Carmel-by-the-Sea

I love my job. They sent me to Carmel-by-the-Sea on the Monterey Peninsula for a week long class on the "sensitive" material that I work with. The instructor was extremely accomplished including an expert technical investigator on the Oklahoma City bombing and a weapons inspector in Iraq after the first Gulf War. Wow.

It felt like a vacation, not work related, although I was in class for the majority of the day and the emails I'd have to answer before and after class every day. That was a small price to pay for adding one more location to my recently exploding Places I've Been.

It was damn expensive in that area. No fast food to be found (not that I am complaining) and the cheapest lunch was around $15 with dinner costing on average $30 a person. Of course I didn't have to worry about this with the company footing every tab.

J just quit her job and happened to be unemployed at the time, so she tagged along. We actually drove the 12 hour trip from Phoenix so that she could go along and drove the entire way up from LA to Monterey via the Pacific Coast Highway. Amazing views. Everyone must make this drive before they die.

Check out the gallery.

Here's a sample:

The wharf in Monterey


Laguna Seca! America's top road course. I will return here in the near future for MotoGP or AMA.


Pebble Beach


Sea Squirrel!