We're back, after a week in California looking at new technology and enjoying one of our favourite places, Carmel.
We had driven south on Highway 1 several days ago to look for whales heading south along the coast, but did not see any. Yesterday, before driving our rental car back to San Francisco we decided to try again. This time we saw several spouts and splashes and vowed that we would take binoculars on the next trip.
This excursion gave me an opportunity for a few more film and digital photographs. You won't see any whales in this image, but this is where we saw them.
On Tuesday night we had dinner at Clint Eastwood's Mission Ranch and – as we had done several years earlier – stayed for the music. Gennady Loktionov is the regular pianist, although we've been told that Clint sits in periodically. Gennady is a great pianist and entertainer, and he has a lot of musical fans from Carmel and the surrounding area who come regularly to sing with him. These are fine musicians who have repertoires ranging from Broadway to country.
We sang and visited late into the evening. One of the musicians chatted with us about how well Little Mosque on the Prairies was doing in Canada and how we were missing it that evening. We told him to watch for Corner Gas. Another, after hearing that we were from Alberta, talked about how much she liked K.D. Lang's music.
A local professional musician sang several Spanish ballads, then joined another chap, who had just sung a set of Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash songs, in 'To All The Girls I've Loved Before': and, yes, they looked and sounded like Willie and Julio Iglesias. The crowd loved it.
A middle-aged man in a grey double-breasted suit then sang two Russian folk songs and 'If every I should leave you' from Camelot.
Every singer knew his or her songs perfectly and, I'm sure, had sung them in that bar many times. They and the rest of the group around the piano were regulars. They and Gennady asked us to join them the next time we're in town.
The next morning, after our impromptu whale run down the coast, we drove north on Highway 1, past Monterey and Seaside, then east on Highway 156, through the hilly fields of artichokes near Castroville, and north on Highway 101 to San Francisco through Silicon Valley. San José, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Stanford. Then home.
Gracias a la Vida.
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