Monterey

The Lone Cypress
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Touching down at noon to a beautiful 50F sunny day, taxiing to the hotel where street signs have names and not numbers, what a change from Chicago.

When I caught up with Mike, it was almost sun down so he just took me on a quick drive down Ocean View Blvd and a quick drive down Highway 1 and back. I can't get over the views. Then it was off to have magaritas and dinner (yeah, in that order) at a mexican resturant in town. Where ever it was, the plates were huge and the food not bad. The magaritas were $24-$27 a jug. They weren't bad either. All in all, pretty exxy though. Hmm, maybe that's because we spent as much on alcohol as we did on the food. The next day, I spent the morning at Monterey Aquarium. Go there! Go there! The sea otters are so cute. Like ferrets of the sea. There was this cute little one that held a ball and banged it continuously against the glass to the glee of the many school kids there. Sea otters and sea lions are a big feature of Monterey. Oh of course and the views and the wineries. We had lunch at this seafood place down Ocean View Blvd, away from town. Again good food, but unfortunately no oysters that we were after.

With a bit more sun-time on our hands Mike took me to see the famous 17 mile and the surrounding state park. There are a few sights the park is famous for: The ghost tree, the lone cypress, and about 15 others that I can't think of at the moment. People, very rich people, actually live in this area too. A little red tag on their cars denotes this and I assume they don't need to pay the entry fee each time they want to go home. Mind you, their land taxes probably include it. We circled the area and exited out the south entrance at Carmel. Apparently the Carmel area is this really expensive and beautiful place. I just got to see the town area (which is full of boutique shops). The Mucky Ducky is the usual haunt for many Monterey locals on Friday because Happy Hour is from 4pm-7pm where well drinks are $2 and appitizers are half price, so by the time you hit 7pm, you're sloshed. I think I lasted until at least 7:30pm before it was water for the rest of the night for me. Around 8pm, we moved to The Brit (The Britannia Arms Pub) down the road. One thing I like about America is the service. Most of the service industry workers live off their tips, hence the 15-20% required tip in America. The waitress we had serving us was the most intuitive server I've ever encountered and made a real impression on me. She tried to remember the names of her customers (now who does that at a BAR??), what they were drinking and even the ones just drinking water (me). Keeping an eye on the beer levels of the jugs, we'd get asked if we wanted a refill as it was getting low. When times were slow she'd walk around with a jug of water filling up the glasses of the people with water. And I have to tip my hat to anyone who can put up with a drunk who asks every two minutes when their nachos are ready. Now we need this kind of service in Oz. Hell, we need waiters/waitresses in bars. Just think, no more queuing for 15 mins at the bar!

It was this night that I learnt that people keep an eye on their tips too. One of the other guys at the table paid and when he'd left the table, this waitress came back to us and asked us if she'd provided bad service. When we answered no, she replied that that was her impression as we'd tipped $3 on a $50 bill. We apologised and offered to correct the error, which she refused, but then accepted. That waitress really knows how to 'play the game' eh? Well, 1am and the boys were full up of beer. Time to go home. Taxi!