Monterey Bay Aquarium

Happy BLUE Monday and thank you Sally from SmilingSally for hosting this day with us. Be sure to visit her and all the other BLUE Participants. You'll be glad you did.

While we were in California on vacation we drove to Monterey to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You can see the BLUE sign in the distance as we walked to it.

The aquariums were wonderful. This was a huge one full of big jellyfish in the BLUE BLUE water!

This one had a little crab holding on for a free ride....

I love the BLUE of the water and the colour of the jellyfish....it looks more like a painting than a camera picture I think.

This aquarium was open water on the 2nd floor and we could the underwater on the first floor. Isn't it spectacular? It had so many different fish in there. They must have been very well fed because they weren't chasing each other or looking at each other like they were food. There were a number of different kinds of large sharks in there too.

A scuba diver goes into the water from the 2nd floor to feed the fish. You can see from the commentator on the first floor how tall it was. He had an aluminum pail with a lid and he would reach in and pull out the food and some would almost feed from his hand.

They are also fed by the organisms that come in with the water that actually comes in from the bay into the aquariums on a regular basis.

This "little" guy was in the BLUE water and he peeked around a large rock to take a good look at me I think. I think we were smiling at each other....

This picture was all the BLUE I saw that day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

I'm glad you stopped by to visit... have a lovely day Judi xoxo

Crown and Crumpet ... In Person

Thank you Beverly from How Sweet the Sound for hosting PINK Saturday again for us today. Be sure to click HERE to see all the other PINK participants.

In the March 2009 issue of Romanic Homes - Color Issue I read about this wonderful Tea Salon called the Crown and Crumpet.

I would love to own a sweet place like that. Love love love too! One of those cute little shoppes with tea and crumpets and little sandwiches and scones and biscotti and cute little teapots and napkins and pretty colours and lots of cute little shelves with cute little things for sale. I "in my sparetime" would love to put some of my crafts on some of those pretty little shelves. I would love it.

Marc listened patiently while I shared the pictures in the magazine with him and about all my "fantasies" about it...once again.

While on vacation in SanFrancisco in Girarrardelli Square I took a picture of Marc. I didn't notice at the time but do you see anything familiar on the sign to his right?

mmmmhmmmmmmm...CROWN AND CRUMPET!!! It was THERE from the MAGAZINE ... there in person. When I'd read the article I didn't even know the store was in California never mind San Francisco I just knew it wasn't close to me!

Now do I look excited as I tell Marc to come inside!! A very nice gentleman and I didn't even ask, but it must have been one of the owners lisened as I told him blah blah blah and seen it in Romantic Homes and blah blah ... always wanted a lovely place like this...blah blah...and could I take pictures??!!! He said yes I could. I told him it was for my blog. Can you already see all the PINK?

Look how sweet it is. See all the lovely PINKNESS in there? I love the square red/PINK and white tiles on the floor and the pretty PINK wallpaper and polka dotted PINK tablecloths.

There are shelves are pretty bottles goodies....

They do indeed serve up different menus for Breakfast, Lunch, Afternoon Tea and Evening. The menu looks delish and includes quiche and lovely little sandwiches and scones with jam and of course tea.

There are for sale pretty aprons, cloths, and seeseeteapots and cups and well you can see for yourself. They also had lovely wrapped candies and treats of different kinds and wrapped so brightly and displayed so attractively in cups and pretty dishes. It was such a fun and colourful place.

All the shelves are painted in pretty and dainty colours.... see the pretty PINK candle that looks like a cake? There are all the cups and saucers with their PINK Crown and Crumpet emblem on it. Now why didn't I purchase a set for myself???

Isn't this a wonderful idea for an overhead lighting? So many sparkling crystals hanging down inside a large lamp shade. I loved this idea in the magazine also....

In case you couldn't tell I was so excited to actually see the Crown and Crumpet in person. If you go to SanFrancisco you must stop there for a visit.....

Hope you are having a lovely day... Judi xoxo

Trip to Alcatraz...Visiting Only...

While in SanFrancisco on our vacation we visited Alcatraz. We purchased our tickets online a couple of weeks earlier as suggested to us. Good thing because it was all sold out for that day. We took a short ferry ride to the island.

Looking back on to land from Alcatraz I was reminded how close it was to land. So close but yet to the prisoners so very far. The water temperatures are in the 50s so you wouldn't survive too long swimming in it, there were a lot of currents to pull you under and of course there are sharks. I could only imagine how they would have felt looking back at the land. They were destined to be there forever....

It was quite a walk outdoors up to the actual prison. The buildings were quite oldlike and worn and in shambles.

We did pass some beautiful flowers growing along the way along the hike up.

We chose the audio tour. We were given headphones and a little recorder. Once we stepped inside the actual prison we turned it on and followed the route it directed us to.

Some of the narrators were the voices of these inmates. As we moved along the corridors which were named "Broadway Avenue'' etc. we were directed to stop at certain spots. We were told stories of the particular cells, or rooms or kitchen or corridor by them. We could hear heavy doors slamming in our ears.

Doors to cells like the ones above. In this area they were not allowed to put up anything on the walls or floors. No pictures, no rugs...nothing. There were some other areas perhaps some of the inmates had worked their way up to them. They were allowed to paint and hung their pictures. Or they read books and had them on shelves. It felt very creepy to know that some of them had been told that no one knew they were alive. Friends and relatives had been told they were dead.

There was a siege in the prison from May 2-4, 1946. There had been a lot of planning and chances taken but it didn't go so well. In the above picture some of the inmates are shown in the left pictures and officers on the right. Some of the officers were taken hostage and in the fight were shot. Three prisoners did make it to the water and were never seen again. Could they have been sooo lucky to have made it. No one knows.

The prison was closed in the 60s and the prisoners were taken to other prisons because it was becoming too rundown and expensive to repair.

We were standing there smiling. We were happy and going back home...or at least to tour some more of lovely SanFrancisco.

I hope you are enjoying your day too.... Judi xoxo

Seafood in San Francisco and Homemade Clam Chowder

The seafood we enjoyed while on our California vacation was absolutely delicious. It was so fresh and so tasty and mmmmmmhmmmm...yum!

In San Francisco at the Fisherman's Wharf we couldn't get over the lovely looking seafood prepared in the open on Pier 39. There were aisles and counters of all kinds.....

We sat in an open-air restaurant and had a bowl of clam chowder. Some people ordered clam chowder in a bread bowl. One thing we found that every restaurant presented the meal with a fabulous sour dough bread. California sure has the best sour dough bread!! We are "bread people" Marc and I. *lol*.

So when we saw the wonderful bread they brought to us we passed on the bread bowl and ordered ours in a regular bowl. Here Marc is enjoying his soup while we were on vacation. He has a bit of a windblown look. It was a windy day. *s*.

Since coming home a week ago Friday I've made clam chowder twice. Once for Geoff and I and the other time last night when Janet came over for dinner. Marc was at work so I made it without telling him. It was a nice surprise for him and he said it was yummy. I forgot to take pictures while I was making it but here it is all all complete. The recipe I used is below.

Clam Chowder Recipe

2 6.5 oz cans of baby clams, drained (keep the liquid aside)

1 small bottle clam juice

3 medium potates, peels and chopped

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 stalk celery, sliced thin

2 slices bacon

2 tablespoons flour

2 cups milk (I've used 1% and 2% and both worked great)

1/2 cup half and half cream

1/2 tsp pepper (or to taste)

1/3 tsp dried thyme

In a large sauce pan fry the bacon until its crispy. Place on paper towel to absorb grease and then crunch it and place in separate little container.

Drain bacon grease from pan except for 1 tablespoon. Add the onions, celery, potatoes, thyme, pepper and the bottle of clam juice. Stir and bring that to a boil, lower temperature and cover cooking the potatoes until they are done. Stir periodically. Mash most of the potatoes with a spoon against the wall of the saucepan.

In a large measuring cup add the milk, cream and flour and stir to mix. Slowly add that to the mixture in the saucepan. Stir until it has thickened. Add the clams and stir for a few minutes until it has heated throughout. I additionally added some of the drained liquid from the clams for added taste. Easy isn't it? And it IS very yummy. mmmmm....

Serve in cup or bowl and sprinkle crumbled bacon into each cup. Enjoy......

Have a lovely day... Judi xoxo

SanFrancisco Vacation

It just occurred to me I HAD downloaded pictures onto Marc's laptop we had with us on our trip to California. So I am at the cottage but can share some pictures with you.

San Francisco had so much to see. I enjoyed driving up those steep streets like Hyde Street....

and driving back down them...wheeeee..... This drive would not be as fun if they had our snow....

We drove down Lombart Street known as the crookedest street in the world. Now because of the nature of the street and the borders and flowers in between the curves, I couldn't get a shot of it from the top down.

It is a constant parade of cars that slowly follows each other down the sharp winding street. The street sort of curves from the garage of a house on your right to the garage of a house on the left....

See all the little people standing by the red building part way down the hill on your right?

The houses are lovely on this street as well. I wonder how they ever get onto their street with all these cars.

Can you get how it goes from this pictures? Really neat.

Then at the curves along the partial wall are planted beautiful flowers. They grow in abundance all the way down the street in this manner.

Well here are those "tiny" people we saw at the bottom and partway down the hill in one of the above pictures. They were all watching us driving down and taking pictures of the cars. You can see from this picture that you can keep on driving downnnnnnnnnnnn....

I wanted to share this blurry picture with you because see that island at the top of the picture a short distance in the water with white buildings? Thats Alcatraz. I didn't realize it was so close to San Francisco, so close to land. We went there and that was interesting. I can't even imagine how the prisoners felt being able to look at land so close...but to them with the frigid waters and sharks so very far.... I'll share that another time.

Thats some of the fun driving I'll share today..... have a lovely day yourself! Judi xoxo