Why the blog you ask?

Wow, this is a strange feeling... I guess the whole premise of a blog is that someone else is interested in my random thoughts and activities. That in itself seems a little presumptuous. But, a new friend here in Monterey showed me her blog yesterday and I immediately thought what a great way for all our dear friends and family all over the globe to periodically check in on our latest adventures. So, assuming I haven't lost you already, I am going to embark on this journey to share a bit of our day to day with you. In the interest of national security, or really just to appease our security advisor, (you know who, if you know us...LOL) I will be using our initials in all anecdotes. If someone is in the doghouse, I may use other abbreviations but will attempt to keep this a family friendly forum.

We have now been in Monterey for 3 weeks and I think we are more settled in than we have ever been. It's amazing how much you can get done in a new place when a certain unnamed overachiever has 45 days leave and nothing but time on his hands. So thanks to the USAF we are now on the absolutely beautiful West Coast. The tradeoff for having a view of the water from our upstairs bedrooms is living in half the square footage we had in San Antonio... Thank goodness the stop in Altus in between taught us to downsize pretty effectively. We are very grateful for LARGE closets and government long term storage.

Arriving here after 2 fast years in Altus, we were more than ready to partake in all of the wonderful restaurant choices. We have yet to have a less than stellar meal, and have watched dozens of seals and sea lions during dinners at fisherman's wharf. We did a wonderful whale watching tour with an hour spent watching a mother humpback and her calf. NOTE to future guests, we will no longer be taking a certain 2 yr old or her father whale watching except under the calmest possible conditions. I believe their whale watching will be limited to the Discovery Channel until further notice. Disclaimer, Dad did not get ill, just said it took much of his will not to. For the record, water baby that I am, never seen a dinghy, canoe or cruise ship I didn't love, I was grateful also for sweet still land by the end of the trip. Even the naturalist guide stressed on our return to the harbor that the seas were uncharacteristically rough that day.

We have also had some exciting wildlife sightings in our very own neighborhood... I awoke a few nights ago to the sounds of my garbage can lids slamming. Upon inspection from my bedroom window I discovered not 1 but 7 raccoons foraging in our recycling. The ringleader of this crew was huge! I am guessing he was well over 30 pounds as he made Frankie the pug look anorexic.
We have also been advised that a mountain lion has been spotted in our neighborhood this week. We have been given multiple reminders to not walk, run, or bike alone at dusk or dawn. I think we will heed these warnings closely.


So, M is due off to school shortly and I must go for now but I will do my best to add daily updates including pics of all of our adventures. I figure at this point, I will still have at least Grandma and Granny's attention.