“The slithery. The scaly. The spectacularly showy. Discover incredible animals from land and sea in this special exhibition featuring creatures from the coastal habitats of Baja California. Life here thrives on the edge of sand and surf, where rugged desert coastline meets the sapphire waters of the Pacific.”
Cortez Rainbow Wrasse
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has opened an amazing new exhibit. You will not want to miss it! I first was introduced to Baja in the 1970’s when I flew down there in a small 4-seater aircraft. The airports were so rough that we had to fly over the runway first to scare the cows off so we could land and the gas had to be strained through netting before filling up the tank. Baja was dotted with many tiny fishing villages along the coast at that time and we snorkeled and saw many of the amazing fish and critters in this exhibit. Those were the days . . .
Panamic green moray eel
Luckily, I never ran into “these guys”! Although I have seen morays up close and personal scuba diving in other areas in the tropics, I never try to pet them!
Golden trevallyDesert tortoise
“This 800-mile-long narrow peninsula in northwestern Mexico is separated from the mainland by the Gulf of California.
With almost 2,000 miles of coastline, sun-scorched desert, lush mangrove forests and colorful coral reefs, Baja is a land of contrasts, where unique plants and animals survive and thrive.”
Pacific SeahorseLookdownBluespotted Jawfish
I hope I have peaked your interest with these incredible photos from the Monterey Bay Aquarium web site. Go take a gander at these amazing creatures in person. You’ll be glad you did!
Yesterday in Pebble Beach, I joined a group of fantastic women representing a wide range of professions for a great seminar.
As a realtor with 29 years of real estate sales experience I never stop learning – in fact I was recently nicknamed the Education Advocate of my Alain Pinel Realtors-Carmel office. (I wonder why?) Well, here I go again, spreading the word about another great educational opportunity.
Marion Gellatly
The seminar was called, “Mastering the Business of You” and was presented by two amazing women, Marion Gellatly and Mary Jeanne Vincent. Marion, a style and image expert, discussed the power of our brand, how we determine what our “brand” is, and how we are communicating visually with our clients. Mary Jeanne, a career coach and expert on Linkedin, taught us Negotiation skills and how to use LinkedIn to put our best online image forward. This was the first time they had teamed up to do a class together and it was a winner!
I highly recommend this seminar for any professional person who wants to update and upgrade their image online and person to person.
Bill Murray will be able to play after all ~ here he is with the glorious backdrop of Carmel Bay at a previous AT&T
The AT&T Pro Am Golf Tournament was started by Bing Crosby as the “Crosby Clambake” in Rancho Santa Fe in 1937. Later it was moved to Pebble Beach and has become a huge event and never fails to bring thousands of visitors to the Monterey Peninsula in early February. Since many of our property sales are to second home buyers, this event is looked forward to with great anticipation by the realtor community. All one has to do is check out the Pine Cone (our local Carmel newspaper) and view the pages and pages of “real estate eye candy” to know that the sellers of luxury homes are hoping for a sale to one of these golf enthusiasts here for the tournament.
3044 Cormorant ~ Listed by Alain Pinel Realtors
As realtors we started planning for the AT&T Pro Am Golf Tournament over a month ago by creating innovative advertising for the print media that would beguile and bewitch prospective buyers and invite them to purchase property while visiting the area. During the tournament while the golf crowd heads for the courses, we man our posts at the “Floor duty” desk at Alain Pinel Realtors or host numerous Open Houses at our listings hoping some of our visitors stray from the event. We hope to lure our golf enthusiasts to find the coveted prize – a home on the Monterey Peninsula.
Monterey Peninsula Shore course -view from 3044 Cormorant, Pebble Beach
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday( Feb 12-14th) from 10:00-1:30pm I’ll be holding Open House at 3044 Cormorant Road, Pebble Beach. This home looks directly out onto the MPCC Shore Course, one of the courses that the tournament is played on. I’ll be watching the tournament golfers go by all morning. Come on by and see this fabulous Mark Mills mid-century design on a premium front line Pebble Beach location and join me in waving at the golfers!
1117 Sawmill Gulch Road ~Listed by Alain Pinel Realtors
Also, in the afternoons on those same dates February 12-14th 2:00-4:30pm I’ll be holding open this extensively remodeled single level 3BR/2BA home at 1117 Sawmill Gulch in the Country Club area of Pebble Beach offered at $1,295,000.
The weather is in rare form this year with bright cloudless skies, warm temperatures, and a great cast of celebrities. I remember many previous years with pouring rain and fierce winter storms. I have an indelible picture in my mind of Bill Murray on a TV news broadcast standing out on the 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf links with waves literally crashing over the fairway soaking him to the skin.
Pebble Beach Lodge and the 18th hole on a lovely day
Many of the tournament goers come to see the celebrities up close and personal. Everyone is glad that Bill Murray is going to play after all, because he not only can play golf well, he has a knack for engaging the gallery with funny antics and high jinks. He wears “funny clothes” and somehow manages to play the clown and also play serious golf at the same time!
Bill Murray clowning around at a past AT&T Pro Am Tournament.
One year he was goofing around with a lady spectator and she ended up falling in a sand trap! Some of the other celebrities that will be playing this year are Kenny G, Andy Garcia, Huey Lewis, Chris O’Donnell, Justin Timberlake, Clay Walker, and Ray Romano.
Kenny G will be playing this year.
A couple of years ago I had an amusing encounter with Ray Romano which I will tell you about in an upcoming entry.
Ray Romano
The tournament takes place on three courses in Pebble Beach (Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill, and the Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course) with players rotating to different courses each day. On Saturday most of the celebrities will play on Pebble Beach Golf Links which will be televised showing the world the unparalleled beauty of this course where greens meet the sea.
Pebble Beach Golf Links ~ Photo by Bob Borden
Brandt Snedecker, who won last year in 2015, will be defending his title and will be joined by other pro golfers such as Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III, David Duval, Dustin Johnson, Vijay Singh, and Jordan Spieth, who is ranked as #1 golfer in the world. Who will take the trophy this year? We’ll all know on Sunday – for anyone who plays golf, you know that anything can happen.
Brandt Snedecker
For the tournament goers that will spend most of their time watching the play or playing golf themselves – we hope they will at least pick up the newspapers and magazines touting our gorgeous homes for sale and return at a later time.
Pebble Beach Golf Links ~ photo by Bob Borden
There is nothing more beautiful than Pebble Beach on a clear sunny day and that’s what we are blessed with this week. If nothing else our visitors will take home delightful memories of blue skies, sunlit courses and crashing waves, after bearing witness to some great golf!
Pebble Beach Golf Links ~ photo by Bob Borden
For more information about Pebble Beach and Monterey Peninsula properties call Susan Clark at 831-320-6801
Hello, my name is Allan and I am the loving spouse of the usual inhabitant of this space – Susan Clark. Since I am a huge sports fan and this is Super Bowl week Susan suggested I pen a little something about the occasion.
The 2016 edition takes on more significance than others for those of us residing on the Monterey Peninsula because the game is to be played only an hour from here in a city named Santa Clara. That city is an hour north of us and about the same distance in the other direction from San Francisco, the host city for the event. Partying all week in San Francisco and making the drive to the game on Sunday is nice work for those who can make it happen.
A tasty alternative is to spend the week in Carmel or Pebble Beach before heading to the game, and if that is your choice please take the time to pay my wife a visit and let her show you the house you need to buy immediately. In fact, if you are coming our way at any time for any reason please let her do the same. That said, some Super Bowl memories are in order.
1117 Sawmill Gulch, Pebble Beach offered at $1,295,000
Having spent the first half of my life in our nation’s capitol I always have rooted for the Washington Redskins (sorry for the nickname) and as such I have seen my team play in five Super Bowls, winning three and losing two. I attended two, a victory and a loss. Interesting enough, both of those games have a connection to Susan even though I didn’t know her at the time.
The years were 1983 and 1984 and my team won the first and got destroyed in the latter. Since my memories of the 1983 Super Bowl are a whole lot better I will start there and devote many more words to that experience.
The 1983 game was played in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and although still living back East I jumped at the chance when my cousin offered me the opportunity to join he and his wife at the game. Now, my cousin barely can tell the difference between a football and a piece of squash, but he was in advertising in Washington and through his job had a shot at some tickets and thought…actually, I don’t know what he was thinking, but he wanted to go and had a flight arranged, so off we went. Turns out Susan’s parents were living in Florida and her father was a fan of the loyal opposition that day, the Miami Dolphins . . .
. . . and her brother, who also lived in Washington D.C. had tickets for Susan and her parents as well as for himself to see the game. So there we were on game day seated on opposite sides of the field although not knowing each other from the other 100,000 on hand.
Washington won that day and I finally got to experience the feeling of rooting for a team that won the biggest game of the season. And don’t feel badly for Susan’s father because a decade earlier his Dolphins had defeated the Redskins in Super Bowl VII and to this day remain the only team to win all their games in the same season.
And as for the 1984 game, it was played in Tampa not that far from where Susan’s parents lived. But, again, we didn’t know each other then so she wouldn’t have minded that I beat it out of Tampa in a big hurry after the Raiders, then of Los Angeles, left my Redskins for very dead. At least I had the prior year’s win as consolation and later on in the 80’s they won another one. At that time I still had not met Susan but we did meet in 1990 when she sold me a house and thankfully (for me) agreed to see me socially after the house closed. So it was that we were together when shortly thereafter Washington won their last Super Bowl. Watching me watching that game on television no doubt convinced her it was good to be nowhere near me for those prior Super Bowls as my behavior during that game, although non-violent, did not come close to reflecting the way anyone over the age of 9 should act over a football game.
Now the fans of Carolina and Denver will have a go at the experience while those of us without much of a rooting interest simply will watch in amazement at how the Super Bowl has evolved. Enjoy.
