Hitting California city traffic on our way in to town was a bit of a shock. We crawled along at about 3 miles an hour for far too long. But once we hit downtown Monterey, we were in love! We found the aquarium, our whole reason for visiting Monterey, and went from there. We drove along the water, passing quaint little houses with beautiful yards on one side, and beaches full of lounging seals on the other side. What fun! It was surprisingly foggy, and a little on the cold side, but it felt familiar and comforting.
Then we checked into Gosby House Inn - an adorable, historic building, built in 1887 (think Mary Daheim novels). The chintz was a little much to take at first, but we quickly adjusted to the cuteness level. I think there were probably 10 rooms in the whole inn, and each was named after a classic author. After almost 4 weeks of sleeping bags and only occasional showers, we felt absolutely spoiled in a hotel room. I guess all the perks were pretty nice too - turn-down service, chocolates on the pillows, aquarium tickets available at the front desk, breakfast buffet in the morning, free sodas in the fridge... the list goes on. If you're ever in Monterey, definitely stay there. The Festival of Lanterns is coming up soon, so the trees down the median of the street out front, Lighthouse Avenue (I know, it's really just too quaint), were all lit up and full of Chinese lanterns. We went to a movie at the theater down the street, and had a late dinner. It was so nice to walk home along a street full of twinkling lights.
This is our cute little hotel - we stayed in the room on the second floor with the open curtains.
Then today we did the aquarium, and I do mean all day today. What a spectacular place! Most of the animals and fish were similar to those in the Seattle Aquarium, but there were a lot more interactive exhibits at the Monterey Bay aquarium. And not surprisingly, a huge focus on reducing our carbon footprint, saving the earth, recycling, etc. At one of the interactive booths, we all got to make pledges about how we are going to make the earth greener. Then the booth took a picture of you, put it into a video, and emailed it to your address. It's cute - I now have a little cartoon video of me using a reusable grocery bag. Just what I've always wanted! I'll show it to you all when I get home. It was fun to see the pink flamingos, the penguins, and the beautiful sea horses and sea dragons. In another interactive booth, we got to send e-postcards to Governor Schwarzenegger encouraging him to save the endangered seahorses. Below are some of the beautiful jelly fish and a weedy sea dragon featured in the exhibits.
We took a little break in the middle of exploring the aquarium to walk down Cannery Row and grab lunch at an Indian restaurant. I was so excited for Indian food, but I soon realized that what I really wanted was Taste of India, and this place was definitely not that. Oh, how disappointing this lunch was. I miss you dearly Taste of India!
Finally we hit the road and sat in more California traffic, and stopped for dinner at In'N'Out. Haven't been there since high school, and it was just as good and cheap as I remember. And now we are sitting in our hotel room in San Francisco, enjoying all sorts of luxuries like a TV and couch. What a happy life!
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