The Monterey Peninsula is one of our favorite places to visit, so we decided that it was time to take Kaitlyn there for the first time to experience it with us. We drove down Tuesday morning, checked into the Monterey Beach Resort and headed to Carmel for the day. We ate lunch at Casanova which was excellent and Kaitlyn tried a new food - bread. We pinched off small pieces of bread and tried to get her to eat it. At first, she was skeptical and had to watch Shawnna and I demonstrate that it is safe to eat. After a little encouragement, she tried it and loved it. She ended up eating quite a bit of bread during lunch and at all the subsequent restaurants we dined in.
After lunch, we walked around all the little shops in Carmel-by-the-Sea and then headed to Carmel Beach. This was Kaitlyn's first time on the beach and we brought some sand toys to play with. As usual, she was cautious at first, but once she got her hands and feet in the sand, she had a ball. We walked down to the water and even got our feet wet - brrrrr. Next, it was time for a nap, so we drove back to the hotel and Kaitlyn slept off the excitement from the day while Shawnna and I watched "Peter Pan" - we're re-familiarizing ourselves with the kid's classics :-). When Kaitlyn woke up, she explored the room for a bit and then we ate dinner at the hotel restaurant. The food was so-so, but the ocean view was outstanding. After filling up, it was back to the room and off to Neverland.
On Wednesday, we spent the day in Monterey. We ate breakfast at First Awakenings which is a great place for breakfast. Then, it was off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We were excited to show Kaitlyn all the various sea life and when we entered the aquarium, one of the greeters told us that we should probably visit the Splash Zone first, before it got crowded. We didn't know what the Splash Zone was, but we took her advise and headed that direction. As it turned out, the Splash Zone was an area for kids of all ages to have some "hands on" fun and Kaitlyn certainly had fun. The biggest hit by far was the water feature where babies and toddlers could get their hands wet and play with the plastic floating fish in the water trough. They even provided little smocks so the baby's clothes wouldn't get wet - yeah right. By the end of it, Kaitlyn was completely soaked from head to toe (good thing we brought an extra change of clothes), but most importantly, she had a huge smile the entire time - pictures and video below.
After that fun adventure, we toured the rest of the aquarium and Kaitlyn got to see all kinds of things that live under the sea. When it was time for lunch, we headed to The Fish Hopper for some great seafood in an amazing location overlooking the bay. With that, our adventure was coming to a close, so we took one last drive down Ocean View Blvd. and headed back home. We made a stop in San Jose to have dinner with my Mom at The Cheesecake Factory and saw Mike Ricci as we were leaving. That was a great way to end a fun vacation.
No comments:
Post a Comment