature created a giant, underwater, biological tip jar.

















Sharks are so badass. I totally want to be a shark, but lacking gills, the closest I could get is I-banking (uh, no thanks), or corporate law (I don't want to die inside).




After the aquarium, we headed back to the Inn because Keiko and I were moving over to the hotel Mikie and Nini were staying at, and my sister and Dan were moving to a super-fancy place further south. So after relocating everyone and getting changed for dinner, which was at the Bernardus winery again, at their other, nicer restaurant, we met at my sister's room for some pre-dinner wine and some NBA playoffs.


Me and Keiko, and the view from my sister's room.













Mikie and Nini.













Dinner at Bernardus was amazing. Definitely one of the best meals I've had in a long, long time. Although we knocked back a lot of wine, we managed to get ourselves to the theatre again for a late show of Indiana Jones. Now, I'm the easiest touch in cinema audiences- I'll believe anything you want. The world is being invaded by a giant army of tiny, man-eating, one-pawed cats with green feet from the planet Felinus? Sure, I'll believe that- I can see them now, hordes of them hopping by the Secret Service and eating Dick Cheney. Just make your story internally consistent. I was a little annoyed that with decades to think about it, the writers couldn't come up with a story that was even remotely internally consistent. That, and if I wanted to see the X Files movie, that's what I'd do.

Anyway, after the movie we headed back to our hotels, and the next day met back at my sister's place for a very nice brunch on the patio deck overlooking the cliffs and the ocean. Very nice. Then Mikie and Nini headed out for their long drive south, and Dan, my sister, Keiko, and I all headed back up to HMB.

Once there, we dropped Dan and my sister off at the Ritz Carlton ('cause that's how my sister rolls- don't say the rest of didn't warn you, Dan), and they opted for couples massages, etc. Keiko and I opted for that long-awaited nap. Then we went back down to the Ritz to meet them for a walk on the beach. We got sidetracked by a wedding, which my sister wanted to watch, presumably because she's a woman and therefore thinks weddings are inherently interesting. As a guy, I think weddings are inherently boring as shit, and only become interesting to the extent that you actually know the people getting married. But the grounds of the Ritz in HMB are stunning, and the weather was perfect, and so we watched some strangers get married before taking our walk on the beach.


The view from the beach at the Ritz-Carlton HMB.












That's the Ritz up on the cliff.













Me and Dan, killing time while my sister waits for strange WASPy people to get married.








From there, we headed down to Mezza Luna, in HMB's harbor (just down the road from Barbara's Fishtrap). I've noticed that every major city in America seems to have a "Mezza Luna" in it, but the one in HMB is most appropriate (just in case you're not up on your Italian, Mezza Luna = Half Moon). Dinner there was quite good, and involved more wine (we drank a shit ton of wine on this trip), but we decided to call it an early night after all the weekend's activities.

The next day, I was all set to drive Dan and my sister to San Jose airport. We planned to be there to pick them up at 10, but were running a little late and picked them up at 1015. Now, Dan is the kind of guy who gets antsy if he's only an hour early for his flight, so my plan was to arrive early enough to take scenic route 84 to the airport without causing undue stress. With our late arrival, that plan seemed tenuous, but I figured we'd still get them there a full hour early.

Of course, it had been quite a while since I'd driven scenic route 84, and I kinda forgot that although it travels the same net distance east/west as the 92, which is the usual way I get in and out of HMB, it is a WAY windier road, and so you can't travel nearly as fast on it. About 1/4 of the way up into the hills that separate the coast from Silicon Valley, I realized that this was actually going to be cutting it pretty close. But still, we should get them there 30-40 minutes early.

Then we ran into the construction.

It's a one-lane road each way, and our direction is closed for construction, so we have to wait what seems like 3 days before all the traffic coming the other way has cleared, and we can proceed to use the one remaining lane. Conversation, incidentally, has now ceased. I am focused on taking every turn as fast as humanly possible, while everyone else is focusing on trying not to reveal how stressed out they are.

When we finally get out of the hills, I am relieved, because now I can get us on the freeway, and make back some of the time. If I speed like mad, I can probably get us back up to 30 minutes early. I get on the freeway, and immediately kick it up to 90 mph, which is about as fast as my SUV can realistically go.

And so, as I come around the first turn on the highway since I got on, I nearly pass a CHP officer in the next lane while going 90. This would not be good, as I got a speeding ticket 7 months and 7 days ago as of this writing, meaning I still have 10 months and 23 days to go before I can get another speeding ticket without it staying on my record permanently. So I hit the brakes and just barely manage to avoid passing him.

Now I'm forced to get in behind him and match his pace. But it's a long way still to San Jose, so I figure sooner or later he's going to pull someone over, or get off the freeway, something.

Wrong.

In fact, he stays in front of me the entire way to the vicinity of San Jose airport, which means he costs me 6-8 minutes. That might not sound like a lot, but given how fine we're now cutting it, that's a significant amount of time.

We get to the airport with 18 minutes to go before their flight is scheduled to take off. We all jump out of the car, exchange superfast hugs, pass off the baggage, and then they run like crazy. Poor Dan had an expired license, which he had to use until the new one came in the mail, so he had to go through extra security, and so when they ran up to the counter, the gate agents were in the process of giving their seats away to standby passengers, which they were only just barely able to head off. But they made it. They got on the plane, and so did their bags, and the story ends well there. All in all, a great weekend.

BTW, I hope you will note that with a crazy dramatic airport arrival, we have yet another happy ending. This fits the pattern I've been establishing about the folly of showing up early to the airport. I'll have more to say about that in my next post- 3 trips to NYC.