Monterey Memories

Pictures are all up now. Thank you to my amazing husband, Rick, for all his beautiful photography! Here are a few more shots we wanted to share...



























































Thank you again, to for making this trip possible for us!

Monterey to Yosemite

We got up at sunrise this morning and bundled up for the chilly, windy walk across the dunes. It's been a beautiful stay in Monterey and it was sad knowing our time here was drawing to an end. We got to the beach before the sunlight really even hit the icy sand and we combed the beach looking for more treasures washed up by the storm last night. As the rays of light began to warm us, the kids and Rick got more daring and all ended up in the water at least up to their knees - the three year old was in up to his shoulders and had to hold on tight to Daddy's hand to keep from getting swept out to sea by the strong current.

After a couple of hours enjoying the sand and surf, we came back to camp and took long, warm showers before loading up the RV and heading out of camp for our final time. I have to say that the Marina Dunes was a great park and we would highly recommend them! Their website could use some significant updating, but "don't judge a book by its cover" because this is a wonderful place with friendly staff and great sites. We were on the road towards Yosemite by around 11 and will tell you more about this end of the trip in tomorrow's post, but now I'm headed for a nap to sleep off the rest of the ride.



A few fun memories from our time in Monterey that we have yet to mention:

Our 6-year-old, who knows nothing but the dry climate of northern Nevada, found humidity to be exciting. She said the toilet paper (definitely a cheaper quality than is found in our home bathroom) felt like "fairyland toilet paper" and we both loved the natural curls that sprung to our hair in the damper weather.

Kudos to the staff at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, especially Jim who went out of his way to see that all my needs as a disabled visitor were met! Our two days exploring the aquarium have certainly been a highlight for all of us.

On Monday night we strolled Fisherman's Warf and sampled clam chowder from just about every restaurant there. While we took advantage of being able to watch our budget and prepare meals in the RV for most of the trip, we had budgeted for one splurge out to eat and we selected our dinner location with great care. After the entire family had narrowed down our top three favorite chowders, we then selected our final dinner location based on best view from those three locations and had a delightful dinner from a second-floor table overlooking the bay.



Thw water's COLD, but the memories are well worth the chill. Who doesn't love a day at the beach!

Monterey Day Three

Everyone got up early and prepared for the day by eating lots of bacon and breakfast rolls. We all then ran over and took showers at the RV parks showers.

We drove back to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, as we had drafted down a schedule of what to see for the day. When we got inside, we went directly to the Sea Otter exhibit so that we could watch the sea otters being fed. It was great to see them swim and dive as well as play with the items that their trainers supplied.



Then off to the Outer Bay Tank so that we could watch the larger speed swimmers feed. Over 85 pounds of fish and squid was dropped into the tanks as we saw blue- and yellow-finned tuna feed on the fish, as well as barracuda and dorado. Even the smaller sardines joined in on the feeding frenzy.



Then we ran to see the penguins and the hands-on exhibits for the kids. Finally we made our way through not one, but four different gift shops so that we could get everything that each person wanted to buy as a keepsake from our stay in Monterey.

We then made our way back to the RV to get lunch and map out the rest of the day. After having our fill of clam chowder, chicken, seafood salads, mac and cheese and hot dogs we made our way over to Pacific Grove, the next town to the south of Monterey and drove over to the monarch butterfly sanctuary, but found out that the butterflies had not been back to town yet.

We then headed to our of our favorite spots, Lover's Point, and enjoyed watching the local wildlife that tried to jump in your lap and steal anything you were snacking on. All in all we heard no less than a dozen screams from people in the park as the small and very fat squirrels tried their best to steal or beg food from the visitors to the park.

After that we drove over to the Dennis the Menace park, but were saddened to see that the city is closing it's parks on Tuesdays. (We guessed as a cost cutting measure.) Then back to the RV park for dinner, dessert and a movie.



Now everyone (including Jenni - this is Rick guest blogging tonight) is in bed and we are looking forward to the morning when we plan to do a little beach combing before we depart for the 4 hour drive to Yosemite. Actually we are staying in Oakhurst, just south of Yosemite, as it has full hookups. We chose to try only places with full hookups for our first family try at RVing. Maybe next time we will go for a dry camp experience. If this experience continues to be as wonderful as it's been so far, we hope "next time" comes soon. :)

Monterey Day Two

Our first full day in Marina / Monterey was a joy. The staff at Marina Dunes RV Park were very helpful in sharing information about good RV parking locations in Monterey and we were pulling into a parking spot on Cannery Row only about 10 minutes after pulling out of our campsite. A few blocks walk (or roll in my case) and we were at the members' entrance of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. (For our family of five, the $150 full year membership to the aquarium in only slightly more than a single day's regular admissions and the membership includes a year's subscription to their beautiful newsletter and is tax deductible!)

The kids especially enjoyed the touch pools and hands-on exhibits. Our 3-year-old was fascinated by the glass tunnel that let him stand on the under side of crashing waves. Sea horses held the fancy of our 6-year-old. The great white shark was a favorite for our 9-year-old. We all had a soft spot for the penguins too.


We were able to get through all the exhibits in a single day, but there are a few exhibits we hope to revisit again tomorrow, like the 11AM feeding at the Outer Bay tanks. We then hope to drive to the next town south, Pacific Grove, in search of the masses of migrating Monarch butterflies.
















Please enjoy more of our beautiful memories. We will let these speak for themselves: