Monterey

On Monday morning we got up and headed to Monterey. I wished for a cute, independent coffee store and around the next bend stood a caboose with the word COFFEE about 3 feet high. Love that!

Stopped at the first beach we saw because Evie HAD to get in. It was a steep beach with dangerous currents and we decided to dip a toe and look for a better beach later on.

The scenery was amazing. We saw so many fields of artichokes, brussels sprouts and strawberries. This will be a different post, it really affected me.


On the way to Monterey we stopped in Marina at Forno Bravo, home of our pizza oven! The whole excuse for this trip was to stop here because we are interested in becoming dealers for them. Now folks (and restaurants) can buy ovens from us. We will help them find a mason (if necessary) for installation and even help them learn to use it. LOVE the company, really excited about this.

We checked into our hotel in Monterey and immediately headed to the beach. The water was 54 degrees, Evie and I went swimming anyway, the locals thought we were completely nuts. I couldn't feel my feet for an hour afterwards. We had yummy, yummy sushi (veggie maki rolls only) that night.



Tuesday was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The guidebook has said to plan 2-3 hours there. We spent 7--opened and closed the place. Amazing research facility, amazing aquarists. We loved all the programs, especially the otter feeding and the open ocean feeding. If you are in the area, go.



On Wednesday, on the spur of the moment, we decided to go whale watching. We took Evie in the Atlantic many years ago, we were all keen to go again. We went with a company staffed by a marine biologist. She was amazing. We were on the tail end of the humpback season in the area and we saw them! I cry every time I see whales. They are majestic and awe inspiring. Of course we saw sea lions everywhere (they are like ducks around here), sea otters, murres and even some harbor porpoises.



Lots to process from this trip--parts of that are for another post.