October 16, 2011

Unknown flower on growing on the deck

View from the desk of Sooke Harbour

Squinting in the sun.

Did I mention that the weather in October was magnificent?  Start with a dollop of that, add a whiff of a seasonal offer, and throw in a gift certificate that is 4 years old and ... presto! ... we have the perfect combination for a mini-vacation at the Sooke Harbour House in Sooke BC.

Yup.  A beautiful 1-hour drive out to Sooke with all the fall colours, check-in shortly after 3 pm, tea on the patio, 3-course gourmet locally produced dinner starting at 5:30, and followed by dessert in front of the large roaring fire before retiring to our room.  We might have eaten too much, but it truly was too good to leave behind.

Sooke Harbour House - dining room on the main floor, our room above the red doors.

View from our room. Sigh.

A happy place.

After dinner, we turned out all the lights and lit the fire, and just sat there talking and watching it burn.  After a wonderful sleep, they bring breakfast to your room!  What a way to start the day .... checkout wasn't until noon.

Carmel to Berkeley to Vancouver

Alice's Restaurant

This is a photo of miss Judith outside of Chez Panisse. We stopped in to see Amanda's good friend Alice. We invited Rita "the other woman" because Amanda had a previous engagement on the island that kept her from our lunch date. It was lucky "Rita" came, otherwise we would have ended up in Oakland. I just cannot live without my "Rita" anymore, even if Judith and "Rita" fight over directions the whole time! I mean come on we all need a personal "navigator" sometimes.

Alice was crushed Amanda wasn't with us, and like Alice had done many times before she just rolled her eyes and said "When will that Rob learn to prepare his own lunch so Amanda can stop by for a visit"

After the A6 and "Rita" took us up the coastal highway with a stop at Halfmoon Bay at the greatest little deli, before hitting Berkeley for the above photo op, we came across something people kept referring to as traffic.

Wholly *&^% was it thick. We had to take these photos to show people where we live as they just wouldn't believe it otherwise. Rush hour for us at home means you actually have to stop at the one stop sign in the community. Off course the A6 and "Rita" new just what to do, regardless of what Judith read on her map. "Rita" had to take over once and for all after Judith navigated us into Oakland, for a lovely tour. Again I spent my time keeping the peace between Judith and "Rita"!

Big Sur and Carmel Beach

The Normandy Inn in Carmel is the place to see and be scene! It is old, old enough to have been the summer place of many famous people which includes Judith as of last week. You name someone cool, and they have hit the pillow at the Normandy! Carmel is full of all this old Inns and boutique hotels. The town of Carmel is certainly nice, but I assume it was even better sixty plus years ago before total gentrification! The beach is and will always be just the way it was, so that is really special, no homes or businesses to crowd your view as you wander the endless sandy shores.

"Rita", Judith and I headed down the coast on day four of our honeymoon as far as Big Sur, and we ran into this landmark cliff side restaurant with this amazing fire (pit) place and a view that was second to none. I took this picture of the fire place to remind us as we design our next house around a similar feature. I used to think it would be funny to have a car in the living room, but this seems much more mature and useful. Big Sur has done a great job of maintaining the "back to the land" vibe and I would consider the culture and lifestyle similar to what we find around us at home so we felt right at home as we wandered around. Unfortunately for us we didn't go to the hot springs in Big Sur, so we will have to go back soon.

This is Judith taking a break from "Rita" and enjoying the beach. The beaches are endless and as you can see it was as clear as the eye could see and warm. I miss the warmth just thinking about it!

San Jose to Monterey to Carmel

We spent Monday traveling under the warm Californian sun from North Star to Los Altos through the mountains, with several stops including Fry's Electronics , and In and Out Burger We arrived in time for a visit with Louise before we made our way out to rent a car (see above photo) at the San Jose Airport early the next morning.

The treasure wanted nothing but the best of course! So I was going to have to make due with an Audi A6 (AKA Life support system for Rita)!!

This A6 bad girl came with all the trimmings, and I mean everything. You name anything and this sucker had one, or two, or even three in some cases, including a personal built in navigator and back up camera (Jane you will never have to turn your head again) just for starters. As someone pointed out you need a "computer science" degree to take advantage of all the features in this vehicle. It was not till I discovered the manual shift override before things got real interesting, well the rest is history! We quickly made friends with "Rita" the personal Hertz navigator, and off we went down the highway towards Monterey and back to day three of our honeymoon!
Ann insisted we went to the Monterey Aquarium and as always, Ann was right the Jellies are not to be missed if you're in Monterey. The Aquarium was endless complete with the best views Monterey has to offer, even for us spoiled west coasters.

The above photo is a tank with huge Jellies, lite with blue lights. You could easily spend days just watching this one tank. They also had a new shore birds exhibit which was equally as interesting and worth a day on its own.

Monterey must be the volunteer capital of the world. I am convinced everyone over that "age" volunteers at the Aquarium. Every time Judith asked me a question someone with a reference book was standing within earshot to offer some information.
The above photo is Judith being upset by "Rita" and insisting she gets to decide the route to Carmel and wouldn't get in the car until "Rita" was turned off. I guess the term riding shotgun will have to be redefined to keep Judith and "Rita" from fighting the whole trip.

After a while the girls came to an understanding and we headed back out on the road to Pebble Beach in honour of the Fletcher clan.

I was not at all surprised when we pulled up to the "Lodge" and the poperatsy ran up to the car when they saw Judith getting out. "Rita" of course was not impressed with all the attention Judith was getting so I had to keep the peace until things settled down.

Judith was in her element working the crowd, smiling, and laughing and telling tall tales of when she shot 20 under par at the island open last summer. Of course the poperatsy wanted to know what Jane is doing since she left the tour last year and kept asking when the next generation of Fletcher girls will hit the links driving for show, and putting for the dough!

After Judith signed autographs and meet with her people we carried on to Carmel for dinner at Pepe's with the beautiful people. The waitress recognized Judith right away, so we ended up in the VIP area drinking Limoncello and telling stories about skiing around the world with our Portland friends after eating our way around southern Italy.

One of the dinner guests was contemplating giving up skiing (he is 80) this year. Of course we all talked him out of this crazy idea, and Judith promised to ski a run with him, which of course made his day.