Monterey

So it's almost been a week since my return from Monterey. I miss the hell out of that place. I've moved so many times in my life (19 different homes) and Monterey is the one place I've never wanted to stay away from for too long. The trip was a little less than amazing primarily because it was just too damn short. It's hard trying to cram as many activities as you can with as many of your friends as you can in 1 week. I figured I could post a little recap of some of the fun adventures...

The night we got there we were lucky to have Sarah come to the airport to let us borrow her extra car seat for the trip. It had been over a year since I've seen her and she looked fabulous. Unfortunately, she didn't bring her two kiddos with her so I was adamant about seeing them later on in the week. She was kind enough to taxi us over to the car rental place and sit in the car with Pieter for 30 or so minutes entertaining him. Enterprise hooked us up...I love getting a midsize vehicle for the price of a dinky economy one. We drove off in a Pontiac something that had no power on the pedal, so Nick "allowed" me to drive it to Monterey because it was too boring to drive for him.

My dad got us a huge room at the Naval Postgraduate School's Hermann Hall. (Picture not taken by me) We got there pretty late but my mom had to stop by anyway to see her little grandson. He was so tired he snuggled for about 10 minutes then fell asleep while hiding under the covers. My dad woke us up early the next morning to see Pieter (and me duh, but mostly Pieter). I love seeing my dad smile...

The following days seem like a blur to me. I shot some engagement photos of Ebony and her fiance...along with a couple shots of my little man and Patty's daughter. I just finished editing their pictures and need to send them off today.


Nick and I went out Friday night and met up with some of his friends. We ate at Peter B's and waited for Josh, Amy, and Michelle to get there. Afterwords we made a stop at the Brit and one other place that I can't remember the name of right now. It wasn't as fun as I remember, but I think it's because I've just grown out of the bar/club scene...or maybe just the Monterey bar/club scene. The next few days were full of seeing friends and hanging out with my family. Nick spent all of Sunday in Sacramento and had a great time. I walked the trail with my mom and went to El Toritos to get my Lava Colada (bc they don't have those here). Pieter was complimented every 2 minutes because of the hat my parents got him.


One of the evenings was spent hanging out with my mom, Alexis, Ali and Chris. I spent that entire night cracking up. I drank a bottle of wine and participated in some of the most awkward conversations ever. After sobering up a bit I spent the rest of that evening flushing faces (only those their will ever understand) and telling Ali that "yes, I would love to be your sister in law." I love my family.

Nick, Aaron, and I made a trip up to SF and stayed the night. It wasn't at all what I hoped bc it was pouring the entire time. We spent the day driving around and then headed to a bar somewhere in the middle of town. It was the first time I had taken a bus like that and got a little scared when the cops jumped on board and got into an argument with a drunk guy sitting in front. The bus ride was long, and I leaned over to Nick and demanded we take a taxi on the way back. The bar was fun. Played a couple games of pool and made it back to the hotel at 10:30...10:30...lame. I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to sleep, but that didn't happen thanks to Aaron's insane snoring. The kind of snoring where you can't help but look up when he stops to see if he's still alive. I think I woke up every 20 minutes that night.

The last evening in town we spent at Amy and Josh's house. She made us a fantastic dinner! It was nice sitting around with all my friends again and laughing. Josh showed us a few videos and pictures of a couple parties I had in 2004 and holy crap was that hysterical! Definitely the first time I had seen some of those and yes, I was red in the face by a few.

There are a few people that I didn't get to see enough of or at all and I wish I could have. But I will be there in July (maybe permanently...if anyone has a place ;-)) and for longer this time so I'll make sure to get to everyone this time.