We left home on December 26, 2003, and drove up I-5 to Buttonwillow, where we stayed overnight in a Motel 6. Then drove a little further north on 5 and cut across on 46 to 101, and reached Monterey that night. We stayed in the quite-comfortable Monterey Hilton, went to the Aquarium one day, strolled around the Wharf another day, spent another afternoon looking in bookshops and junk stores, went to the Monterey Chocolate Factory, and spent lots of time eating, reading, and just hanging around. We began our homeward journey on Jan 1 (2004), spent another night in Buttonwillow, and got home on the 2nd. It was a happy wonderful vacation! If you want to read more about it, head to my December 2003 blog page. The beautiful countryside we passed though on US-46, which runs East-West between I-5 and 101. Lovely clouds that day. More lovely scenery. That dark dot on a tree-top is a hawk -- I saw several just hanging out in the orchards. I was glad that Dan drove. I'm not used to roads with only one lane for each direction and it always looks as if the oncoming traffic is headed straight at me. Here we are -- Dan and Kara -- on vacation! I was doing my "Strong-Bad" impression! If you could see my T-shirt you'd know I look exactly like him. One day we drove to a little lake, I think it was El Estero lake, parked, and walked around. We looked at boats in the harbor and walked up to Fisherman's Wharf, where we saw this guy with a monkey. This anchor is stupendously huge. Hard to tell the scale here, but trust me. I think it was nearly my height at its tallest point! We walked past a boatyard and this boat reminded us of pthree. Scandalous! The Monterey Aquarium is enormous and full of fish. One of my favorite parts was the upper level where the hall was darkened and the jellyfish glowed in their tanks. Lovely. There's a place on Fremont called The Monterey Chocolate Factory. We went there one day and a lovely woman gave us a little tour of the candy-making area. Of course we had to wear goofy hats. Giant copper vats for mixing and heating CHOCOLATE. Our tour guide shows us the Amazing Mold Storage Cabinet. Mmmmmmm candy. We filled up a box with things to sample. My favorite was the coffee truffles, mmmmm. It was cold, cold, cold. Here I am, all bundled up. Dan says this is a good photo of me but I'm not sure I agree :) One of the TV channels in the Hilton was devoted to these unchanging words of wisdom: "NO NEW MESSAGES ENJOY THE AT&T". Now _that's_ entertainment!