Monterey, Winchester Mystery House and stuph

Two days of stuph rolled into one post... was going to post last night but was too tired.

Yesterday, tiresta, genhusky and I went down to Monterey to check out the aquarium.  We all got in for a third of the cost of normal admission thanks to findra, who unfortunately couldn't make it but was able to provide us with two guest passes.  Most of my attention was focused on the aquarium's sea otters... the last time I was there they had three otters which had since passed away.  But it also picked up three new otters, plus a fourth that was temporarily relocated from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina... all females.  For me, their antics were pretty much the reason to visit the aquarium.

I also splurged a little on souvenirs from the aquarium... got a T-shirt and a book on the aquarium and even got a couple of pennies pressed in those machines that will turn your pennies into souvenirs.  I normally don't get souvenirs from places unless it's unlikely I'll be visiting them again anytime soon... which is probably a safe bet for Monterey considering it's an hour and a half drive from San Jose.  As it is, I probably won't be back in the Bay area until next FC.

After we got back, we met up with findra for dinner at Marie Callendar's.

Today tiresta and I checked out the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose.  In addition to the normal tour, we did a Behind the Scenes tour, which was something apparently new that I hadn't noticed since I last went on the tour sometime in 1999-ish.  I got a souvenir book from there as well.  Then it was back to findra's place to rest up for a bit before dinner.  I copied the pix I took from FC and the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Winchester Mystery House tours onto a CD for tiresta, then took a katnap on the sofa.  I think I had zonked out for a half hour or so when findra tossed a Meeko plushie (where Meeko is lying down) onto me.  I zonked out again, waking up when chipuni showed up.  We then met up with genhusky for dinner at an Indian restaurant.

I think I've gotten more used to driving a minivan, though I really don't think I'd want to own one.  I probably wouldn't mind an SUV like the Infiniti FX but I want to keep a close eye on how well it does with respect to gas mileage.  I think ideally I'd like to have just one car but I want it to be designed for touring so I can do long trips if I need or want to do so.

Right now tomorrow's schedule is wide open.  I do want to at least do some shopping at Trader Joe's and need to drop by the bank to deposit a few checks, but other than that I don't really have any plans.  But I'll probably think of something at some point....

My last night in San Jose...

... before I fly back in the morning.

Today was mostly an errand day... ran several errands and stopped by Trader Joe's to pick up some assorted cookies to bring back.  Then rrauwl and I went to University Chicken as part of a furmeet... got to see several furs, including one I hadn't seen for several years.  Also ran into nerfcoyote there, who was getting his food just as a few of us were leaving for a coffee place about 3 blocks down the street.

We hung out at the coffee place for a few hours.  I also got another chance to talk to nerfcoyote for a bit... while I kinda monopolized his time a bit, I hadn't seen him in person in a year, so I was trying to compress a year's worth of conversation into some 20 minutes.  :)

This trip has been one of my best trips so far.  I'm not really looking forward to getting back to reality and the daily grind tomorrow, but I will admit that I have missed Lani and am looking forward to her company again (sneezes and all!).  And while I was trying to keep to some kind of budget during this trip, what matters in the end isn't how much I spent, but whether I got my money's worth.

There will be some tradeoffs because of this trip, though.  One tradeoff is that I'll be limiting how much I go out for the next few months because I went way over budget on this trip (I planned to spend a total of around $1000 maximum on the trip, including airfare, and I think when all is said and done it'll be closer to $1500 to $2000).  It doesn't mean I won't go out at all, but I'll probably try to economize where I can... try to stay in/around the local area, talk to friends online more versus actually going out, and so on.

I had 19 days of use or lose leave going into this 10-day trip, meaning I'll have 9 days of use or lose leave after this is done.  That could mean a second trip... or possibly me taking a week of leave on-island before the end of September.  Not sure yet.

And oh yeah... did I get my money's worth on this trip?  I sure think so.