After our nice layover day at Half Moon Bay, CA, we moved on down the coast and made a stop in Salinas, CA for the Salinas Rodeo. This was our first time to a real live Rodeo, so we didn’t know exactly what to expect. It was pretty cool and was kind of like a three ring circus where they have different things going on all at once and several types of events including Bronco Riding, Bull Riding, Bull Fighting, Steer Wrestling, Barrel Racing, Roping, etc. While we didn’t see anyone get injured, the guys wrestling the steers to the ground and/or riding the bulls must have trouble getting life insurance as this is clearly not the safest sport on the planet and must require some combination of bravery and foolhardiness to attempt.
After a few hours at the rodeo, we headed over to Monterey, CA to meet up with Sandra’s cousin Caroline who is in the US Navy and stationed at the Presidio of Monterey. Caroline is stationed there to study foreign languages at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) so that she can learn to monitor and translate the communications of other countries. She first learned Russian and is now learning Chinese there.
Caroline and Tim
Caroline and her friend Tim (who is also in the Navy studying Chinese at the DLI too) showed us the base and also around the town of Monterey including a really good dinner of Hawaiian themed fare at Hula’s. After hanging out there for a bit, we headed back to crash in the quiet comfort of Caroline’s on-base apartment and the thought of being fully secured by the US Military.
Sunday we are driving Big Sur and making our way down to San Luis Obispo, CA.
