Monterey via the PCH

After a very fun and relatively chilly trip to San Francisco, we headed down old California Route 1 (The Pacific Coast Highway) to Monterey. Ever since we first began planning for our trip, we have been excited about the drive down the PCH and the city of Monterey itself.

Despite the thick fog, the view of the coastline was really spectacular

A beach along the way, after the morning fog cleared out

 The trip to Monterey was pretty quick--two hours or so, and as soon as we arrived we headed "downtown" to check out Cannery Row, which is the epicenter of all tourist-y activities/shops/etc.

Cannery Row--where parking is as easy as.......
......it's not that easy.

Dining at Capt Bulkwackers.....
Great fish tacos!

The next day we woke up early and went running by the beach, which was cool. We got to wish an enthusiastic "good morning" to all the vagabonds....or hipsters...that camp on the beach overnight despite the large "NO CAMPING ALLOWED" signs. ("You can lead a horse to water, but you can't prevent him from camping next to it.")

Anyway, then we headed on down to the highly-touted Monterey Bay aquarium to see what the great deal of fuss was about. And, of course, Court was once again at the edge of her seat to see some AMINALS up close and personal!

Aquarium Entrance
Court and I were excited to get our student and teacher discounts!

We headed straight for the otter exhibit and got this picture for JOY, my little sister. (Although she's a lot odder than this otter. haha Kidding!)

 Since I know that Michelle, Courtney's cousin is an animal fanatic too, I intentionally snapped lots of animal pics just for her! So, Michelle, here are some cool sea creatures! (I thought they were cool anyway.....)

Cool Jellyfish!
They had about a million species, but I thought these were pretty neat.

This Sun Fish was ENORMOUS!
They can get up to 5,000 lbs and 14 feet across and very ugly!

"Crush" the Sea Turtle, as seen in Finding Nemo
"Whatsup, dudes???"

Not a fish.
So, kids could climb into these little glass holes and see the fish up close!

Checkin out Sea Lions in the outside exhibit

Back to the otters--that's Joy!

After leaving the Aquarium, we headed into the residential area to try to find Court's Grandparents old house in the city.

We found the street at least!

 Then, off to the beach for reading and playing football with local kids. (Guess which I was doing....)

Then we did a wine tasting. Pretty cool.

Then we ate at Bubba Gump, which made us want to watch the movie.

Then.....

All in all, a great time. 

From Monterey we head out for Santa Barbara/LA.

More updates to come.

:-)