Trip to Monterey

Allison, Isabella and I all went to Monterey, CA for my friend Freddy's retirement from the Army. His family is all from Monterey and when you have the connections that Freddy does, you can pull some strings to make things happen so he was able to have his retirement ceremony in his hometown.













Freddy and I met at Ft. Bragg when I had just come back from Korea and he had just returned from DLI (Defense Language Institute) out in Monterey where he had learned Hatian Creole. As a linguist, Freddy speaks 6 languages fluently and is teaching many of them to his kids. We've been friends ever since we met in May of 95. We've both been through a lot of changes and I've seen him through some rough times since then, but there have been many great times as well. He's one of those low maintenance friends that you can always count on and lives a great example of how to love others unconditionally.














The trip was short, but we were able to get to see a good bit of Monterey, Carmel, and the surrounding area. It's a beautiful part of CA and seems to be largely unspoiled by over development unlike the rest of CA and much of the US. Even so, it's not a cheap place to live by any stretch of the imagination.














Isabella did great on the trip. She slept through the night every night were were there in the hotel room and she was a perfect angel on the plane ride there and back. She is such a good baby. She was even happy amongst all the chaos of his family and the retirement party and tons of overstimulation. She took it all in stride her mommy and daddy were happy to have her along with us on the trip.