Kimmi and I made a quick weekend visit to Monterey California Last month. We have some good friends that moved their last year and we had yet to visit them. It made it a lot easier since I had a Delta Companion Ticket that needed to be used by May.
We flew into San Jose and made the hour long drive to Monterey. It was Kimmis first visit to Monterey and my second. I had been there only once as a 3 year old child but I was so young that I can only remember two things about that trip. 1) They have a great aquarium where you could pet sting rays and I got really upset when I wasn't allowed to touch them. 2) A little South from Monterey are some sheer 100 foot ocean cliffs. In telling my dad that I remembered the cliffs he said it was probably because I tried to run off them after breaking away from my parents supervision and made a mad dash for the edge. I was only stopped from falling to my death by a family friend who grabbed me. Many years later my dad was talking to this family friend and my dad reminded him that he probably saved my life. The family friend jokingly asked "Looking back now, was I wise or unwise to save him?" (I was on my mission when this conversation took place so of course my dad said he was glad I was stopped. I continue to wonder if my dads answer would have been different if he was asked this question when I was a troublesome 16 year old instead of a 19 year old missionary)
I must say I was quite impressed with central California. It was very green and beautiful. we drove through forests of eucalyptus trees which added to its resemblance to Melbourne and made me very home sick for Australia.
We had a great time spending time with our friends. Becca is quite the cook and always had something amazing cooking in the kitchen. It was a well needed relaxing vacation. Here are some pictures and video's from our trip.
We had to visit the beach even though we came on a cold weekend
Spencer playing with sand for the first time.
Family photo
That's pebble beach golf course off in the distance.
While in Monterey we of course had to go visit the Aquarium
Cleaning the glass on the kelp forest. fun job.
This was a tide pool where the spinning of the handle creates a current for the fish tank. I thought it quite fun to see how fast I could get the current to go and make those little fish work for their lives.
This was Kimmi and I's favorite exhibit. It was big and dark. it's called "The Open Ocean" and is HUGE tank filled with all kinds of fish. There were Tuna, hammerhead sharks, sea turtles, Mahi Mahi and a large school of sardines. at different times the aquarium has had six great white sharks in this tank. I was sad that we had come at a time without a great white. that would have been cool to see.
I spent most of the time taking videos of Spencer, here are a few from the Aquarium:
Spencer playing with Kelp at one of the touch ponds
Spencer running through the kids tunnel He did this like 20 times
Spencer going down the slide He did this about 50 times. His shoes prevented him from descending the slide quickly
Spencer at splash pool Spencer + water + other kids = Chaos! We put a smock on Spencer but it really didn't protect him. he got SOAKED.
Overall it was a great day at the Aquarium.
While in Monterey we had to go get "real" sea food. this was in front of the restaurant we tried. it was busy! and quite good.
Monterey actually had a LOT of playgrounds around town so we took Spencer to a few and let him run a muck
Video Spencer going down roller slide This was what we kindly called "the bumpy slide"
Spencer liked running back and forth on the suspension bridge
The trip to California was short but well needed. It was nice to relax, take a nap, and watch some movies instead of spending my Saturday working around the house all day. Our thanks to Kyle and Becca for being such excellent hosts. It was good to see them and we look forward to there living in Utah again one day soon.
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