Hofsas House Hotel Bed And Breakfast Carmel

... more ideas to make the Floride trip easier; don't forget the pot to make coffee & tea and find more comfortable mattresses for under our sleeping bags. Shona slept like a dog.

Shona still thinks she is going to the vet (alittle anxious) everytime she gets into the car. But she settled down and did great at the camp site.

Can't wait to start the trip. Florida or bust!

Finally left the noisy dorm room yay. Saw some massive waves along the coast towards Monterey. Stopped off in Santa Cruz, not much going on in Fall! Apparently it's wooden rollercoaster is a national monument! Got to Monterey and found a visitor centre for a map. Hotel man upgraded us to a deluxe king, had a microwave and a fridge! Watched lots of TV ...

... visited an old country estate previously lived in by Clint Eastwood (who still owns it btw) which is known as the ranch with old fashioned buildings with a few acres of farmland out front.

We just had time to visit the Monterey aquarium which is one of the must see aquariums in the country. It has a huge living kelp tank 28 feet tall with variety of sea life, we also managed to capture a live feeding session here. The lady on reception let ...

... succulents", and more flower types than we know how to identify. Also saw several crabs in one of the tide pools, including two little hermit crabs that got into a pinching fight over the same little cave in the rock. And there was a clicking noise all around those pools that I suspect was being made by those crabs. Saw a couple of anemones, but not nearly as many or as colorful as the ones I saw at Endert's Beach last year. Saw one ...

... waves weren't that high and the water was freezing! We walked back through the town. Carmel seems to be big on artsy and upmarket shops. They are not very big on nationwide chains, fast food etc. It looks like they have a very strict planning department that means people can only build traditional low rise, traditional style housing and buildings We went back to the Wayfarer and sat down ...

... and head out of San Fran. We tried to navigate an easy route but were thwarted at every turn by one way streets! Our intention was to go down one of the busiest roads in San Fran, why I don't know, cable cars and streetcars everywhere, not to mention the taxis going at a zillion miles an hour,but our plans were changed at every corner. In the end we circumnavigated San Fran but did see some sights we hadn't seen so it wasn't all bad. Just like the song goes, we left our ...

... houses opposite the beach. We ended up at a huge bay which was packed with surfers.

















Further south was the beautiful ...

Next morning, we h*d to be out of our c*mpsite by 11 *m, being the weekend crowds were coming in to get the spots they reserved months *go. Soooo, b*ck on the ro*d *g*in. It w*s drizzly, but cool, so th*t w*s ok*y. Couldn't see the Olympic Mount*ins, but by then we were getting tired of sightseeing, it w*s, oh look, nice tree. And hey, *nother l*ke! And, wh*t mount*in is th*t, never mind... Hey, * pl*ce to see * gi*nt ced*r, *nyone w*nt to see the gi*nt ced*r? No, it's just * re*lly big ...

... enough time and that I'd better spend next year (or better yet, the next two) getting fluent in Korean. This advice was echoed by Bruce Cummings, the top Korean history scholar in the English speaking world, when I sent an e-mail to him regarding graduate studies. Though other professors I e-mailed said that I could probably learn the language while doing graduate work, I'm inclined to believe my advisor and Professor Cummings. I checked out the requirements for a history ...