Our Pacific Grove Workcation

After scheduling a client meeting near California's Central Coast on a Friday afternoon, Ken and I decided to make it the start of a weekend getaway - a belated birthday trip since I missed Ken's bday earlier in the month while at conference. We both had work we needed to get done for clients over the weekend, but we enjoy doing that work in the most pleasant places possible - hence, workcation!

The district office where the meeting was being held was precious, reminded me so much of my office with the Rio Linda School District - an abandoned wing of an elementary school where I could still hear the sounds of laughter and fun nearby. The meeting was quite honestly way too fun to be what I do for a living. I knew the superintendent was a good guy, and meeting the two board members to go over our project plan for a survey was a blast - super neat people who were smart, articulate, fun.

After a great meeting and agreeing to a bunch of deliverables before the end of the weekend, we set off for the Lighthouse Lodge and Cottages in Pacific Grove, near the top of Point Pinos south of Monterey.


The lodge is about a block away from the Point Pinos Lighthouse, the oldest continuous working lighthouse in the U.S. Even still has it's original lens.

It's even closer to the Port Pinos cememtary, in fact our room balcony looked out onto it. If you look in the distance you can see four deer - apparently they like to hang out there. Didn't bother me too much, except for my usual zombie shelter assessment (every time I go somewhere, I can't help but imagine how I would get away from the zombies.) Depending on the type of zombie - ie, something that brings the long-dead back to life, it could get hairy. ;-)

 

I think the deer coming to our balcony and Ken feeding them popcorn more than made up for the potential zombie risk. See that cutie licking it's lips? They really liked the popcorn.

Friday night we grabbed dinner at Montrio Cafe in Montery. We spent the day Saturday kicking around Pacific Grove, doing some work from a coffee shop and exploring the cute shops and restaurants. The weather, as you can see, was pretty amazing.

And Sunday morning we spent at the beach just down the street - a very cool spot that is a rugged scraggle of rock that extends out into the ocean and you can see the coastline for miles in either direction. Here are some of my favorite photos of the point:

 Very cool groups of crabs hanging out on the sunny rocks.

Here's a link to a video of the crabs and ocean...note to self, don't turn the camera phone sideways...

We drove home Sunday afternoon, stopping for a wonderful farm stand just outside of Monterey, and picked up all kinds of yummy, very inexpensive produce. 

We also stopped to see an old college friend of Ken's who started the Santa Cruz Pasta Factory. He gave a us a private tour of the place and loaded us up with some fantastic pasta and sauces. Needless to say, we won't be hungry any time soon. ;-)