The Man in the Hawaiian Shirt

Justin and I decided to go visit Fisherman's Wharf here in Monterey the other night. We both just needed to get out for a while, and I needed to not think about Russian for a few hours. We went kind of late because we are tightwads and you don't have to pay for parking if you go later in the evening.

We liked it, the weather was unusually warm that night, the wharf wasn't crowded at all, but all the little souvenir stores were still open and the restaurants were still giving away their free clam chowder samples. All in all it was a really good time, and after an hour or so we decided to head back to face my Russian homework. We parked a little ways away, and as we were walking back across a big, mostly empty parking lot, we both noticed a guy in front of us pause to consult a billboard, and then fall in behind us as we passed by. Nothing about this guy seemed at all threatening. He was pretty decent sized individual, but from a distance appeared to be clean shaven, and was wearing a short-sleeved Hawaiian print shirt. There was just something about the way that he dropped in behind us that seemed weird. It seemed even weirder when neither of us said anything to the other but we both started walking faster, and he was keeping up about 10 feet behind. We're not speed walkers, but we are in pretty decent shape, so it was an abnormally brisk pace.

When we finally reached the other side of the parking lot, with a restaurant on the corner and a few people hanging around outside, Justin stopped and pulled me over to the window to look at something on the TV inside...but really to see if he would pass. I think we were both shocked when he didn't, but actually came and stood outside the restaurant too, a few feet away where he could appear to also be looking at the TV, but still see us. It was really weird, and while there were people there we decided to dart off to the car. He followed, but had to keep more distance then and we were able to get in our car, lock the doors and head home. Justin said that after we drove by him on our way out, Justin watched him in the rear view mirror turn around and start walking back the other direction. Who knows how he selected us as his target for the evening, but I like to think that it's our good situational awareness that prevented an incident from transpiring.

So lesson learned, don't trust men in Hawaiian print shirts, they're out to get you!