Going Home

Looks like just a grove of trees

Grove of Butterfly Trees in Pacific Grove

Some people say you can never return home. I don't agree with that. Home will always be there, it just depends what you consider home. The house you grew up in may have changed. The people you grew up with may have changed. The place you think of home won't change. I grew up on the Monterey Peninsula in California. When I grew up there things were pretty uneventful, maybe a little boring. When I go back to visit I look at it in the eyes of an adult rather than a child and I'm pretty impressed with where I grew up. I feel good just being in the familiar surroundings and knowing exactly where everything is. The house I stay in is different, the people I knew then have moved on, but home is still home. I imagine it is the same for my mother when she goes back to where she grew up. Even after 70 years the place feels familiar. Home is home, always.
After Thanksgiving I didn't have anything else to do. The Friday I just puttered around the house finishing the cleaning and putting everything away. I needed to do something.

The endless sounds of the ocean

I decided to drive to my mom's house in Monterey when I work up on Saturday. I had no real reason to go since my mom is not there and I was reasonably comfortable at home, but I just wanted to get out and do something. I also have a new camera I wanted to give a workout. I had a package I needed to return so I did that and hit the road. Before I left I checked to see if there was any secret shopping I could do while I was there. I found a few and signed up for them and threw some stuff in a bag and left.

My first stop was in Salinas where I did a secret shop at Subway. I like subway and this sounded like a "shop" I would enjoy. It was at a truck stop and I didn't enjoy it. The experience wasn't so good, but the sandwich was good, and it was paid for by the company! The next thing I really wanted to do was visit the butterfly trees. It was funny that I had always heard about these while I was growing up and there is a children's book by Beverly Cleary about this area, but I had never been to them until I had kids of my own. I took my kids once and I decided to visit by myself and my new camera.

There were about 50 people there and I was surprised at home much noise everyone was making. The grove of trees the butterflies stay in always surprises me since you can't really notice the butterflies unless you know what you are looking for. There were not as many as the last time I visited, but since I knew what I was looking for I spotted them easily and got some good shots. After about 30 minutes I could feel the pull of the ocean. I like visiting the ocean. That is truly where home is.

I drove down to the ocean, about a half a mile. I went to the location where Monterey Bay ends and the ocean begins. The whales are migrating so many people come here to look for whales, but I didn't care about those. All you can see if a spurt of white mist rising from the ocean any way. I just wanted the experience of seeing the waves pound the coast. The tide was far out so I was able to walk out into the tide pools. It is fun to see what you can discover in tide pools. My memories go back to 5th grade when my teacher emphasized that aspect.

I bounded out onto the rocks covered in seaweed and took a bunch of pictures. One thing I like about digital cameras is you don't have to pay for developing and can take as many pictures as you want and then don't feel guilty deleting the ones you don't like or are copies of what was taken before. There is a lot of life where the waves pound the rocks and it is a great place to just relax. There were a few people, but not many which allowed the feeling of solitude. I spend an hour just jumping around the rocks and taking pictures.

The next stop was Fisherman's Warf. This is the one stop I always have to make while home. Just wandering the warf makes me feel warm inside. I like sharing this experience with friends, but alone it is just as enjoyable to me. When I was in high school and college I would often go to the warf alone and just hang out. It would be fun to be around all the people from all over the world. There were lots of jelly fish in the ocean and I took lots of pictures of them. When people swim in this water I always think they are crazy because it is so cold, but others think they are crazy because there are so many jelly fish.

Calm Water

The weather was perfect, the sun was beautiful and the water was relatively calm. The big difference between the water in the ocean and the water in the bay is the relative calmness in the bay. Ocean waves can get huge and bay waves only get big. I took a lot of pictures there too and then went to visit my mom's house to get settled in. In the evening I did my secret shopping. I have done Jack in the Box "shops" before and it is usually because I have to eat any way. This time I decided I wanted to make some money.

There are 3 Jack in the Box locations in the Monterey area so I decided to do all three since it was the last day to do them and the company really was desperate for someone. They were reimbursing me for the meal plus paying $25 for each location. I had to visit them between 9:30 pm and midnight so I went to the first one in Del Rey Oaks at 9:30. I ordered a box dinner and ate it then evaluated the restrooms then went through the drive thru for 2 tacos then drove to the one in Seaside and did the same thing, including the drive thru. I then did the location in Monterey.

Pelican gliding over the bay

By the third restaurant I just sampled the food and threw most of it away. There were some guys there that were pooling their money together for some tacos so I was going to offer them the food before I threw it away, but that seemed a little weird. I ended up with six tacos in bags in my car which I threw away when I left. I figured those little jobs would pay for gas for my trip and made my last minute excursion worth it. Sunday I will do one more secret shop at a Planet Fitness location to work off the food I ate the night before!

Sea lion staying warm

As I look at the pictures I took yesterday I am impressed with myself. I have probably taken the same pictures a dozen times and I can't quit loving my pictures. I have a few hanging on my walls, but it is always hard trying to figure out which ones I should print and frame. I want to make them poster size and get a large frame for them. Then when I want to change it just print a new poster size picture and put the new one in the frame. A few years ago I started using my own pictures as the background on my computer desktop. I love it and so does everyone that sees my computer. If you would like some of my favorite for your desktop let me know!