Monterey

We took a quick trip down and over to Monterey for the Aquarium!  It had been so long that none of our kids really remembered it, so it was lots of fun to explore!  Ryan, Sean and Kyle were all begging to use either the camera or cell phone to take pictures of everything, therefore most of the aquarium pictures are ones they took.  I had to beg for use of a camera!
I remember taking pictures on a school whale watching trip...and loving taking pictures.
The world goes round!

The Mola - a big fish with no tail...nicknamed a Sunfish.

Really funny looking, and had a brain the size of a pea.

There were a few Hammerhead sharks.  My favorite shark because it is so weird!

Other sharks are actually quite beautiful.

And Sea Turtles are graceful and mesmerizing.

The school of sardines was fascinating, you would not believe how fast the school would move up or down. Stole the show!

The sea turtle came to say hello!

The wave window...so exciting!

The Jellies are so lovely. Hard to imagine they have terrible stings!

My favorite picture these days:

Old Fisherman's Grotto - The worlds best Clam Chowder.  Fancy restaurant...Ryan and Sean were impressed.  The menus said the children must be quiet or they would be asked to leave.  Left an impression!

Then we headed to The Dennis the Menace Park.
I've wanted to go play here for years...and yes, it's a fabulous park.  So many fun and unique areas of the park.  I was almost out of battery on my cameras so I took only one...wish I had more pics of the fun stuff...but this slide was a hit.

Some pictures to show the coolness of the park.
This bridge was fun...

This train was blocked off...boo.  Cade would have loved it.  The maze was fun and the other play structures are good...but we had 3 people who needed to use the restroom...and there were lots of kids...and keeping track of all our littles was really stressful...and the beach was calling our names...but we had to try it out.




So we drove to Pacific Grove and had a gorgeous evening...looking at the tide pools, watching the sun set and the tide splash on rocks.  Heaven right there!

Sean pointing to a really big splash behind the rock island (a much taller side on the left).

Watching the sunset atop the rock island.

What a wonderful day!

Favorite part was Pacific Grove.  It was awesome.  Rocks. Tide pools.  Ocean.  Sunset.

What a great family day away from our normal busy routines!

Great idea Scott!