Harbor Of Monterey, California #1

The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails RV Resort in Morgan Hill, California.

My eye surgeon at the VA Hospital in Palo Alto, California wants me back for a six-month post-operation examination of my cataract surgery. My appointment is scheduled for April 21st. Palo Alto is only about 40 miles from my current location. I’ll sit here until the 21st when I’ll drive the Bronco to Palo Alto. I expect to arrive at Mary’s home in Murphys, California on either April 22 or 23.

Recently I spent several days in Monterey…an area rich in beautiful scenery and history. A bonanza for a travel blogger! I ended up with 17 blog titles and 628 photos which I’ll present over the roughly next six weeks. This works well for me because I’ll be in an “idle period” during that time. Currently I’m sitting here in Morgan Hill (I’ve been here a number of times in the past) awaiting my VA hospital appointment. Then off to Mary’s home for about four weeks during which time I’ll do routine maintenance, minor repairs and cleaning. On about May 21, Mary and I are planning to head-out for Yellowstone National Park (and other destinations) in Wyoming. Till then, enjoy Monterey!

Today’s subject – Harbor Of Monterey…

In the below Google Earth image Old Fisherman’s Wharf is on the left and Municipal Wharf #2, aka Commercial Wharf, is the longer one on the right.

The photos in this set were taken either from Old Fisherman’s Wharf or the harbor promenade between both wharfs…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

More tomorrow…

You can read all about the history of the Harbor of Monterey by clicking this link…http://monterey.org/en-us/Departments/Harbor-Marina/Historic-Harbor

You can read all about Monterey, California by clicking this Wikipedia link…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterey,_California

Tomorrow we will continue with more of the beautiful scenery and history that is part of Monterey, California!

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.

Yesterday was cloudy/sunny and 73 degrees. Forecast for today is cloudy/sunny and 78 degrees.

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273?authkey=Gv1sRgCKrvzqm8-IKGdA

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2015

ANTALYA, CITY BY THE SEA

We unloaded from our bus in Antalya and had to walk to our hotel because the Old Town streets are not big enough for a bus. The Main St. can accommodate  a taxi or van, which is how they got our luggage in.

The streets in Old Town are cobblestone and vendors take up part of the thoroughfare. A taxi can slip by.

Up the narrow side streets, it is a different story. Usla is wise to know we appreciate the quaintness of Old Town.

Our hotel is the Dogon.

Our room is a corner room and out one window we can see the beautiful courtyard where we will have our breakfasts and hotel dinners.

Out the other window is a dilapidated building for sale. We saw squatters with a child living there, or perhaps staying there temporarily.

Also making a home in the building, a pair of doves.

In Old Town, gypsy vendors sold merchandise from colorful carts.

Notice the huge God’s eye. I so regret not getting pictures of shops with huge collections of God’s eyes, of every conceivable decoration and size.

This vendor has a stand with his scarves and trinkets.

I didn’t mark the name of this main thoroughfare, but it is lined with old roman sculptures in modern poses. This one is holding his garment up to an ATM machine to catch the money when it falls out.

The street sweeper.

This fellow is using his cell phone. Usla calls them “the government’s sense of humor.”

A sign with the price of drinks in a bar. At one of our pit stops, I bought a whole bottle of Raki for two Turkish lira.

You see very little restrictive clothing in a modern city like Antalya. Usla identified this gown and turban wearing gent as a Syrian refuge. It is against the law to wear the Burka in Turkey. The government outlawed this form of restrictive religious dress in 1934 as Turkey became aware of its changing roll on the world stage. In fact, they gave women the right to vote in 1920.

This is a statue of a water tender who would fill his container with water and sell it on the street, providing a service so people didn’t have to go to the town well for a drink. The water tender is hooked up to a faucett, now.

We passed this street that reminded several of us of Fremont Street in Las Vegas.

Usla bought a bagel from a vendor for us to taste, but we had already had them at mini-marts and from street vendors. Unlike anything we know as a bagel, it is tender, delicious, covered in sesame seeds and addictive. Hmmm! Loved them.

We circled around and ended our walk and chat at the harbor. I swam in the pool in the afternoon while Owen and Usla, along with others took clothing to a laundry. The water was cold, but poolside was slippery marble and I decided it was a dangerous place to be wet. (Gina fell.)

We had happy hour both nights in a small courtyard near the rooms of Joyce, Judy, Gina, and Maria.

Since this was a dinner on your own, we found a nice nearby restaurant next to the water. We sat in an open air space looking down on a sandy beach. Usla said they charge 15 tl to use the beach. And, miracle of miracles, Owen ordered  calamari and a second entree of a fish casserole. Both were delicious.

The atmosphere at this hotel was so pleasant. We early birds are early to breakfast.

And packed for leaving the next day. I spotted this sign.

And this one just around the corner from the hotel that I somehow missed after passing it several times.

We had free time and crossed the main ave into town on what Usla described as “…where the locals shop, better prices.”  Joyce held up this button covered purse for me. (I have a button collection.)

Such pleasant weather; flowers everywhere.

gyros is what we eat in the U.S. when we eat Greek. Well, that is, one of the things, depending on where you live.

I was delighted to run into this yarn covered tree, for two reasons. Jim’s mother was the type of person who knitted and crocheted steadily. Her niece told me if anything was left uncovered, she’d soon crochet or knit it a cove. And, I have pictures of a yarn covered elephant, a bus, a taxi and a picture of this tree. I had no idea the tree was growing on the streets of Antalya, Turkey. And, now I know what a God’s eye is.

Tourists line up to ride these horse pulled, decorated buckboard.

I’m sure there is more to see in this town of interest to tourists. But our time was enjoyable and tomorrow, we will leave the hotel, bags packed, and bus to one of the best museums in Turkey, according to Usla. The museum is about 2 miles from our hotel.

 

 

 

 

Rockport, Texas – Day 2

The motorhome is parked at American Legion Post #363. We will depart later this morning.

Yesterday we drove the Bronco the about two miles to see Rockport Harbor. Rockport Beach is a certified Blue Beach…one of only four in Texas. You can read about it by clicking this link…
http://www.rockportbeach-texas.com/

You can read about Rockport by clicking this Wikipedia link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockport,_Texas

Mary went to the Arts Center while I visited the Texas Maritime Museum. We returned to the American Legion where Mary enjoyed two dozen oysters…I don’t do oysters.

Here are some of the photos I took yesterday…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

To see the other 95 photos that I took, click this Picasa Web Album kink…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/RockportTexas

Enjoying scenic seaports is another joy of the full-time RVing lifestyle!!!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Texas. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…(look closely on the Texas coast…)

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

WEST ISLAND, A PERFECT DAY

Every once in awhile, you experience a perfect day. The sky couldn’t be bluer, the weather more perfect, no stop lights, (none, so far on the island) or traffic jams; gorgeous scenery grabbing your eye at every turn and then you discover Larsen’s. I was standing at the refrigerator debating about the lobster rolls or stuffed scallops when a local came in and sort of pushed me aside and grabbed every last lobster roll for she and her friends. Wha!
This must be the place. And, it was!
But I’m ahead of  myself. First, the harbor at Menemsha. Its on the West side of the Island

It has a working fishing fleet and private boats as well.We walked the breakwater, smelled the ocean air, watched the birds, and surf. The sun, after rainy yesterday felt good.

This was one of many uncrowded beaches. I’m sure there will be more bikers and visitors on the weekend. This side of the island gets less visitors and less locals. Probably because the real estate here is divided into no less than 3 acre parcels, very expensive parcels.

We watched as this boater backed into his stall. His young son jumped off and tied off. Then the family disembarked. They were very friendly and nice to we tourist types with or cameras.

This gull actually posed for us. We saw it searching for tidbits on a boat that had recently come in.

This fish shanty begged “get out your easel and paint me”.

The fish shanties are weathered grey shingles but often have bright orange, red, yellow or blue doors. Jim was set to take my picture and a local woman offered to snap the two of us. Yes! Thank you!

One small harbor and it had five fish markets. At Menemsha, we stopped in and sampled the lobster bisque and clam chowder. The bisque had large chunks of claw meat in it, the best I’d ever tasted. Both were meaty superior tasting. It doesn’t get any better than this. Their fish tank held  a giant lobster nicknamed Lobsterzilla at 16 lbs. Estimated age 100 years. Its right claw was as big as my hand, only thicker.

It would be a sin to eat him methinks. We bought chowder and bisque to take home.
Then we poked our head into Larsens. Steamer clams for Jim. I tried a couple of oysters on the half shell, and one cherrystone clam, (I’d never eaten cherrystones before,) plus a stuffed scallop and a stuffed quahog. As we propped on the edge of a weathered box to eat our lunch, locals told us that Larsens has the best lobster in all new England. “Better than Maine. When we get here, we just toss everything and zap over here and get our first lobster. Nothing over a pound or a pound and 1/2, they advised.” The lady who took all the lobster rolls must have known. Yup! We were definitely in the right place. The refrigerator was refilled with lobster rolls but we were too full by then.  Hopefully time will allow a return to Larsens Fish Market.

Moving westward to Gay Head, we visited the cliffs and the Gay Head lighthouse. Nearly deserted beaches along the way and in every direction. Beautiful is sort of an inadequate word at times.

The light house light cycles every few seconds and I caught it on the red.

We left this spot to return home and found the prettiest spot on the island. This little inlet at Clam Cove north of Aquinnah.

This shallow little cove is perfect for small boats, children at play, kayaks, rafts and small craft. It rests the eyes to look at it. Except for the whiffs of chowder  in the car, reminding us of what we had waiting for us, we hated to return home. A perfect day.
For more pictures, I uploaded an album: http://picasaweb.google.com/1579penn/61110WestIslandMenemsha#