Monterey 9/2011

We went to Monterey just for the day, at the beginning of September and it was so FUN! It was about a 3.5 hour trip, but we dont have any kids or anything so we can just up and leave with no stops! I love Monterey, but Jesse had never been. I feel a little bad because we have lived up here in Sac for a little over 2 years and I haven't shown him much. On our drive back we both realized how awesome Sacramento is. It is SO central to everything.. the beach, the lake, river, mountains, snow, etc. We are 2 hours from San Francisco and 2 hours from Lake Tahoe. We are about 2-3 hours from Napa Valley, 4 hours from Yosemite Park. Also, 3.5 hours from Monterey/Carmel and Santa Cruz. And so many more amazing places! We have now been to San Fran and Monterey, we are going to Tahoe for Thanksgiving and I am so excited!!

Anyway, back to the story... We went to Monterey Friday late morning. We got into the beautiful city around 1(just in time for lunch!). We parked and walked around the shops that were basically on the beach. We then put our name in at Bubba Gump. While we were waiting for our table we walked over to the Aquarium to ask generally how long it takes to get through the Aquarium. She told us, the average stay is usually 2.5-3 hours. So we thought that was doable! :)

We walked back and took some pictures in front of the Gump and then got called inside. We ate some amazing fish. Jesse got the shrimp and I got the tilapia, but once we tasted each other's we switched dishes! Mmmmmm!

After lunch we walked to the Aquarium and when we got up the the teller, he didnt speak much english?? Weird right? But he was a little slow and gave us "disabled" tickets! Hahah we couldn't stop laughing about the whole thing! We got a huge discount so it was well worth it.. haha. The Aquarium was so amazing! We saw sea otters, a great white shark, fish, birds, jelly fish (my fav), octopus (Jesse's fav.. in Hawaii we got to touch a live one in the ocean while snorkeling), and so much more! It was so fun and exhausting. We got through everything we wanted to see in 1.5 hours, hence the no kids! Haha I think we were the only couple that didn't have kids, but we got through nice and quick. And since we got in basically for free, we decided we were ready to move on with the day.

After the Aquarium we went to get Dip N Dots. MY favorite! I love the texture and they were so good! We walked in the shops and I got a really pretty ring! We went to Ghirideli chocolate shop and got some sample chocolate! we walked around some more and then it was time to go to the beach! The one thing Jesse really wanted to do. So we went to the beach and just laid on our towels. Byt this time it was about 4:30 and it was getting a bit windy. So i had my hoody on and a blanket and Jesse had his swim trunks on and we were set! We just looked around, smelled the air, listened to the waves crash on the shore and relaxed. What a perfect ending to our perfect day.

Once it hit about 6 we decided we should get back home since we both had work the next morning. So we hit the road and it took us about 4 hours on the way home because of an accident. But we had such a good time we didnt even care. Pictures coming up tonight or tomorrow hopefully! We have to do it again and do a hike... That was the only thing that we didnt do that I kind of wanted to do. But next time we will! We need to make a trip to a few other places as well before the school year is over for Jesse! ♥♥