Monterey

Yesterday Jess (as in my friend and not my dog) and I went on a mini road trip down to Monterey.

Most of the two hour drive there was on highway 101 and not very scenic, but on reaching Monterey we went on the 17 Mile Drive which as the name suggests is a 17 mile long drive. It took us through a very very expensive neighborhood called Pebble Beach. If you have a spare $18.5 million or $120k a month you could rent or buy this. The road took us past several golf courses one of which was where the 2010 US Open Golf championship was played. The ocean views were amazing.

We enjoyed a picnic on the beach, although lunch was cut short when a huge seagull came and stole my sandwich and salad!! The only downside to the drive, was you had to pay $9.50 to enter as the area is privately owned, but the views are definitely worth it.

We then drove to Monterey Bay Aquarium, the first thing to warn you about this place is that it is $30 to get in!! I did search online beforehand and the best discount I could find was  $2 off per ticket. Also parking nearby can be expensive too. The aquarium itself is the best I have ever been to and was really interesting, with attractions for all ages, we got there late in the day so had a rushed visit, but I would say you could easily spend 4 or 5 hours there.

 

Overall we had a very enjoyable day, we had also hoped to visit Carmel which is nearby but never had the time.

Whale Watching Trip

Today we went to Half Moon Bay and went on a 3 hour whale watching trip. Unfortunately we never got to see any whales :( We were out at sea for the whole 3 hours and the only thing we saw, other than sea birds was a harbor porpoise and then it was in and out of the water so quickly most people missed it. We than saw a harbor seal once we were back in the harbor.

The trip itself was really nice as we were lucky to have lovely dry weather, other than the occasional spray from the ocean.

Quite a few people managed to leave their breakfast in the pacific ocean!! Luckily this was not Dave, Jess or I, we all took the recommended motion sickness tablets a few hours before getting on the boat.

I would definitely do one of these trips again, and hopefully next time will get to see some whales. They said there was a 70% chance of seeing them today, I just guess they didnt want to see us.

So apologies there is no photos to accompany this post!

Strange findings

I was shopping in Cost Plus World Market today, which is a great place to find British candy chocolate and sweets :) and I came across these two items.

The chocolate was $6 and I decided it didn't sound that nice, although I have had and enjoyed maple syrup and bacon cupcakes which were surprisingly nice, so I may try this at a later date. The banana bread beer sounds good, but again I never purchased any.... maybe next time.

Visitors from the UK

One of the advantages of having people come visit from the UK, is they bring you goodies such as these :)

Of course its always just as nice to see the people themselves as it is the contents of their suitcases.

Time to go eat, I cant remember when I last had a wham bar!!

Cell phone postcards

As most of you know I am a Bzz Agent, which means I get to try various products for free and give my feedback (good and bad) back to them, and also tell all you wonderful people what I think of the product.

I am currently trialing cell phone postcards, you basically take a photo with your cell phone, and upload it to the site via a text message and they will send it as a physical postcard. You can also upload direct to the website from your desktop or facebook.

If you sign up at the moment your first 10 postcards within the US are free, you can also send internationally but there will be a fee for this. I think this definitely beats a shop bought card.

Ive just sent my first three postcards, and it was really simple to do,  the first three you send also get sent to you as well so you can check the quality of them. So three of my friends will be getting a nice surprise in the mail soon.

Let me know what you think if you sign up and try it, and if you also want to try products for free them sign up and become a Bzz Agent, they have both a  UK and US site, and I was previously a member in the UK and got some great products to try then too.

I'm famous :)

One of my neighbors just came by with a clipping from the local newspaper, and it was a photo of me :)

Last month I did a talk to the local Rotary Club about the Building Futures mentoring scheme I participate in, they took our photo but I never knew it was going to appear in the newspaper.

The article appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal on Monday, my neighbor has said we are officially famous, as we have only been here 14 months, and now both Dave and I have appeared in the local newspaper, she said she has lived here 45 years and never appeared in it!!

Im still alive.....

11 days into the New Year and Ive been neglecting my blog and you guys - I do apologise.

I have been keeping busy though, much of my spare time has been used playing Cityville on Facebook, but it seems Ive achieved all the goals, so now its become a bit boring :( Which is a good thing, as I could easily lose a few hours a day playing that game.

I joined a weight loss/motivation site called sparkpeople and have been busy getting inspiration from there and making some new friends.

Ive been going to the gym, I am trying to go Monday to Friday, but have had a few things come up recently. Did go yesterday for an hour, but today am resting after having my wisdom tooth extracted.

We have our first visitor of 2011 arriving in 2 days - Jess is coming to visit for 2 weeks, so I will be busy playing tourist guide, and even visiting some new local attractions, as Jess has some locations on her list that i havent been to yet. Fingers crossed we have a bit nice weather, as its been a bit chilly lately.

Off on a whale watching tour this Sunday, so that will definitely warrant a blog post.