Breakfast was surprisingly good. We ate at the hotel restaurant, which we don’t normally do, but this was nice. They set up a deluxe-ish buffet thing. I was able to make the kids a waffle on a self-serve waffle maker, get them some milk to drink and cereal to snack on (they like it dry; the milk and cereal don’t necessarily go together in my kids’ minds), and yet have an omelet made for myself. (I know! I ate eggs! But I had the guy put so much “stuff” in them like onions, mushrooms, bacon, bell pepper, etc., etc., etc., that I cannot taste the eggs themselves.) After eating, we got in the car, had GPS guide us the two and a half miles to the aquarium, and got ready to see some fish!
We spent a lot of time there, about four hours, which is probably good enough for families with young kids. If I had been by myself, I probably would have closed the place down because I like to read the captions for everything but my kids, obviously, don’t. Actually, DS is beginning to read lots of things now, like signs and billboards when we’re out, but the captions on the exhibits were too difficult for him and academic and, well, it is summer, and who wants to read academic stuff in the summer except for teachers-on-vacation like Mom? Duh.
We saw lots of very high-interest fish like sharks, as well as other fish that were interesting like tuna. I found them interesting because, frankly, I didn’t know they could grow to be so large. The otters and penguins were their usual crowd-pleasing selves. The jellyfish were beautiful -- an assortment of both large and medium-sized and tiny -- and the school-swimming sardines were fascinating because I’ve never seen fish swim so uniformly like that. I’m used to seeing the odd one or two in a private aquarium in our doctor’s office, rather than a whole school.
It was around two p.m. when we exited the aquarium and found ourselves on Cannery Row. We were hungry, but it was too late to eat a big lunch, because then we wouldn’t be hungry for dinner, and too early to eat dinner, so, DARN, I guess we were locked in to going up the row a bit to get some ice cream sundaes at the Ghiradelli store. It was heartbreaking, but we had to do it. Dad had the regular ice cream sundae with vanilla ice cream, the kids each had a scoop of mint ice cream with rainbow sprinkles (can’t go without rainbow sprinkles!), and Mom had the mint sundae, which was mint ice cream with a hot fudge-y mint sauce . . . altogether, very mint. All was delicious, and the store opened right onto the bay. Down below were kelp beds where free otters (not the ones in the aquarium) were frolicking in the water. It was beautiful.
This is getting long, but oh well.
We went back to the hotel, ostensibly to take naps, but more hijinks ensued. Mom got huffy and threatened no swimming in the hotel pool until kids took naps, and that seemed to do the trick. (But then, of course, I was wide awake and could not sleep myself, so I visited my HC support site and made some postings.) After cursory naps, Mom took the kids down to the pool while Dad made a scheduled Army phone call. DS practiced his swimming and DD practiced her dunks and blowing bubbles, and when the fog started rolling in, Mom decided it was time to go in. After a quick clean-up for dinner, we made our way back to Cannery Row to a restaurant called Willy’s Smokehouse for dinner. We were lured in the by appeal of a kids’ menu and comfort food, and we weren’t disappointed. The meal was delicious. I had a brisket (which is not normally my favorite cut of beef; strictly a filet mignon girl here) that was AMAZING, and Dad got marinated, grilled pork chops topped off with a bleu cheese sauce and a potato salad that was tops. Mom’s meal came with BBQ beans that were merely okay . . . I think I do better . . . but the cole slaw was yummy and not too “wet” with mayo, and had the addition of some sunflower seeds for crunch. DS and DD devoured the quesadilla we got them (which doesn’t happen at Don Jose’s, mind you!) and ate about half of the macaroni we ordered, too. The macaroni was not just the gold Kraft stuff, but really good stuff -- almost like the made-from-scratch kind Mom makes. We opted to get desserts of the kids’ menu, but I have to say they were as good as any I’ve gotten of the adults’ menu at another restaurant.
Michael was with us (me, in my thoughts) all day long. I hope he enjoyed Monterey with us.
Back to the hotel for bed time . . . there was less hijinks to deal with tonight . . . to get ready for another day -- Day Three!
Back to the hotel for bed time . . . there was less hijinks to deal with tonight . . . to get ready for another day -- Day Three!
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