2004.05.01

At first glance, I had two possible ways to keep myself entertained on this wondrous May Day, 2004: (1) Arlene's long-overdue housewarming party, and (2) Game 5 of the NHL Western Conference Semifinal series between the San José Sharks and the Colorado Snowbunnies. Instead, I opted for choice (3): make good on a 3-year-old offer to visit Sherylen in Monterey, get away from the bay area, and slack on a beach in the lovely tourist-trap city of Carmel, CA. (Unfortunately, the Sharks players were mentally at the same place I was)

Proof positive that I was actually, like, at the beach.
The girl growing out of my right side would be Sherylen.

So there wasn't much out of the ordinary to see at the beach; granted, there was more rotting seaweed than usual there, but the sand was nice and soft (though not quite as fine as in Santa Monica), the skies clear, and the weather was about 5 degrees too cool for any real beachgoing. The dogs were out in masses, taking turns chasing after invisible balls thrown by their owners, and who can forget the sheer joy of little kids running around, splashing in the water, or being piled upon by their friends/family in the sand?

After I got thoroughly roasted (who knew that two hours in the lukewarm sun would be enough to tickle me pink?), we wandered through the streets of Carmel, getting some crappy service at a Mexican restaurant that will remain nameless, and then browsing the interesting shops designed to sucker tourists (like me) out of their money.

One shop sold these "paint your own cow parade" cows - they were white, and you got to paint them to look however you want them to. But also, in this picture, you'll see a ballerina cow, and a juggling cow. Ted would've been impressed. Mooooooo! What you don't see here is that they had an equally impressive display of model shoes underneath this shelf, and once I divx-ize my experiment with video recording, i'll post a dizzying clip of them here.

And on the way back towards the 1, I noticed the strangest of road signs off to the right of the road.

On the whole, I was quite taken by the relaxed, slowed-down pace of life in general out there. In stark contrast to the hustle-and-bustle of moron drivers rushing to get to work on the 101 every morning, I found solace in the enjoyment of life's little pleasures - like sitting on a bench, with an ice cream cone in hand, watching a bird sip water out of a fountain (for about 20 minutes anyway...before I noticed a meter maid approaching and we made a mad dash to move my car, since I forgot to wipe the chalk mark off my back tire).