MONDAY, JULY 27

MONDAY, JULY 27:

       Another wonderful day in paradise! Drove up to Monterey and were intending to see some of the historical district. However, they only have guided tours on certain days, and this wasn't one of them. They do have a self-guided historical walk, and we actually started out doing that, stopping at the the Custom House, which was built under Mexican rule in the 1820's to collect customs from incoming foreign ships. When the U.S. claimed Alta California after the Mexican-American War in 1848, this is where the first U.S. flag was raised. 

 

                                                                    

 

        However, in the course of trying to decipher the map as to where the next historic building was, we quickly got sidetracked and ended up biking up the same Monterey Coastal Trail we were on a week ago. So we saw some of the same scenery, but, with the sea, like with a river, you never really see the same water twice. 


                                        

 

 

 

 

 

 And we took some little detours this time, which gave great rewards. One such detour led us to a close-up look at a colony of sea lions, albeit through the bars of a gate.

 

                                                      

They differ from the Harbor Seals we'd seen earlier down the road in that the sea lions use their flippers to move on land, while seals just scoot. Also, sea lions are typically brown in color; the seals are spotted or black. The seals were giving us quite a show this morning, moving about, squabbling over rocks . . .

 

                                                                       

         The longer detour was up at Lovers Point, where we ventured off the pavement to a wonderful spot where the rocks abounded.

                                              

                                                                                

 

 

 

Bill mostly rested on a shaded bench while I negotiated up the rocks some “to see what I could see.”

 

 

                                                                   

 

 

 

Fabulous views!

                

                                              

In the meantime, Bill had spotted some divers who were jumping off of the rock fact into the water beneath. It looked dangerous at first, but it was clear that they knew what they were doing.

                                                          

 

In the midst of our fun and pleasure, a  sad, somber reminder of how quickly life can change
:
                                      

 

 

      The day was just dazzling – in the 70's – delightfully warm when in the sun; cool in the shade. The water, of course, was dazzling as well. Hard to stop taking more pictures around every bend.

                                                                        

       By mid-afternoon, we were hungry, so biked on down past Cannery Row to Fisherman's Wharf, and checked out a number of places, settling on one near the end of the wharf. Enjoyed our late lunch while watching a few tour boats go in and out.

 

                                                           

Saw the most interesting thing: a young man and woman walked by – he in a “Monterey Bay” T-shirt, baseball cap, and sandals; she in full hijab. Not just a head scarf, but covered in black from head to toe – you could barely see her eyes. Pretty unusual to see that in the U.S. We felt sorry for her until we saw – and heard – her scold a man for smoking. True, he wasn't supposed to be smoking there, but she was very aggressive, and when he apparently talked back to her, she responded, “You don't need to cop an attitude . . .” Perfect English, no trace of an accent. So we concluded that she chose this life. You can't but wonder why . . . is it to prove she can keep rigid rules? The contradiction between her utter submission in her dress and her aggressiveness in confronting the poor guy couldn't be more striking and ironic. Would psychologists label it Compensation??

     We biked an hour or so longer, past the heavily trafficked section to where it dramatically thinned out. That is, except for about 200 young men & women joggers, most sweating and breathing hard, like they'd been out there for some time. They were all in street clothes, but we deduced that they were from the nearby Naval Postgraduate School. Our next door neighbor in the RV park is a student there. A very excellent and prestigious institution, providing post-graduate education to military students for more than a century, in a gorgeous setting.

       Biked past a beautiful beach framed by sand dunes,

 

                                                                

and a very idyllic grove of Eucalyptus trees. Wonderful fragrance!