Visit to Jeffery - part one

I'm home from this visit, but wanted to squeeze a "few shots" of my time in the Monterey Bay Area.  It was a good few days, and Jeffery has moved from a hotel to a townhouse, so that was a mega-plus as far as home-like living conditions go.

Pat plays us a tune on his accordion

I enjoy a lobster with Jeffery and his co-workers

The gym at Carmel Middle School, where Mrs. Hurley (aka: "Ma") was our hard-but-loving gym teacher.

The Carmel Middle School, where I attended 5th through 7th grade

It was like attending college with its multi-building layout, rather than the old brick schools back east.

The fog stretched pretty far back into the Valley.  I like the way the bird-laden wires seem to disappear.

Stopped at the Garland Ranch Regional Park for a hike; here I cross the Carmel River.

Looking downstream from the footbridge

Looking upstream from the footbridge.

Looking straight down from the footbridge.

The path opens into a dry meadow dotted with trees.

The fog lingers but seems to be lifting

Cool tree

I took the uphill path, but later, took the path beyond the fence

Into the woods

The sheer size, volume, and freshness of this scat gave me pause.  Luckily, the trail was populated with other humans, so I felt a measure of comfort.

Back into a dark canyon forest.  Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

I loved the color of light on this weird old tree.

I'd already climbed, but here was a stairway

the trail led to another stairway

and yet another 

until I'd about reached Siesta Point

This bench and view awaited me.

Spanish moss decorations

The lower trail took me to this old ranch area

which actually had a ghost ranch

Feels pretty western, eh?

For some reason, this looked like a field of Bill the Cats to me.

On to Big Sur, or wherever Hwy 1 south took me.

Garrapata State Park beach

It looks like and ordinary beach with some good wave action going on, but if you look at the water lines in the sand, you can see that the beach gets lapped over regularly.

There's an uphill slope between me and the ocean, yet the waves surmount them

Love this shot

Really beautiful surf to sit and watch, if you could sit, which you couldn't, given the risk of getting wave-washed.

The rock at the end of the beach was a great wave catcher with resulting sprays

pretty wave

Birds on the rocks

Luckily, I had returned towards a better place before this big wave run swamped the very place I'd been moments before.

Here's another wave that tried to sneak up on me

How quickly it recedes!

The man was photo-ing the woman when a wave took her by surprise and wet her to her waist.  She laughed gustily.

Before I left, I took a cliff top walk through the gorse (is this gorse?)

Fun color scheme

One floral view

Move ten feet for a different/same floral view!

Section of rocky coast; that's probably Point Lobos ahead.

Saw lots of this sort of erosion-carving

Here's a semi-closeup.

The Bay School, where my brother began his scholastic life.

Carmelite Monastery

Villa Angelica nearby

Castle in Carmel-by-the-Sea

The very square house that I simply had to find again and photograph to show you

I'll leave off here, and put the rest of my visit into the next post.