California 2012: Part Two

On Monday morning of our vacation, we took the boys down to Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey.  We found a little boat for them to play in

and Gene found a capstan to sit on.

Our main reason for heading down to the wharf was to take the boys out on a glass-bottomed boat into the bay!  It was a beautiful, sunny day but it was freezing out on the boat.

We saw otters, sea stars, cormorants, pelicans and lots and lots of sea lions.  The boys and I even tasted kelp straight from the bay!

It was so fun to see the sea lions everywhere, but they were stinky.

 Reading a new pirate book and walking on the wharf.  

Lunch at Rappa's!  We ate lots of local seafood on our trip.  Sardines, salmon, sand dabs, and squid right from Monterey Bay were all hits with us.  

On Tuesday morning, the boys and I walked up the street to the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History.  PG is home to lots and lots of monarchs as they migrate to Mexico in the fall,

but these were the only two monarchs I found on our trip!

Sandy the grey whale is out in front of the museum.

I remember when she first came to town!

After our museum adventure, we packed up a picnic lunch and headed out to Jack's Peak for a hike.

Lunch first, of course!

We chose the Skyline Nature Trail for our hike because it was just under a mile and we saw amazing views of Monterey Bay and Carmel Valley.

The boys loved their first real hike!

Nature lesson along the way!

All that hiking meant a snack was necessary when we got back to the picnic area.

After the hike and a rest at home, we headed to the beach for a third time.  Henry requested a picture of their sand castle!

Tuesday ended with a date night dinner for Gene and me.  We used our great sitter from York, ate at Domenico's on the wharf (where Gene had the very messy but very delicious cioppino),

and then walked along the paths at Asilomar

to watch the sun set!

It was a beautiful end to a beautiful day.

California 2012: Part One

We spent last week on the Monterey Peninsula for our summer vacation.  My 20 year high school reunion was the weekend of August 3, so we decided to make a family vacation out of the trip and I'm so glad we did!  We had a wonderful time.  

We rented a house in my hometown of Pacific Grove, but we arrived a couple of hours before we could get into it, so we took the boys down to the beach and park at Lovers Point.  After a four hour plane ride and 90 minutes in the car, they needed to stretch their legs.  They loved climbing the rocks!

Note the hoodies -- it was in the low 60s and chilly!

When the boys woke up (early) Saturday morning (they were still on Texas time!), they wanted to go climb rocks again.  So we headed out and explored some of the coastline in Pacific Grove.  

 We found seaweed, harbor seals, tide pools, hermit crabs,

and lots of rocks for the boys!

The rest of Saturday was full of reunion events.  In the afternoon, York hosted a wine and cheese reception.  York School is a special place and four of our old teachers came to the reunion.

My class was very small, only about 43 students, and I think about half of us were at the reunion. I was amazed at how little everyone had changed in 20 years!  This is just part of the group that came out on Saturday afternoon but more joined us for dinner that evening.

This was my first York reunion and I really enjoyed seeing everyone again.

On Sunday, we drove to Carmel Valley to visit Earthbound Farms!

We ate lunch at their organic cafe

found a few redwood trees at the farm,

and explored their gardens.  

Henry found his favorite herb -- garlic chives!

And Will found a tent.  

 The Labyrinth was a big hit

with all three of my boys.  

After our visit to the farm, we did 17 Mile Drive through Pebble Beach.  The boys were less than impressed, though they did like the beach.  

So we drove home, got on our swim gear, and walked down to our beach.  There are lots of beaches in Pacific Grove, but most are pretty dangerous for swimmers.  Lovers Point is a safe beach and it was just steps from our rental house!  Beautiful view.

The water is so cold!  And the air temperature was only around 70 degrees.

Henry preferred playing in the sand 

and helping make sand castles.  

This is as deep as they went!

Daddy got in the water with them,

while I stayed on shore and admired the sand castle.

The boys loved California so much they're already asking to go back!