So while in Monterey, I wanted to see the beach and misguidedly decided to walk down an alley to get to it. At the end was, in fact, the beach, but also an odd assortment of vagrants, one of whom saw Steven’s camera and immediately said, “You want a good picture?” and reached into his pocket.
This could have ended any number of ways, but it turned out to be a lizard.
His name is Clyde!
Then, after a lengthy discussion of Clyde’s eating habits–in which he asked us for “Florida herbage” twice, saying that he could sense we had some by our aura–he introduced us to his friend “Gandalf” who recited some poetry. Then a pimply high schooler arrived with a bottle of prescription drugs and I used the distraction to run back down the alley and not stop until I reached the Tollhouse Cookie Bakery. Steven followed along at a somewhat more sedate pace.
This should be submitted to the TV show “A thousand ways to almost die”. If you haven’t yet made it through the twin cities, I highly recommend the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting in St. Louis Park. The antique “spark gap generator” display has lethal potential.