Whale Watching

 No, this whale watching is not of myself poolside.  So no, there was no chorus from the shoreline onlookers shouting, "Push her back in, she's DYING."  

Rather, we did a quick trip down to Monterey with family/friends just for the fun of it.  It was a group of six of us just for the fun of going to Monterey for a quick get-away.  

The weather was PERFECT.  The advantage of visiting the Monterey Peninsula in winter is that it is not socked in with fog.  However, it could have been raining cats and dogs.  We could only wish for rain in California at this point as we are so dry.

We had special treats every time we turned around.  One of the guys in our group had never seen the famous lone cypress on 17-mile drive.  He had never been to 17-Mile Drive.  We stopped to take it all in.  What made it extra special was that the whales are migrating and we got to witness them spray, breach, etc., during our stop.   It was icing on the cake.  People pay $$$$$$ to see that...we paid zero.  It was just dumb luck that we happened to be there.  

Other dumb luck was the private concert we had from a guy who is an aspiring Nashville musician...and the bartender who latched onto our group because my husband brings cheese from the local Sonoma County dairies and so the bartender kept giving us freebees all night long....and the general manager of the hotel who befriended us because we unknowingly cheered his kid on during a little fun and friendly competition betwixt the kid and some adults.  

Sometimes life throws you some wonderful surprises.  

When you are kind to people, people tend to be kind to you.  It's the golden rule.  We witnessed plenty of people being rude to waitstaff and to those they considered "lower" than themselves.  Their entitlement attitude got them nowhere.  

It's amazing how just being respectful to your fellow human beings has an impact.