kathryn comes to town

my friend, kathryn of reno, came to visit me for a few days last weekend.

very nice to see her again after so long.

actually, i did see her briefly back in march or april on a quick trip up to nevada. prior to that trip, the last time i saw kathryn was a couple of days before i moved to the coast. she, rick and helen and i sat above virginia city watching the 4th of july fireworks. that’s right: above virginia city! about 1000 feet above virginia city. interesting to see fireworks coming up at you instead of over your head.

i picked up kathryn at the san jose airport friday at a couple of minutes after 2. from there we headed over to giorgio’s on foxworthy for a great pizza before driving over to los gatos and then saratoga for a cup of coffee (tea for kathryn) at the big basin cafe then up hwy. 9 into the redwoods and big basin state park.

before long we were in santa cruz and heading south on rt. 1 on our way to the peninsula. by the time we reached monterey it was dark, giving kathryn an opportunity to see cannery row at night. we also grabbed the doc rickett’s crossing cache before heading east to carmel valley.

the next morning, after kathryn had the courage to try one of my cups of coffee (i started her off with 1-shot of espresso and 1-shot of water to about 10 ounces of 2%) and hanging out on the bench with the hummingbirds, we were off to big sur for waterfalls, more redwoods and a few more caches for kathryn.

on the way back we stopped off in carmel for a drink at the hog’s breath and a cruise through town to grab a cup of coffee at ron’s favorite coffee house before hitting the grocery store for dinner. i made some kind of stir fried beef dish with noodles and cookies for desert.

on sunday we were off to the monterey bay aquarium. but, not before coffee and hummingbirds, this time with a blacktail deer for good measure.
although we had passes for the aquarium (thanks phil and linda!), we walked in like we owned the place. hey, if you look like you know what you’re doing nobody questions you. i wish i would have remembered to grab the tripod from the car before we got there as it was just too dark and i had to use a really slow shutter speed, which made the shots a little blurry. i had a ray swim directly up to where i was standing. that should have been a great shot but. . .

on the way back to the car we stopped to grab a cache across from the american tin cannery then drove over to seaside for mexican food. after taqueria-style tacos we headed over to del rey oaks for a geocache hidden in an industrial park near one of the secluded break areas. after finding the cache and enjoying a dessert of cookies we were back on the caching/sightseeing tour.

back to monterey and asilomar.

kathryn is actually enjoying lattes.

we left the coastal road and came up lighthouse to frank’s coffee house, pacific grove juice and java. this time kathryn had them step up the coffee content to two shots; i had a triple.

then we headed over to pebble beach for a cache or two and gawking at houses then back home. i don’t remember what, if anything, we had for dinner on sunday.

after coffee (another double for kathryn) and communing with the hummingbirds we were all too soon off to san jose with a quick stop at mazda raceway laguna seca and a quite drive to the airport.

friday afternoon a package came for me from kathryn. it was a hummingbird feeder. it’s only been up for two days and i already have a war going on with several hummers who want to take control of the feeder. i never realized how territorial they are. that must be why they need all the energy: to fend-of the other hummers.

it seems i have more visitors coming soon: willy just told me he’ll be in town this coming weekend and rick is coming in october for the alms race at mazda raceway laguna seca.

whata weekend!

i had another amazingly wonderful weekend with mee sook!

you may notice that i have changed the spelling of her name. i was confused as to how to spell her name from when i first met her. the reason: when she first came to the united states in 1978, immigration misspelled her name. knowing how people can be prejudiced-jerks, i assumed they misspelled it: mesuk, as in: me suck. they did, however, misspell it misuk.

mee sook tells me that her name translates the following way:

mee = beautiful me.

sook = clearly.

clearly, she is!

we attempted to begin friday night with a view of the sunset, but the sun was not to be seen. so, we went over to allegro at the barnyard in the mouth of carmel valley for vittles.

following a mediocre italian dinner we drove out to “our beach” (mine and ron’s), wrapped up in a blanket and watched the waves for an hour or so.

on saturday we went hiking for the third time in garrapata state park between carmel-by-the-sea and big sur. we hiked up the canyon into the redwoods, ate berries and sourdough bread next to soberanes creek sitting on a fallen redwood and hiked up to our “secret spot.” i’d tell you where it is, but it is a secret spot!

we returned to the peninsula in time to watch the sunset at “our beach.”

today, mee sook called me to say that she needed to run up to santa clara to pick up some items for a friend whose mother is dying of cancer.

while we were in korea town we stopped by the buddhist temple then went over to one of the korean barbeque house. i thoroughly enjoyed a beef dish, which name i cannot remember and mee sook had a cold buckwheat noodle dish with beef strips. the dishes came with a variety of peripheral dishes, which included: 3 types of kimchi (napa cabbage, turnip and cooked napa cabbage), soy beans, steamed spinach, dried anchovies, fish cakes, some kind of soufflé and green tea. my dish also came with steamed rice. the meals were brought to a close with cups of rice water that is similar to mexican horchata, but without the condensed milk.

i enjoyed most of the meal completely. i was not all that into the dried anchovies and the turnip kimchi. but, i really enjoyed the shredded beef, the fish cakes, napa cabbage kimchi and the soufflé!

on our way back we needed to stop in gilroy. since, we took her car (i drove), we needed to go back to watsonville, where i left my car. so, i drove over hwy. 152 up into the redwoods.

as we reached the crest i saw a sign for mt. madonna county park, onto which i quickly turned.


we hadn’t been in the park for 10-minutes before a bobcat ran up the road in front of us.


we parked overlooking gilroy for several minutes, watched a banana slug, then drove to one of the hiking trails and strolled amongst the redwoods for about 90-minutes.


we left the park from the west side of the mountain and arrived into watsonville through a very scenic area.


the perfect ending to a perfect weekend!