While I bought my new car a few weeks ago, weather (rain) and other obligations (moving into new apartment) have prevented me from taking my first real geniuine road trip. On Saturday, we grabbed our coats and sweaters and hit 17 south towards Santa Cruz. It was a real thrill to drive through that speedy and windy pass with something that has the ability to climb the hill with a certain level of verve. We then picked up the Pacific Coast Highway (or, PCH if you live here) and headed on down to Monterey. I had been planning on just stopping in downtown Carmel but then we saw the exit for the 17 mile drive.

Here’s a photoset from my two and a half days in Rome downtown. I only got to scratch the surface, but here’s what I saw.

Alfredo Garcia and Nicole Garcia née Morales. This weekend Lauren and I attended the wedding of this lovely couple. Alfredo and I had lost contact of one another when I moved to CA, but, upon returning to Austin, he found me via a comment I left at another blog. Through this past 10 months (!?!), we’ve had occasion to see each other with some regularity and were blessed to be invited to this beautiful wedding. The wedding took place at the lovely San Jose Catholic Church hidden in the heart of beautiful South Austin. I had only been to one other Catholic wedding ( being of Anglo - Germanic stock myself ) so the ceremony and ritual was again a bit of a foreign, although beautiful, experience for me.