Best President's Day Weekend Ever!

Ok, I might be going to go a bit over the top saying that it was the best President's Day Weekend ever, but for our little family, it was definitely the best weekend we've had in a LONG time. We already blogged about our Saturday and Sunday was a pretty standard day, so I'll just fill in the blanks for our trip yesterday. It was amazing!

We started the day off early, even put Logan down to his slop bowl before he was really awake, poor little guy. Once we had packed our little donkey up (read: Rav4), we took off for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. There wasn't much traffic due to the holiday and we got there just as it was opening about an hour and a half after we had left.

We spent the whole morning enjoying the sights and sounds of the ocean from an up-close and personal perspective. If you haven't been to the aquarium in Monterey yet, we HIGHLY recommend it, especially if you have little ones. Logan absolutely LOVED the big fish and spent literally hours oo-ing and aa-ing at all the beautiful wildlife. He's learned to make a fish sound by closing and opening his mouth whenever someone says "fish" or he sees one.

He really liked the big fish, even the sharks and rays but there was one thing that really scared him to the point of running the opposite direction whenever we got too close to them. Jellyfish. Especially the ones with long tentacles. Those really freaked him out. He was fine with the ones with short legs and even the ones with kelp growing out of them that sit on the bottom of the sand. He just didn't like the big long legs hanging over him, I guess.

He was pretty indifferent about the otters until he saw the pups playing in the water. He thought that was pretty cool and kept looking back at me and pointing/smiling.



Around noon, we left and ate lunch at Subway and then made our way down to Ocean Ave. in Carmel. It was overcast but we made our way to the beach anyway. The view was spectacular and the water was amazingly blue like you would expect in a tropical setting. The sand at that beach is white and there are little pebbles every once in a while - no doubt where Pebble Beach got its name. We met up with some friends from our church there and went exploring in a nearby tide pool. Logan slept in the sand for a while with the Grows on a blanket while Rachel and I went with Tanya and Noa Tuitivuki. The tidal pool is just off what I believe is the 6th or 7th hole at Pebble Beach golf course. We even found a few worn golf balls floating in the water.

On the beach, we ran into a girl that had a Rat Terrier. It was a little plumper than Bronx but about the same size. The girl confirmed that her dog had pretty much the same mannerisms as Bronx, down to the burrowing and (sometimes annoying) monopolizing of space in a bed.

After the beach, we decided to check out the shops and wonderful little buildings throughout the town of Carmel. We really need to make sure anyone who comes to visit who is willing to take a day trip gets to see it. It's similar to Park City's old-town but much more done up and completely overgrown with all kinds of flower, ivy, and other beautifully sculpted trees and plants. It was a lot of fun to just walk through and take pictures. The stores are on the higher end of pricey but that's to be expected. Where else are the wives supposed to hang out while their rich husbands play golf all day at one of the most exclusive golf areas in the country? And, if you aren't able to go more than a week without buying that new Louis Vuitton bag, this is definitely the place to rush in to pick it up.

We met the Grows/Tuitivuki's again for a snack at a bakery and then found a cool little airplane shop (sorry, no pictures were allowed). They had just about everything an airplane buff could want (Dad, we were thinking of you).

We left the shopping area of town and went down to the Carmel Mission Basilica. Since they charge $5 a person to go in, we just took some snapshots over the wall and admired from a distance.

We drove down Hwy 1 a bit farther and found out it's $9 to drive in to the Sea Lion rocks. Since it was late and we were headed back to Monterey for diner, we decided to come back a different time to see them. We also want to drive up to Carmel Village some time to see the town/ranches in the canyon. It looked spectacular and the hills are extremely beautiful from a distance even.


We went back up to Monterey and ate at Olde Fisherman's Grotto again (our favorite seafood in Monterey). It was delicious, as usual - Rachel had the fish and chips, I had to try their "famous" Calamari. Logan ended up eating a whole lot of bread, some French fries and a tub or so of catchup. Oh, and a lemon wedge. That boy is getting picky for some reason and it doesn't seem to matter what we offer him, he only eats certain things. Must be that age.

When we were done, we drove home, ran into some traffic where the hwy is one lane and eventually made it home around 8pm. It was an amazingly fun day. Oh, and I'm sure Rachel wants me to mention that we briefly drove by the outlets in Gilroy. She wants to spend some quality time there with any women folk who opt to come visit. I, for one, am not interested.