Carmel Valley Ranch, Calif.

Our long weekend in Monterey was over all too quickly. There's something about time that always perplexes me. Why do good things like summer, great rounds of golf or long weekends of high living always fly by while the drudgeries of life seem to linger?

Ah, well.

At any rate, our itinerary laid on by Mazda USA was so full that we three golf bloggers (Ed Lee - The Golf Blog, Tony Korologos - Hooked On Golf Blog and yours truly) and our partners only had time for the one round at Carmel Valley Ranch Golf Club (see yesterday's post).

And that's a shame because that part of California is a golfer's haven. A drive along Carmel Valley Road east of Big Sur Coast Highway/Route 1 takes you past Rancho Canada Golf Club, The Golf Club at Quail Lodge and the aforementioned Carmel Valley Ranch Golf Resort in fairly short order.

Of course, if your tastes run to the really high-end, then it's a short enough drive back to the Monterey Peninsula to play Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, Cypress Point or Poppy Hills. And right on their doorstep are Monterey Peninsula Country Club, The Links At Spanish Bay and, at the tip of the Peninsula, Pacific Grove Golf Links, a muni course highly rated by Golf Digest.

East of the city of Monterey you can find Del Monte Golf Course near the airport and, of course, Monterey Pines Golf Course which appears to sit at the end of the runway at Monterey Airport.

It goes on and on - there is literally no shortage of places to play. Some are expensive, some are astronomically expensive (like Pebble Beach, where I'm told you must stay at the Lodge in order to play - no walk-ons, thank you) and some are affordable. In fact, as I write this, our Canadian dollar is millimeters away from being on par with the U.S. dollar, something that hasn't happened in more than 30 years.

As the greenback slumps against the Canadian dollar and the Euro, suddenly these courses become even more reasonable. Carmel Valley Ranch goes for $165 U.S. a round for what they call a "daily fee for an outside guest" - that's less than 75 euros and the equivalent of $165 Canadian.

Let me tell you, that's a great price for the golf experience you get. In fact, it's the bargain of the century. California is not cheap ($4 million U.S. gets you a quaint cottage in Carmel) therefore, when bargains present themselves, it's time to go for it.

So what was our last day in Monterey like? Certainly, it was the antithesis of a round of golf. The Mazda folks took us to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, one of the most famous race tracks in the world.

Melanie Froysaa, the superb organizer of this weekend, had arranged for us to go for a couple of "hot laps" around the circuit. She specifically directed me, the gear-head in the crowd - to the RX-8 pace car.

We were sandwiched between two CX-7s with suspension mods and upgraded brakes (cross-drilled rotors, big pistons). You would be amazed how fast a CX-7 can get around Laguna Seca with only suspension tweaks and heftier brakes! The RX-8, with its tiny but powerful rotary motor was born to run at Laguna Seca. Its balance through the corners, including the famed Corkscrew, was perfect - never a sign that the back end was going to break free.

What an experience.

And then, it was off to the airport where, once again United Airlines let us down. Our puddle jumper to San Francisco was delayed "indefinitely" which meant our connecting flight home was toast. And frankly, they really didn't seem to care.

Enter Mazda yet again. A quick phone call from their marketing director, Jeremy Barnes who was flying out with us, to Laguna Seca up the road and we had a CX-7 outside the terminal within 15 minutes. Four of us (travel writers John and Matt Sanders included) drove north to San Francisco, guided by the on-board navigation system, and we all caught our flights home.

It was a contrast between a company that struggles and a company that soars.