Monterey Aquarium

Today, Mark and I stayed within the Monterey Peninsula. The day started pretty lazy, with a late start due to lots of sleeping. Then we headed down to old Cannery Row and we spent about 4 hours at the aquarium, which was pretty cool. We saw lots of fish and jellyfish and otters (both sea and river). We also saw one of the ugliest fish ever, the sunfish. Seriously, the picture in no way does it justice.

After that we lazily drove out to Carmel, where we found a great candy shop, saw lots of great beaches and million dollar houses (just about every single house in the town), and we found the nicest super market in the entire world. It was a Safeway, but a top-end gourment Safeway. it was very nice. We then capped the day with too much "I Love the '70s" on VH1, which can't be good for our mental state.

On the Way to Monterey

Today my brother and I took to the road to get down to Monterey, where we are spending about 3 days. First we hiked up to a cliff overlooking the bay, hoping to get a view of the Golden Gate bridge, but so much fog had rolled in off the ocean that we couldn't see anything. We did get to check out some old gun emplacements (with the guns long removed), though.

After that we drove over the Golden Gate bridge and then had lunch in Chinatown at some random Chinese restaurant which shall remain nameless because it wasn't all that great. After that we hit highway 1 down the cost towards Monterey. Once we got away from the clouds the view of the ocean was gorgeous. Mark and I found one spot where we could look out over the ocean for along way on either side, and we took a trial down to the beach where I found a nice shell I took with me and I got to touch the ocean. Very cool. I had forgotten how deep blue the ocean can be.

After that we finally got to Monterey, where we crashed in the hotel for a while before heading out to find dinner. It turned out that there was a street festival of some kind taking place down by the pier. We both got some lamb wraps for dinner, and I got to try this one guy's homemade root beer. Oh, and I gave my change to some homeless guy. All told, a successful day. Tomorrow, we hit the aquarium.

The Golden Gate

Greetings from the Marin Headlands, outside of Sausalito, CA, four miles north of the Golden Gate bridge. Yes, the journey into California has been successful, so far. On Sunday we flew into Sacramento with no problems and then drove to the Napa Valley, where we saw dozens of wineries (including a couple I had actually heard of before), and then we drove into Santa Ana where I promptly crashed at the hotel. I fell asleep before 8PM, which is unheard of for me, but I did wake up at 2AM Pacific time to catch my flight, so that most likely had something to do with it.

Yesterday we drove west from Santa Ana to catch California highway 1, which runs along the Pacific coast. We stopped at an overlook on the ocean and got to drink in the cold, windy Pacific coast that I remember so well from childhood. We also got to see a bank of fog roll in, so thick that the rocks off the coast were no longer visible. After that we had lunch in some small town along that coast that was packed with Labor Day tourists, and then we drove out to a a campground north of the Muir national monument and hiked down the hill to the Muir visitors center, and then hiked up back to the campground. Luckily, my right foot (with the tendinitis) survived that OK.

Last night we stayed at the Marin Headlands hostel. This is my first experience staying at a hostel, and it kind of feels like college. The room had four bunkbeds for a total of 8 beds, and there were four people staying in the room last night. There are communal bathrooms. But there is wireless internet, so I get to actually make a blog post. That, and my wireless is actually working today. :)

Later this morning we will drive over the Golden Gate bridge into San Fran and then make our way south to Monterey, where we will be having base camp over the next few days. Hopefully the Labor Day crowds will have dissipated and there won't be hordes of people there to deal with.

California or Bust

Things have been pretty quiet lately for me. There is work, and playing games with friends, and then more of both. Tomorrow, however, I get on a plane to fly out to California with my brother, Mark, for an eight-day tour of the central part of the state. We will start in Sacramento, head west north of San Francisco, head south to Monterey, and then head east past Fresno, before finally hauling tail next Monday morning to get back to Sacramento in time for our flight back to St. Louis. It should be lots of fun. There is a lot of hiking planned, as well as a whale watching trip into the Pacific from Monterey. In fact, the only day that isn't planned is tomorrow. We arrive in Sacramento at 10 AM, and then we have all day to meander our way out to Santa Clara. That should work out for us, though, as we will have time to reset our internal clocks to Pacific time and to buy food and stuff. I might not get to blog during the trip, but if not I'll give you a rundown once I get back.

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard, 2003, Ballantine Books

Even though I have liked heroic fantasy for years, I was very late to the game when it comes to the Conan stories. In fact, before I read this book, I had never read an original Conan story by Howard himself. I had heard a lot about them, of course, and I had read some comic book adaptations and a short story written in more modern times by a different author, but nothing by the original creator. However, last year I read and thoroughly enjoyed Howard's Soloman Kane collection (also by Ballantine), so I figured it was time to give Conan a try.

After finishing this book, I have to say that I am impressed. Howard writes with a certain unique drive that just pulls you in and compels you to keep reading. I also appreciate how Conan is the hero of the stories but is generally not shown as a nice guy. He is a mean, tough barbarian who kills people without second thought and really does not fit in with civilized society at all. The only thing that bugged me about this collection, and this is a minor gripe, is the fact that the Conan stories don't really fit into any overall timeline. The way that the stories were handled really struck me like the way the TV show "Seinfeld" was written. Specifically, you have your set characters, and then they get involved in various schemes and have to deal with it. At the end of the story, everything resets back to the beginning. So, in one story, Conan will be a king, in another story he will be a pirate, and in a third story he will be a mercenary. There isn't really anything to tie all of the stories together. As I said, that is a minor gripe, but I figured I should point it out.

As far as this specific collection goes, I have no complaints. Printed in the large-form trade paperback format, the book contains excellent artwork to accompany the stories, and the text is superbly edited and typeset. The book also contains extras such as maps of the land, an original history of the Hyborian Age written by Howard, and early drafts of numerous stories, for those who are interested in how stories changed over time. Overall, this is a fine collection that any fan of fantasy fiction would be proud to own.