Well, it’s 9 days into our trip and we have found where all the tourists have been hiding: it seems that every visitor to the Central Coast has hunkered down in the Monterey Aquarium. The place was an absolute madhouse!
We were up by 8am this morning. After a delicious breakfast ($1 plate-sized banana pancakes) at a quirky Santa Cruz café complete with Bob Marley playing in the background and “rasta merchandise” on sale behind the counter, we hit the road. The drive to Monterey took less than an hour.
We were still blessed with blue skies and sunshine, but it was an incredibly blustery day. Poor Ashlee was freezing. We’ll have to make sure that we outfit her in large down jumpsuit for Mongolia. REI, here we come!
We are staying at an incredibly nice (and new!) hotel right on Cannery Row about a block from the aquarium. Ashlee tells me that our room usually runs close to $400 per night, but that due to the extremely slow tourist season, she got us a ridiculous discount. The place itself is very swanky – almost too swanky, in fact. I’m not quite used to valet parking and I’m perfectly able to carry my own bags to my room, thank you very much. Ashlee, on the other hand, is soaking it all right up. She is, after all, her mother’s daughter. And I guess that makes me my father’s son!
Oddly enough, while our current hotel is the fanciest we will be staying in on our entire trip, it is also the biggest nickel-and-dimer. Ashlee was careful to book hotels that provide wi-fi connection so we could maintain this blog. Every place so far has been great (well, except for the “secret garden” in Glen Ellen, but that was expected) but here at the Clement, wi-fi access costs $10 a day! Sheesh!
Anyways, after getting settled into our hotel, we set out for the Aquarium. Thinking ahead, Ashlee purchased our tickets from the hotel’s concierge so we got to sidestep the incredibly long and serpent-like ticket line. I swear, Ashlee would make the greatest travel agent ever. I know that she will forever be in charge of all my travel plans. She has definitely set the bar pretty high with this trip.
Back to the aquarium. If any of you have never been, it is positively the nicest facility to interact with and learn about wildlife. It occupies two floor with space both in- and outside. It has everything from fish to sharks to jellies to otters. The otters were clearly our favorite – they are just so darn cute! Sadly, we didn’t get to see any sea turtles. Apparently they have been moved to a special tank away from visitors because they have been eating the tiles in their usual tank. No bueno.
In addition to the otters, other highlights were the penguin exhibit, the huge two-story underwater kelp tank, and the deep-blue three-story aquarium. We must have attempted to take 15 photos of the elusive hammerhead shark. I think one may have turned out.
There was also a small tank displaying all the fish from Disney’s Finding Nemo (don’t worry, I found him). Ashlee swears that the display did not have a Disney link, but I’m sure it did, especially since it was near the kid’s section of the facility. Speaking of which, the Monterey Aquarium is the most kid-friendly museum/zoo that I have ever seen! There are so many different interactive displays that most of the kids were in complete ecstasy. Everywhere we went we were bombarded with shrieks of delight. At first, it was endearing, but after the first fifteen minutes, we were wondering, “Shouldn’t these kids be in school or something? Dumb Spring Break.” Yeah, we’re definitely way too selfish at the moment to start a family.
After the aquarium, Ashlee half-dragged me through approximately half of the bajillion shops lining Cannery Row. At one place I saw a sign I wanted to get for my parent’s river house. It said “A crab lives here along with the one who butters him up.” It’s all in good fun, Dad! Unfortunately before we could buy the sign, we got sidetracked by the delicious smell of cinnamon buns wafting in from the store next door. Of course we had to get one, which we enjoyed on the wharf from a bench overlooking the ocean. The view was gorgeous! It was all brilliant blue skies, billowing clouds, crashing surf, and mad whitecaps. I must have taken 20 pictures. I love it up here! In fact, I think I’m going to abandon all of my career goals to move to Monterey and get a job at the Aquarium. If my wife will let me, that is…
For dinner, we took a mile-and-a-half jaunt to the downtown area. During her research for this trip, Ashlee discovered an authentic English pub here in Monterey that is affiliated with one of our favorite places to eat back in Orange County, the Olde Ship. It’s called the Crown & Anchor. On the way to dinner, Ashlee got sidetracked by a two-story antique shop. I tried to keep up with her browsing the merchandise, but I quickly realized that I was just a ball-and-chain slowing her down, so I removed myself to the patio with my book. Well, that and Ashlee was not amused when I made the comment that the place was like an extremely expensive Home Goods.
Dinner was awesome. The pub was just like the Olde Ship. After a Guinness for me and cider for Ashlee, we were both glassy-eyed and giggly. We’re such lushes. The fish and chips were incredibly tasty, but the highlight of the meal was the sticky toffee pudding we had for dessert. I think Ashlee completely licked the bowl clean.
We just about froze to death on the walk back to our hotel. Even though we were both wearing long-sleeved shirts and fleeces, the wind found itself into every one of our nooks and crannies. But we’re tough and we made it back. Now we’re about to kick up our feet and watch “Dancing with the Stars” – thanks for getting us hooked, Dad!
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