We went horseback riding, something Annie has been dying to do since we got near Texas. We all enjoyed it and had a lot of fun. It is surprisingly hard to take a picture while on a horse. No matter how much pleading I did, the horse just would not stand still. We all had pretty good horses and we rode along the beach for an hour.
Annie learned what she would need to do if she wanted to learn to ride and work at a stable. I think that will be her first job.
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We pretty much look for houses and walk through them during the first half of the day, but then the rest of the time is for the kids. I really cannot wait to get settled. It seems like it is going impossibly slow, but I know it is not.
Our first attempt at getting a house was a fail. We filled out all of the paperwork only to find out that it was rented in the time we took to view the property and fill out the paperwork. We asked, and it takes two days to process the paperwork, so they knew it was going to rent before we asked for the keys to view it. So, we will not be working with them any longer and it is now the first question I ask. I am not waisting my time and it ticked me off that they felt they can waste my time, and they never even apologized. Monterey Bay Property Management, you will not get any more of my time.
We did talk with another company, Mangold Property Management, the receptionist was more worried about her perfume (which was applied way to heavily, because we could still smell it when we left) and whatever was going on in the back of the office to be bothered with helping a prospective client. HELLO ... This is the age of social media ... I will out your ass on my blog if you provide less than tolerable service. Do not think for one minute that I am going to tolerate piss poor customer service. You may not be here to serve me, but you have a client that trusted you with their property and in order to manage that in any way you have to be willing to take the time with everyone that passes through your office doorway, even when you think you have something better to do. So get over yourself and do the job you are being paid to do.
Sorry. I really hate wasting my time and I really need to have a home base and be settled. I did not realize how important that really was to me.
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We have done a lot since my last blog so I am just going to throw a bunch of pictures on here and comment on a few of them.
Here we were at the Monterey Farmers Market. They hold this one every Tuesday, year round.
A man named George brings his personal birda down to show off and for kids to see. He is not all that friendly with adults, but he was cool with the kids. We asked him if he was with a zoo and that was when he told us that they were her personal birds. He has some pretty awesome birds.
Protesters ... I think I blinded them with my flash ... Oops.
We spent a lot of time at the farmers market, but it is difficult to enjoy things when you are trying to capture them. So I put the camera away after a while. That, and there were a lot of people and Shane does not like losing me in a crowd. Neither do the kids, it really irritates them.
We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium and became members.
It was cheaper to do that than it would have been to visit more than one time.
Since we are living here, we thought it would be a good investment.
All of us went once and then we dropped the kids off while we went house hunting.
I believe we will be going again this week sometime if we have time.
It is really relaxing to just watch the fish. My favorite part are the jellyfish. They are amazing.
Here you can see what it is like when a wave crashes.
It is pretty cool and Cameron really liked this part.
It is really hard to take pictures of the fish in the tanks. I am learning though.
Annie got to feed an Abalone. They eat kelp. It was crazy. It sucked it right from her hand.
Here Annie and Cameron watched the tide from a different point of view.
Oh look ... A giant shell ... what shall we do with that?
Irritate our children ...
We went horseback riding along the beach one day. Annie requested that we go horseback riding. She loves horses and it took a lot of convincing Shane (not really) to go riding along the beach.
I think he was as excited as Annie was.
One person not excited was Cameron. He had to wear a helmet and he did not think that it was cool. I do not think he liked my choice of helmet. After he got on the horse, his charm took over and he talked the ears off the female guide, Linda, and one other girl who was there with her boyfriend.
Annie is only doing that to make me crazy ...
Our other guide, Butch, took this picture. He was pretty cool too.
Here is one of the pictures I tried to take while on the horse. Not very good, but you can see Cameron on a horse all by himself and without a guide line. He rode most of it without help. There were a few times where he needed a little help, but not many.
Also, if you are ever in Monterey and want to ride horses, give Monterey Bay Equestrian Center a call. Butch and Linda were awesome and great guides and the horses are pretty nice too.
Then yesterday, it was hard but we went to the beach closest to the house we looked at. Pacific Grove is to Monterey what West Des Moines is to Des Moines. Close but not too close.
Had to get a picture of this sign to torment my mother.
We looked for sea shells until Shane told us to stop.
This beach is federally protected and we cannot take any shells or sea life from this beach.
I love Cameron's excitement ... I have no idea what he is pointing at.
or what he is looking at ...
It was a hard day
Annie was rethinking the shorts after a while. The water is really cold.
I will leave you with one of my favorite shots of the day. I am shooting through the water.
It was cool to see an actual starfish in the ocean and not in a tank.
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