I didn't find any time to blog on this vacation... we were way too busy! I'll just go day by day now that I'm back. :-)
Saturday, May 14th Highlights
1. Drove through Salinas (found church for Sunday, saw Steinbeck House, town center, and the "big" people in the fields)
2. Toured the Pacific Grove Natural History Museum
3. Had lunch at the Fishwife in Pebble Beach
4. Played on the beach and climbed rocks at Asilomar Beach
5. 17 mile drive
6. Carmel beach park
Our first day began very early as the kids got up at 6am and were ready to go... California time did not work in our favor in that regard... Our Residence Inn had a very nice breakfast for us. The kids all loved the waffle maker. Emily was excited that she was tall enough to get her own juice out of the juice machine. David and Lia discovered Fruit Loops are way tastier than Cheerios. And Mom and Dad tried to keep the mess to a minimum... tall order for our family.
Chris wanted to explore Salinas (this is the town our hotel was in and it is about a 15-20 minute drive to Monterey) and find the catholic church for mass times. We spent some time driving around the town center and found church without too much trouble. The John Steinbeck house was nearby as well. This was the famous author's childhood home (Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men)... There is a larger Steinbeck museum in town but we didn't have time to see it this trip. Salinas is known as the salad bowl capital of the world because they grow a lot of spinach there! The kids liked the larger than life people they had displayed in the fields on billboard cut outs... they showed people working in the fields and on tractors and such. We called them the "big people" and said hello to them each time we drove by.
The next order of business was to tour the Pacific Grove Natural History Museum. Chris picked this museum because it was incredibly kid friendly and better yet - free! The kids had a ball and enjoyed the museum more than we expected. They got a kick out of all the hands-on exhibits. Emily liked all the information on whales and listening to the sounds they made. David liked the bird exhibit and all the fossils. There was a play area where the kids could crawl through a burrow and pretend to be a mole or a ground hog... big hit! Dad let them pick out some treasures in the gift shop as well. Emily found a ring with a pink stone and one of those flip books about a flying dinosaur... and David picked 3 critters to play with - a rat, a snake, and a mouse. Those critters would entertain him for the rest of the trip! He is easy to please.
Here we are in front of the museum sitting on a whale!
David and Emily pretending to dig in their burrow.
David and Emily in front of the big Pelican.
We had lunch at the Fishwife, a restaurant Chris and I liked from the last time we visited the area. Lunches at nice restaurants only work with our kids if you bring lots of snacks that they like to eat and finish in under an hour. Lucky for us, they had crayons for the kids to color with, buying us some more time, and we enjoyed a very nice lunch.
After lunch, we let the kids run around. They loved climbing on all the rocks at Asilomar beach. David and Emily enjoyed being king and queen of the mountain in this shot:
After our "play break", Chris took us on the famous 17 mile drive to Carmel. We stopped at bird rock and the kids were able to look through the telescopes and see lots of seals - very cool for them. We also showed them the lone cypress. Emily thought it was all "Awesome!" but kept telling us she really wanted to get to Carmel so she could stick her feet in the ocean...
By the time we got to Carmel, Emily got her shot... It was quite cold but she went in up to her knees and was very happy. I think her overall tiredness must have dulled her senses... there are no other people in this shot for a reason! The kids even played in the sand a bit before we headed out. We had a big day!
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