We headed down to Monterey on Sunday morning, trying to get a head start on any traffic. We timed it right as Brandon was sleepy, so he’d sleep the whole way down. We almost failed though, as we were losing him to sleep while we were getting ready. At least there was no fuss, he was just watching the end of “Cars”.
We got down there but couldn’t check into the hotel. It was only around 11am, so understandable, but they said we couldn’t check in until 4pm. So we started walking toward the wharf. I had just received my AAA magazine, and this weekend, there was a Greek festival. Mmmm…gyros. So we bought two gyros and some pastries and had lunch at the wharf. Brandon loved the meat and pita. After that, we strolled along the waterfront and made our way over to cannery row and then the aquarium. We could see the line wrap around the buidling. Luckily they said it was only about a 1/2 hour wait. But it was still pretty sunny. So we waited around in the switchback of lines, reminiscent of a Disneyland ride. While in line, we were shocked to see this probably 2-3 year old kid in a stroller holding a can of Sunkist orange soda, with an orange ring around his mouth. I was horrified! Both parents were rather large, and it just seemed like this kid was headed straight down the same path. He was quite a pain in the neck too, screaming his head off, whining about something, maybe wanting more Sunkist? That stuff has caffeine in it too. Maybe it’s the line of work I’m in, working with diabetes and the epidemic that we’re facing or I’m being really paranoid for Brandon but we’re trying to limit all the crap I see other parents feed their kids. He’s never had juice let alone soda. (Another kid I saw inside the aquarium had chocolate milk in a bottle!) Hopefully Brandon won’t get any of that for a long while and stick to the water that he loves now. After about 20 minutes or so, mostly watching this bratty kid, we got inside and paid for our tickets. They say it takes about 3 hours to see everything, but with Brandon, it was less time than that. He wasn’t too interested in seeing the living animals up close. Even the otters, which are pretty playful, didn’t seem to interest him too much. We saw a small great white shark, a new exhibit for them, but what he liked best were the touch zones. Most of the animals in there were plastic – plastic starfish with suction cups, plastic fish used to play in the water. They have little aprons to keep the kids mostly dry. But it was so crowded, Brandon could hardly get in to play. Especially since he was on the younger side, most of the kids were at least 5 on up. So he was this itty-bitty little kid trying to get his hands in the water, but had to tippy toe to do so. There were other toys, like sorting blocks which represented fish, to feed to the whales and dolphins. So the hands on exhibits were much more entertaining to him, but that just meant more people with which to contend. We spent about 2 hours, looking around at most of the exhibits, if not just for a second for us to see. Trying to read all of the information about them was not an option, neither was seeing any of the movies in the auditorium. We realized a better use of our time would be to leave, get our hands stamped and come back later when the crowds were thinner. So we walked back to the hotel. One thing I like to do when Dave’s pushing the stroller is to hold Brandon’s hand. So he was holding onto my hand then I realized his head was slumped forward. He had fallen asleep, but continued to hold my hand! Poor thing, so we reclined him and continued the rest of our way back. We stopped at the wharf for a snack – a crab salad on a roll. Yummy! Brandon was so tired, probably from all the excitement at the aquarium, that he even continued to sleep for about another hour after we checked into the hotel, which was great, because it let me sleep too! After we both woke up, just before 6pm, we decided to go get something to eat. I wanted Fish and Chips, Dave wanted Mexican, and we wanted to make sure Brandon would eat something. We drove back to the wharf and found a place that had all of that! Dave got some fish tacos, I had my fish and chips, and we ordered a small plate of veggies for Brandon to go along with both of our food. He had some of Dave’s salmon, and I took off the fried shell of my battered fish. We made it over to the aquarium right before 7pm. We realized we had missed the octopus exhibit; we thougth that Brandon would like that, since he has a bath squeeze toy, which he calls the “Ah-ba-dee-dee, Ah-ba-dus”. The two octopi (sp?) there were pretty boring, somewhat hard to find too. We also stopped by the penguin exhibit since we missed that, too. But the main attraction as far as Brandon was concerned was the hands on kid zone. He loved it! So focused on getting the circles to fit in one animal’s mouth and the squares to fit in another. There were way less kids in there so it was much easier for him to get around. We even had time for the gift shop. I was looking for a puzzle of some kind. They had some puzzles that were sea-themed, but they were along the lines of the puzzles that he has at home. So we found this one wooden one that had shapes of numbers from 0-9, with sea animals of that respective number. We got out of the gift shop right as the aquarium was closed. We took a few pictures and then left to go back to the hotel. Brandon and I were playing with the puzzle while Dave went to go forage for more food. He had only had two tacos, so it didn’t satisfy his hunger for Mexican. So he went to order burritos while we played. In putting the pieces of the puzzles together, I noticed that the number 8 has 9 animals! What? Dave was so mad, he wanted to go return the puzzle, claiming it was defective. I told him we could just scratch out a whale, and then it would be all good. We then bathed Brandon, fed him a little burrito, and with a full tummy, he was down and out. We put him on the floor since the bed was only a queen. But in the middle of the night, I asked Dave to check and see if he was cold. Next thing I know, Brandon was in between us. Dave said, “He’s cold” but when I touched him, he was nice and warm. Dave stuck to his claim that he was cold and also, “I miss him.” Awww…who could disagree with that, so there he was, like old times, foot in my face, tossing and turning.
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We woke up for a continental breakfast in bed, well, after Dave went to the lobby to get it, and then sent me back for round 2. The boys dropped me off at the spa, where I got to hang out at the Monterey Plaza Hotel Spa and finally get to use my gift certificate from Valentine’s Day. I went out to the deck and used the hot tub – it was a breath-taking view of the water. The sun wasn’t out initially, but it finally broke through the clouds while I was out there reading some magazines. I relaxed for about an hour and then got ready for my treatment – a therapeutic 50-minute massage. So relaxing :). I wish I could have one everyday. Ok, maybe more realistically, every quarter? At this rate, it’s been over a year, almost two. This is my first post-baby massage. The last one was when I was pregnant! Afterwards, I tried calling Dave, but it went straight to voicemail. So I took a shower then decided to go shopping, thinking I’d try his cell later. He had run out of battery earlier in the day, so as I was leaving, I saw he and Brandon right at the base of the stairs in the plaza. What a site for sore eyes, I had missed them! “Mommy,” Brandon said while pointing to me as I made my way down the stairs. Aaww…what a perfect end to the massage. My tummy was growling at the last part of the treatment, so we went to go find something to eat. We checked out of the hotel and went to a bakery, Parker-Lusseau, which delivers pastries to the hotel. We had a curried tuna croissant sandwich and a goat cheese and sun-dried tomato quiche before heading home. We made it in time for family afternoon. As soon as we drove up, Brandon pointed to the building and said, “Rachel.” Yes, we were at Rachel and Kenny’s for some Labor Day BBQ. Sophia and Scott were also over, which is ironic, because they are both going to school in Monterey. They were going to drive back today as school starts tomorrow. We didn’t stay long, but we were there long enough to enjoy pulled pork, mac and cheese, ribs, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob and some yummy bread pudding. Definitely lots of good food as always. We came back home to settle in and clean up for tomorrow, Brandon’s first day of school!