California Vacation-Monterey

We spent a day and a half in Monterey on our vacation. The objective for this part of the trip was to go to the Monterey Aquarium. We found out we could get discounted tickets at the Presidio, which is the military base in Monterey (as if we'd be so lucky to be stationed there!). So, our first stop was the Presidio...I'm told the views of the bay from the base are beautiful, but we wouldn't know because the bay was FOGGED IN!

As soon as we got on base, we saw these deer just standing in a playground.

Yup, just in the grass...those are houses right there. That was pretty cool.

Off to the aquarium

Luke loves sharks, and he really enjoyed seeing them in up close.

This cascading waterfall on a timer scared Luke the first few times...

...then, he thought it was funny.

They had a Great White in a HUGE three-story tank.

Madison pretended to be a shark.

They had a lot of fun.

Hands-on time

Alex enjoyed himself too.

The kids' playroom

"Riding" a fish

The aquarium is right here at Cannery Row, which is from John Steinbeck's novels.

After the aquarium, we decided to do the "17-mile drive" around the Monterey Peninsula. The drive circles the coast of Pebble Beach, yes, THE Pebble Beach if you're into golf.

Views of Pebble Beach Golf Courses

The lone tree out here on the rocks...this was a popular stop on the drive. A lot of tourists wanted to take pictures of this tree.

The boys were napping, so Madison enjoyed getting out of the car at some of the stops on the drive.

We had a nice time in Monterey. The fog was remarkable, in that, you just couldn't see a whole lot. We got a break in the fog on the Pebble Beach drive, as it went south from Monterey to Carmel, but as you got closer to Monterey, the fog returned.