Getting started

My friend Cynthia went with me to a conference in Monterey, California this week. I had been wanting to start a blog. We took our laptops and she helped me with the basics.

We had a great time. Monday we flew into San Jose and then drove to Monterey. It was a beautiful ride. The sky was clear and blue; the weather was crisp and pleasant. After checking in at the hotel, we drove to Carmel. What a fun and quaint place. We had lunch on the patio at a small restaurant. We had been walking around around and checking out the shops and asked one of the salespersons for a recommendation for a place to have lunch. She didn't steer us wrong. I had a turkey sandwich on ciabatta bread with an oven roasted tomato, lettuce, with cheese and pesto. Cynthia had a blackened chicken salad. Both meals were tasty.

After lunch we continued our reconnaissance mission. We had a map but still ended up walking all around the small village several times. (Exercise points!) I found a cool purse made out of a license plate, with lots of crystals added to it. The plate from Hawaii and the registration tab on it was dated October 2006. That was the month that I was diagnosed with breast cancer and that seemed prophetic. It was very tempting but also very expensive. I decided to continue my browsing before I made a final decision. We checked out a place that specialized in comfortable shoes from around the world. I had never heard of many of the brands. There was a fun brown suede pair that were trying to get me to take them home with me.

We went to a pen and paper shop called Bittner's. I fell in love with a white Omas fountain pen and all thoughts of the license plate purse or the comfortable shoes went by the wayside. I bought the pen, some olive green ink, some purple ink, and a pad of wonderful paper. It is so smooth! The pen just glides across it.

We finished the day eating French pastries while sitting on a rock watching the sunset. I took this picture at the beach

That night we went to dinner on the wharf in Monterey. We ate at the Old Fish Grotto. I had paella. It was delicious with mussels, clams, shrimp, oysters, scallops, and a lobster tail. It brought back memories of the paella that my mother used to make.

On Tuesday afternoon, we went to a street fair a block from the hotel. The registration clerk at the hotel had told us about it when we checked in. Another great recommendation! We could smell the aroma of the cooking food as we walked towards the fair. There was lots of local produce and flowers. We tasted samples of apples, strawberries, blood oranges and other healthy goodies. We bought some nuts and strawberries for later.

The registration guy had given us a second recommendation, the Monterey Fish House. We had dinner there Tuesday night. As soon as we arrived, we knew that the food was going to be good. It was a small homey place that was crowded on a weeknight out of season. The food was fabulous! We had a cup of clam chowder and then split two appetizers: oak grilled oysters and marinated grilled calamari. The calamari had a wonderful, unusual smoky flavor from the grill.

It was an early morning today to get back to the airport and go through security. The drive from Monterey back to the San Jose Airport seemed shorter than when we had been traveling the other direction on Monday. It was a quick flight back to Ontario, and the adventure was over until next time.