home again, home again....

So we're home.
And the DogDogDog is also home (having been sprung from the kennel).
And the cats (who stayed at home, with my mom visiting) are still home and totally pissed.
Oh, yeah. And TheGecko is home, too....he stayed at TheMostImportantGuy's.

We're all present and accounted for.

And I'm feelin' kind tired!

We had a reallllllly bad last night at the fancy hotel, thanks very much to our upstairs neighbors. It was SO bad that I had to lodge a complaint around 10:30pm, not that it resolved anything. There were elephants running around up there until well past midnight, and they were at it again first thing this morning, too. The elephants were making bird calls out the windows at the crack of dawn, too. I am pretty sure it was kids up there. If it was adults, they should be ashamed of themselves. Heck, it was adults with kids they should be ashamed of themselves. I mean, I know we all have different styles of parenting, but.....I've trained and road-tested MyFK in Motel 6's and kid friendly hotels for years now leading up to a pricey boutique-y hotel, and I did that out of respect of my FELLOW GUESTS.

Anyhow. Complaints lodged. The manager was unavailable when I checked out this morning, but is supposed to follow up with me tomorrow. The hotel was amaaaaazing, and the staff was wonnnnnderful, but the people upstairs trumped. it. all. And that is a crying shame. I'd stay there again, but only on the top floor ;-)

During the morning phas of the elephants migrating, I was actually able to ingore it and let it roll off my back. Over another complimentary, on the silver tray, breakfast....delivered while I'm still in my cushy hotel bathrobe, thank you very much. Kinda takes the sting away.
Either that, or I was just brain dead from not getting enough sleep.

I'm off to bed here soon.
See y'all tomorrow.

monterey, part 2

Just as many photos as yesterday, I suppose.
I'm a couple of days behind on replying to comments, too...sorry...but I will take care of that as I soon as I post this.

Where did I leave off. Oh. We were heading out to dinner last night.

Wellp, MyFavoriteKid realllllly wanted to go The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., and since I knew that MrPickyPantsEater would be into the food there, I had no problem complying. Besides, I knew that they'd have a killer pomegranite margarita on tap for Mommy.

Now you know this place is gimmicky, and I know this place is gimmicky, but lemme tell you....MyFK thought this was one of the greatest places on earth, and I just got a hoot out of watching him enjoy it.

He has just seen the movie for the first time this past year, I think, and so every single item in the place was a novelty for him. The list of every dish you can make out of shrimp is painted on the wall, the cocktail menu is on a ping-pong paddle, there are framed "family photos" of Lt.Dan on the wall, plus display cases with various costumes from the movie, etc. The waitress came by and asked him trivia questions, and he knew all the answers. It was pretty comical.

(And that's all I got to say about that.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, so this morning it was complimentary breakfast in the room.
Sweet. (I never want to leave this place, I tell ya').

Then off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It would seem that perhaps we spent an unusual amount of time there. An employee that we had seen early in the morning caught us later in the afternoon and said, "Wow, I can't believe you guys are still here! Having fun?"
And I couldn't believe how we could NOT still be there.
There was SO much to see, and if you really do stop and look, and take the time to read stuff, and see feedings, and talk to the people that work there so you actually learn something, well.....honestly, I dont know how you couldn't be there for as long as we were. We didnt even give the final section a thorough pass because we were so wiped out!

What we were most excited to see was the new Sea Horse Exhibit.

There's the type of seahorse we were expecting. The more "typical", yah?

But get a load of THIS guy:

And you should see him when he's hiding in the seaweed!
(okay, well I guess in that case, you would NOT be seeing him)

We caught several feedings, our favorite being the Outer Bay Exhibit and the "fast feeders" (dorado, tuna, barracuda, etc). But we also really like watching the Sea Otters chow down.

Hey, and I learned something new. Did you know that River Otters mark their territory with "spraint"?! As in, like, "it's kinda like sprayin'? but it AINT?!"


They actually had a sample whiff for you to take, if you can believe it---hahaha.
(not pleasant)

My favorite exhibit, just as it was the last time I came here, what...8 years or so ago?
The jellyfish exhibit.


One thing that is really great about the Monterey Bay Aquariium is that half the place is rigged up on webcams, so you can check it out yourself, too---right there from wherever you are ;-)

Okay, so after the Aquarium it was a rest at the hotel, some more wine and cheese, some more walking around the 'hood, and another dinner out. We head home tomorrow, but for tonight, we're enjoying the place.



Way fun :-)

spoiled rotten

This post will piss you off if you:
a) have dial-up and/or do not like photo-laden entries
b) are irked by the non-frugal

MyFavoriteKid and I are in Monterey Bay for a couple of nights, primarily to visit the Aquarium. I had one free adult ticket, compliments of TheBon, and I was able to get the kid's ticket cheaply by way of AAA. Every year I save up some money for summer happenings, and this year I did not send MyFK to daycamp, nor did I make any substantial travel plans....so, I decided to splurge on the hotel for this trip.

We're at the Spindrift Inn, right on Cannery Row, just a block or two from the Aquarium.

The bonus for me is that we're so in the thick of it, that I wont even need my car. Yay for that. It is pretty quiet even though we are on a busy street because I put us on the ocean side.


We're on the second floor, center.

The room is pretty lavish. Fireplace, featherbeds, big screen tv, marble baths with robes, etc...
There's a bay window with a bench seat overlooking the beach.


And complimentary binoculars, even.


We went exploring around the building (it's neat, because it's an old one), and found out there is a rooftop garden.



And then there's the complimentary wine and cheese in the lobby thang...


Ummmmm.....yah.....so....we're kinda living it up here.

We're doing the Aquarium tomorrow, so for the afternoon we tripped around the Cannery Row shops. We mostly cruised the art galleries here (there are many). Every single time I ducked into one, MyFK whined, but once he got inside, he dug every single one of them. He really spent time with the art he liked, commenting on it and all. Same with the art he didn't like, actually LOL.

We hung out on a pier and checked out some of the wildlife (not very good pics, but there are sea lions out there on those rocks)....



I found one of those stores that only sells socks, and well....I just LOVE socks....the crazier the better. I was mostly enjoying the fact that many of them had "Engrish" labels (here's just one, as an example):

And then last, but not least, we ended our shopping tour at this gem and crystal shop. MyFK kinda has a collection going. He's been doing it since he was a kid. He was so into it, that the lady behind the counter gave him a big fat discount and omitted sales tax, and even tossed in a free gemstone. She loved him. But not as much as we loved her dog.


That is Ozzie, and ohhhh my gawd he was just the sweetest thing on four legs.

We went to the general store to stock up on bottled waters and snacks (hey, even though we're splurgin', I aint payin' to restock that mini-bar, dang it!), and now we're just kickin' it in the room. We're about to head out for some dinner somewhere, and then we might check out the 3D-IMax shark movie, or maybe the scary creatures of the deep movie.



Have a nice night. I know we will. Tucked all in our little high thread count sheets and feather beds....
listening to the waves.....
awaiting the complimentary in room breakfast....
;-)
Sheesh. LOL

Ahhh, yes...I have an unfinished thought from an earlier blogpost, and I think I said I'd catch y'all up on it.

Earlier in the week, TheMostImportantGuy was bitten while trying to rescue a feral cat. This resulted in a trip to the ER for vaccines and antibiotics. As I mentioned in my post about it, the ER staff had left the waiting room television dialed into Animal Planet, nd just in time for it's NightTimeScaryAnimalsHaveAttackedMe shows.

I think that in that post, I alluded to the fact that we had a similar incident of inappropriate waitingroom visuals the following day.

It happened when I took MyFavoriteKid to the podiatrist. He has an ingrown toenail issue that had blown up to a degree far beyond my skillset to assist with. He also has a plantars wart that was not responding to over the counter treatments. We were well overdue for a trip to the doc's for some real help, and MyFK was completely freaked out about the toenail part. Like, he was imagining he had gangreen and was going to lose toes. That sort of freaked.

So I had done all of the typical reassuring. This doctor has experience. She is a specialist. All she does is feet. She's has good reviews from other patients. Here's a photo of her, and hey---she even looks like she is a nice person. Blah blah blah....all that.

We get to the appointment, I've completed the neccessary forms, and we are waiting in the lobby. We see one of the treatment room doors open, and hear the doctor saying she'll be right back, and we see her step into a different room down the hall to gather some supplies. As she does this, she leaves the treatment room door open, and MyFK and I now have a perfect shot of the chair that the patient is sitting in. It's sort of like a big armchair recliner basically, but all we can see from where we are stationed is this person's FEET.

And this person is missing at LEAST three toes. The ones that remain are deformed.

So much for my reassurance.

MyFK is trying hard to compose himself, and I am explaining (with no real knowledge or facts to back my ass up) what he is seeing (so of course, he is not buying any of this).

We finally get our turn with the doc, and she's looked him over, and has explained the options, and he is being logical and mature about it, and she is about ready to proceed with what basically amounts to a nail trim. Unfortunately, she is going to do this procedure with a tool that is looking far more industrial than our standard ol' clippers, and MyFK stops breathing, and tears start to well up.

Now, for the doctor, this seems totally out of the blue.

So I tell her that I am pretty sure he is responding to the fact that he had caught a glimpse of the feet of the patient before him, and I see the look on her face as she is processing this, and watching her face change as she is realizing WHAT he saw, and how it is that he came to SEE what he saw, and let me tell you....the doctor...well, she felt so bad....but I could also tell that behind her composure, that she was about to crack up laughing. I could see this in her, because I knew from the moment I met her that she is just one of these people that I would probably love to get to know better and have a glass of wine with. She's kinda "East Coast Open and Out There", she's probably about my age, and she has a kid of her own who is 10, and who was actually IN the office that day, because she didnt have day camp lined up for him that particular week (and by the way, on our way out the door, MyFK talked to her son and said, "I bet you NEVER get ingrown toenails." hahahaha).

Anyhow, the doctore. She THEN goes on explain to MyFK that this person's feet were like that before she'd even met them, and it was not her doing, and then....and I have no friggin' idea how we got there, because this all went so fast, but she somehow ended up using me and my missing leg as an example, and as a similar situation. I'm still not quite sure how that all went, it went whizzing by so fast, but she noddd to me as if to ask me if it was okay to use me as an example, and I nodded back yes, but like I said, I didnt even quite get how it was all working out! I just know that she understood, and MyFK understood, and that I had no idea what I'd just missed, but whaddya know, MyFK said he was going to be okay, and to proceed. I wasn't about to ask for a replay and break the flow. She snipped his nail, stuck a bandaid on it, treated the wart while they talked about basketball and what he was going to do this summer, and then tadaaaaa....he was cured. Every day he's talked about how better his toe feels and how great she was and how glad he is that, "he was lucky enough to see a REAL professional."
(yes, in quotes...LOL)

How am I doing here. I get awfully rambly when I am this tired.

Anyhow, the point of the story was that we had two days in a row of seeing bad things in waiting rooms while waiting to see doctors...the end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What I did today?
Slouching. A whoooole lotta slouching.

I was going to wake up early and drive to San Francisco to meet up with my sock knitting group, but I just couldn't do it. It's about an hour drive each direction, and for 1-1/2 of hanging out, and then going to a yarn shop so I can be tempted into buying more yarn, which I absolutely I am certain I am not needing any more of.

I stayed home with TheMIG and we watched the Tour de France, then all of the extras from the dvd we'd watched last night, and I pretty much did laundry and cleaned up and got to packing things up, because MyFK and I are going to take off for a couple of days.

But the hotel has wi-fi....so I'll see you there ;-)

snaps on saturday

All taken this afternoon, a few seconds apart, while standing in the front yard of TheMostImportantGuy's parents house....





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In terms of the headaches today? A wee twinge behind the right eyeball today, but hooray! No migraine.

MyFavoriteKid left with his dad today for the weekend, so today I spent the whole of it with TheMIG visiting TheMIG's dad (TheMIG's mom has taken a little ClubMed vacation with the niece that visited us recently).

The evening was spent with take-out Thai food from a new restaurant in town, watching Pineapple Express on dvd, and...well...."date night". ;-)