a grand adventure

With school starting on Monday, it seems only fitting that I finally get around to tell you about our grand adventure.

On our first real weekend of summer break (which happened to be Memorial Day weekend), we ventured North.

We saw vast vistas with lots of other visitors trying to vie to see the same vistas we were.

We clung to security fences and obeyed all signs of safety and precaution (except when we were climbing trees).

It was truly an adventurous and windy time.

Oh, and we saw a canyon.

things from today from a long, long time ago

All summer I've wanted to take the kids to the dinosaur museum. Seemed like the thing to do when it was 108 degrees outside.

We finally did it today. I must say there was some good sibling vibes going on.

We saw all kinds of dinosaur bones (this of course is a bad picture of a triceratops).

We saw a crazy meteorite that crashed into Tucson ages ago.

We assembled a mastodon (well, really they did, I was just along to provide photographic evidence).

The above was my favorite sign of the day (it was even worth reading, if you ask me). I've been chuckling about it all afternoon.

Grace demonstrated that if we were dependent on grinding our own corn and wheat with this method we would indeed be hungry and rather skinny.

Jimmy proves he may not be as big as a dinosaur, but he's pretty tough (or something).

the end

All good things must come to an end. We ended ours by cruising up to Santa Cruz and walking about the boardwalk.

As you can see, we weren't alone. And many of those people you see pictured made for some mighty fine people watching.

There was some lovely beach watching, sail sighting,

toe dangling,

and raucous riding!

It was beautiful. There really is something about that California coast, it gets me every time.

But the best sight is what greeted us at home (note how they donned their souvenir t-shirts and are wielding their darling otters - Jimmy's shirt reads "The Otters Strike Back" and Grace's shirt of course depicts "Hairy Otter")

Happy Summer, one and all!

ps school starts next week, can you believe it?!

discovery

Guess what I found that I love to do and never did before...

Did you guess, kayaking? Good job if you did.

We rented a kayak for two and skimmed on top of the Bay. It was so fun. I did get a bit nervous when I realized there were real live animals (with real live teeth) that were swimming about near us.

Nate loved the fact that there were real live animals swimming near us and didn't seem bothered by the idea of their teeth in the least. The most fun to watch were the otters. They would laze about on top of kelp beds (lots of kelp beds, one of the reasons the otters love Monterey Bay) and then get up and play and frolic about. The stinkiest animals to see were the seals (or were they sea lions?) Thankfully we weren't too close to note the location of their ears which is how one would differentiate between the two (see I do know things, even if I don't read all the signs).

Above you will see a view of where we stayed. It was very Water-Front.

After kayaking about, we got cleaned up and hit the town. See, aren't we just darned cute? Have we really known each other for 17 years? We certainly don't look that old, well at least in this light, right (right??)

And while we were dining I discovered a new treat. See, prawns used to knock my socks off. They are still good, but I found more that scallops would swim about in my culinary dreams. And after this delight, a perfectly executed calamari steak floats right at the top. Here it is - the best meal of the trip - teeny, tiny micro greens on top of a mountain made of calamari steak, sea scallops, and prawns, on top of a bed of creamy risotto, flecked with capers, with sweet asparagus thrown in just to make things even better.

This is us after we are full. Full and happy.

Oh man, I love vacation.

(Think we need to find a new selves-portrait pose? We've perfected this one, I'd say.)

love on the rocks

With temps in the low 60s and scenery more than beautiful, we not only were tempted by the bike rental people on Cannery Row, we were sold - hook, line, and sinker. We headed into Pacific Grove, had lunch at a tiny, darling place, and then coasted on over to, well, to the coast!

We found an area where the bike trail led to a foot path, which led to some crazy tide pools. We thought after our visit to the Aquarium, and after our year living in San Diego, a mere tide pool would not hold any bait for us. Boy were we wrong. It was full of crabs and fish and sea things (things I would know what they were called, but I didn't read the signs at the Aquarium).

There were birds galore!

But the sight of this bike tour we seem to remember the most was when we quite obviously interrupted someone's secret rendezvous for two (yes, THAT kind of rendezvous). They (the two people interrupted) were rather put out.

But honestly, is two steps off a public foot path on the coast full of rocks and sand and aquatic creatures really where you would want to rendezvous? I think not. They should be thankful and consider taking their business elsewhere, such as a place with no public, no foot paths, no sand, no rocks, and potentially no aquatic creatures.

the aquarium

Nate loved our first visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium so of course we had to do it again on this visit. I enjoyed it more this time. We seem to have figured out how to make our very different museum paces work out over the years. I'm more of a walk-around-see-cool-things-read-about-only-the-coolest-looking-thing-find-the-gift-shop-then-go-out-to-lunch kind of museum visitor. Nate is more of a read-every-single-sign-plaque-pamphlet-ponder-what-you've-read-study-everything-you-see-ask-the-docents-insightful-questions-ponder-more-and-forget-one-has-to-eat-lunch kind of visitor. (Its nice we've had some time to work on this, don't you think?)

This time we got tix that would let us in for two consecutive days. This was great because I could pause and read many more signs and plaques than I used too and Nate could skim as many signs and plaques as possible, knowing that he could ponder and read and study even more the next day. This allowed us plenty of time for lunch.

During our first visit, we noticed most of the docents were retired from other professions and now volunteered at the aquarium. Nate decided that was what he'd like to do upon retirement. This was decided well before he even applied to medical school.

Considering the insightful questions he posed during this trip, I would say he's well on his way to living his retirement dreams.

Though if you ask him about it, he just might clam-up.

note -

The pictures were all taken when I wasn't reading plaques or signs. Had I been reading them, I could tell you the names of these amazing sea creatures. All I can tell you is that the first two are different kinds of jelly fish and I loved watching them dance around. I found them to be mesmerizing (this was good, because Nate took the opportunity to ponder). The next two pictures are of different sea horses. The sea horses are amazing. I had no idea about their variety and complexity. I loved the one that resembled a plant. The final picture is of my favorite kind of species, though he is not only a sea creature - he is a land dweller as well. And bipedal. Amazing ;)

13 is a great number

I've never had fresh flowers delivered to my swanky hotel room before! I certainly hope to again!

I've never stayed this close to the ocean before, I certainly plan to again!

Here is the sun peeking through the clouds during breakfast one morning. It was a chilly 55 degrees. Heaven for someone who just came from the Valley of the Sun.

Here is a quick shot of Nate and I at Monterey Bay. We have a similar shot taken 13 years ago during our Honeymoon.

I think this one is fabulous!

13

Happy Anniversary Eve, dearest!

light dusting

We got back into town around 5 Tuesday night. We were home by 6. Dinner was off the grill by 7. Good thing, because by 8 it was a crazy world outside our door. It was difficult to see the trees and cactus behind the pool. Opening the front door ensured your eyes would be full of grit (and possibly beams and motes). The wind just wouldn't quit. And my favorite - the entire house smelled like fresh dirt from the garden.

Turns out we were in the midst of an "haboob." Yes, you should google it. At one point it engulfed all of Camelback Mountain. It was said to be at least a mile high and spread about 50 or 60 miles wide.

By morning the wind had stopped, but there was dust and dirt EVERYWHERE. And our pool was as dirty as I've ever seen it. Apparently it wasn't the only pool with such troubles, the high school swim team had to cancel practice because of their own murky water.

Dust seemed to hang in the air. It seemed hazy almost, but very different.

We stayed inside most of the day except for a few back-into-town errands to run (because we would have to eat, y'know).

It occurred to me this was like a distorted reflection of Christmas break. We were hunkered down inside, all cozy with fun movies, toys to play with, and great books to read. When we did emerge from our cocoon, it wasn't for long and we hurried (along with the rest of the shoppers at Costco) inside and then hurried back to the car.

Today we won't be making dustman or sledding down dust hill, but we will be hosing down the patio furniture and doing our best to revive our sad garden.

For some reason, I just can't get "It's beginning to look a lot like..." out my head. Perhaps we will have to break out some holiday tunes to get us through our chores today.