The Day Bell's Head Exploded

While Lucy and I were living the life in Monterey, Bell was locked up in an office studying for his PhD exam. For four weeks he wracked his brain not once succumbing to the 4 complimentary HBO channels we received or the 2.00 bottles of wine at Trader Joe's. His exam took 2 days to complete from 8 AM until 4 PM without a lunch and only a bathroom break. At the end of it all he was beat, but not beaten. Bell found out recently that he passed and at that point his head was finally able to explode. Wouldn't yours? He just has to pass his orals and finish his dissertation and then you can call him doctor. But I think he still prefers to be called master.

Kids be warned! This is what you get when you subject yourself to higher education.

These jellies are huge. Their bell is about the size of a human head. They are gorgeous. Their dance is utterly spellbinding and I could stare at them all day. If by chance you can make it to the Monterey Bay Aquarium before September I highly recommend seeing the "Jellies as Art" exhibit. But it goes away come September.



We went ahead and bought membership passes to the Aquarium. Adult ticket prices are $24.95 and kids are $15.95. The yearly family membership pass is $120.00. Lucy and I more than made up for the price by the end of the first week we were in Monterey. Fortunately for us, the Aquarium was nowhere near as packed as last July but there were still many people especially young kids on field trips and everybody from Europe. Like last year, Lucy and I made it part of our daily routine to take the trolley down to the Aquarium and spend an hour or two there and do something else afterwards. I can't even imagine doing the whole thing in one visit--fighting the crowds and trying to catch all the animals. But I guess my parents did it many times going to Disney and Busch Gardens.

Lucy and the Sea

An idle spectator.



Amid the fury.







On to other things.

Big Sur Country

As we sit inside, with below freezing temperatures outside, it is nice to think back to our summer on the coast. We traveled down Highway One on several weekends, enjoying a world class stretch of coastline called Big Sur. Named after the river which flows through the area, it is a rugged region of wilderness on the sea. We enjoyed the Pfeiffer State Beach and the State Parks, with the majestic redwoods and jagged rocks and cliffs carved by the Pacific. I also had a chance to read Kerouac's book of the same name, which chronicles his trips to a cabin beneath the Bixby Bridge in the 60's. Landmarks like the Bridge and Nepenthe (a restaurant with a spectacular view) are still there, and the coast itself is timeless. By far one of the darkest books Kerouac wrote, it is a stream of consciousness in a period when Jack was an extreme alcoholic. I had no bouts with delirium tremens during our trip so his experiences there were quite different than mine, but I imagine everyone who visits Big Sur is affected profoundly.

Bixby Bridge

Pfeiffer State beach

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park Waterfall

The Coast
Check out the rest of the photo album here:

Big Sur

There Are Worse Ways To Pass The Time

My family has returned to Florida and I have exactly 5 days to get all the stuff I needed/wanted to get done done before the start of the fall semester. The list is tremendous. The weather is uncooperative. And Lucy has been attached to my hip since June. I love my girl but it is extremely difficult to get anything done when you have a toddler mimicking everything you do, asking you a thousand questions, and stealing your laptop and hiding it in her closet so that she can check her email.

Once the semester starts no one will be home. Lucy will be at preschool all day, Bell will be at work or on field projects and I will return to the studio and live the hermetical life of an architecture student. I am going to miss languishing in boredom while Lucy watches Peter Pan for the twentieth time. I am going to miss choosing from a myriad of activities. Activities that were fun for me, too. I am going to miss coloring with Lucy in her coloring books, painting and drawing, reading and napping, singing and dancing. The closing of summer days always leaves me with a tinge of the meloncholy.

Not a day has passed since we returned that Lucy has not requested to go to the aquarium. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is an amazing place. Sadly it is maddeningly packed in the summer. Fortunately for us, Bell has a friend who gave us guest passes that Lucy and I thoroughly wore out. We went every other day. Because the place was so packed we would limit our visits to one to two hours focusing on only a few things. Believe me when I say that you could completely lose your mind trying to see everything in such a claustrophobic environment in one day. After so many visits Lucy has become a junior marine biologist.


Sea otters are so cute. They are a lot larger than I expected.


The Outer Bay tank.


One of Lucy's favorites, the Mola Mola or ocean sunfish.


Feeding time in the Kelp Forest.


Sea anemones


My favorites were the jellies. I could sit for hours and just stare at these beauties.




When I win the lottery I won't go crazy and build a solid gold house. But I will want a room with floor to ceiling glass walls filled with moon jellies.



If Lucy decides to give up on the marine biology thing she can always fall back on her sardine canning experience.

We really miss the aquarium.


Here is the Album with a ridiculous amount of photos but you have to understand we went so many times and I never tired of photographing the jellies.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Carmel-By-The-Sea or, I've Died and Been Reborn Into a Thomas Kinkade Painting

This is one of the first impressions I got from this hamlet on the Monterey Peninsula. It is an extremely picturesque town with it's Storybook Style, Arts and Crafts and Mission Style cottages. With the ocean as its backyard,

(Carmel's main road, Ocean Ave. ends at Carmel City Beach)

a thick canopy of pines, giant cypresses and live oaks that shelters the buildings, sugary sweet architecture, Clint as your neighbor, and a sturdy foundation of bedrock that will prevent the town from sinking into the Pacific ocean during an earthquake--why would anybody want to live anywhere else? Well, YOU can't live here. Unless you have a spare 1-4 million bucks lying around to purchase an OLD home under 1400 sq ft. 98.6% of the population is white. Only 1.3% is under the age of 5. Of the 4000 population, only 30% are permanent residents. This little town exudes affluence. Carmel today is a far cry from its former bohemian roots. Fortunately, many of the homes of the artists and writers who first colonized the town still remain. The architecture that is most fascinating are those built by Hugh Comstock--Storybook Cottages. But there are also Charles Greene, William Burbeck and a Frank Lloyd Wright.

Here are a sample of the fairytale cottages of Carmel.

Hansel House 1924-1925 built by Hugh Comstock


The seven dwarves must live here.


Where is Rapunzel?


Mushroom House


The Tuck Box


The houses do not have house numbers or mail delivery. You have to go to the post office to pick up your mail. The address on this house is "The fifth house northwest of 13th street" or you can just call it by it's name "The Casanova House".


Houses are built around the trees.


Cottage of Sweets


Lilliput

But with anything that is sickeningly sweet you do get toothaches. Carmel has the most extreme zoning laws. They want to maintain a small town feel--no big box stores and limit souvenir shops, but it is okay to have 70 art galleries. Does downtown Denver have 70 art galleries? The Business district of Carmel is about the size of REI--70?? As mentioned earlier, no house addresses and no mail delivery. No live music in bars. No streetlights, no parking meters and porchlights can only have a max of 25 watts. Roads are narrow and purposely kept poorly maintained. Where are all the tax dollars going? No sidewalks, curbs or gutters. Houses are fenced (no chain link) and gardens are for the most part required. (So that's where all the tax dollars are going--to the secret elves that maintain the gardens and pick up the trash left behind by the tourists.) My favorite is women have to obtain a permit to where high heels if they plan to step on grass or any ground that is not a road!!! Ironically, many of the buildings and actual city design does not meet the current codes of the state. All of this creates a town with subjective individuality and forced peacefulness. Until the tourists arrive and everything descends into madness.


But it is a beautiful place. I would live here, especially if I can train those secret elves to unload the dishwasher.

Album

Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA

Carmel Valley

During our first week in Monterey the weather was behaving very much like Monterey weather in summer. The fog was thick in the morning and if we were lucky the sun was able to burn it away by 1pm. The temperature is always the same: lows in the upper 50's, the highs in the upper 60's.

I'm not complaining. But not waking up to the sun shining through the window has really messed up our sleep schedule. I can't wake up earlier than 9:30am(10:30 am MST) and that is only because that is when Lucy wakes up. Her sleep schedule is thoroughly shot. Lately however, the weather has been truly glorious. It has been sunny every day and the temperature has been getting down right hot--75 degrees hot. It is funny how quickly our bodies acclimate to the environment. One day it actually hit 77 degrees and Lucy and I were complaining how we were melting. We are in trouble when we head back to Colorado.

So when the days are dark, dreary and chilly, we head to a magical land called Carmel Valley. This is a place of sunshine and wine, organic farms, artisans and mid 80's temperature. And it is only 10 miles away from the sea. The people who live in the valley are very similar to the mountain folk who live near Denver. Everyone knows each other and knows all the gossip that a small community comes with. There is definitely some "Desperate Housewives" action going on.


The fog bank barely touching the valley.


Hanging out at the Carmel Valley Pool. Lucy working on that golden tan.


Lucy learning to swim but refusing to get her hair wet.


At the Earthbound Organic Farm. They encourage you to walk through the gardens barefoot.


Guess who I'm going to be for halloween.


Following totoro.


I would always have fresh flowers in my home if I lived here.

Album

Carmel Valley