Saturday - Monty is up and out the door early. His primary thoughts were on the "hands-on labs" he was in charge of.. He was starting to set up the computer rooms and helping where ever anyone needed him. The conference gives him such a "high" ...the fast pace and everyone speaking his language, shaking hands and meeting all the new people arriving and getting to know them. This gives him energy.... each person there has their own "specialty" and knowledge of Oracle. Sometime he gives them ideas.. and sometimes its them who ignites ideas for him. This is his "rush" his element... His one time a year he is overly pump up with motivation. It is great to see this on his face. Like a kid at an amusement park... waiting for the next ride. ;-)
Judy and I decide to explore around town. She knows what she wants to do first.... a fabric shop.
Judy is an expert quilter and her passion comes from fabric. She wanted to go the a shop called ""Back Porch Quilts" there in
Monterey. So we went... and we looked at everything... and while we were in the shop, there was a lady in the shop that was going to do a project that Judy had done before... Judy offered up advice.. and it wasn't but a minute that she had her own audience watching her explain the stitching... At first - I don't think the owner liked her stepping in.. but then once she spoke to Judy - she was appreciated the semi-class. I tell you... there is never a dull moment around her or a day without a lesson to learn. As we were leaving the shop.. we saw a sign that said "
Monterey shop-hop" with the dates. It took a minute to register with us that the dates were when we would still be in
Monterey. This is Candy to Judy! A shop hop!
And for those out there who doesn't have the passion for sewing and/or quilting... the shop hop is a couple of days that you hop around from quilt/fabric store to store to watch demos and see the newest sewing stuff out there that each store has to offer. The
Monterey shop hop was giving out "charms and cooking
receipes" at each store. I knew soon as I saw the sign... that this was going to be one of the things on our to- do list at
Monterey. It was a once in a lifetime thing for her...... When would she ever be in
Monterey California again to experience her son's
ODTUG excitement
and go to a shop hop. Likely never would it be planned this way. We were going to find the next shops. Didn't take a minute to get on the cell phones and tell Judy's quilting friends what adventure we had ran into. They of course.... were jealous. Jealous of the fact we were in
Monterey.. cooler weather... And on a shop-hop! Judy was thrilled and smiling ear to ear!
Stopped off to eat Thai food, rest our feet and re-direct ourselves. Then off we go again.
Another part of our exploring for the day.. We went and walked the beach of
Asilomar. The sand was white and fine... and cool on the feet! There on the beach they were setting up chairs for a wedding.. It was so neat. The waves were high and crashing and the air was crisp. June wedding on the beach. This is for sure California.
We then drove the coast line and went into Carmel. We stopped at Chateau
Julien to make our first purchase of wine and of- course... wine tasting. Check out the site..
http://www.chateaujulien.com/ The Chateau was beautiful. Flowers everywhere. You could smell them just by walking up. The wine was wonderful and turned out being my favorite. I am usually a red wine kind of girl... but I really liked the
Sangiovase Rosato wine.. but surprisingly enough my most favorite was a white wine...
Gewvrzaminer. YUM-O. We had some shipped to the house.
On the drive back to
Monterey, we stopped at a road side market and bought some fresh strawberries and cherries.. two
avocados. Strawberries were in season there. The farmer was nice and gave us several bites of his produce. That with some crackers and the wine ... would be a good evening snack in the hotel room.We finally made it back to the Hyatt. We ate in the lounge bar.. Knuckles. We were pretty tired by then.. still getting use to California time. Even a two hour difference can throw your hunger and sleep time off. We headed up to the room.. awaiting to hear how Monty's day turned out. He will be blogging too... check it out @ http://www.montylatiolais.blogspot.com/
