A Monterey Birthday

Today I turned 24 and it was one of my best birthdays yet!  24 years down and hopefully many more to go.  Eric planned all of today long before we even got here so it was nice to just relax and enjoy the day without having to plan anything. We slept in a little this morning and then headed to the Monterey Aquarium.  This aquarium is known as one of the best in the US and it didn't disappoint.  The first thing Eric did when we got here was to go over to the information desk and tell them it was my birthday.  They gave me a happy birthday pin and a starfish high-five.  It was hilarious.  I think Eric just wanted payback from when we celebrated his birthday in Disneyland and I made him wear a happy birthday pin all day.

We wandered through several of the exhibits and it was fascinating.  Their newest exhibit is about squids and octopi - very interesting.  Next to it, there was a Jellies Exhibit.

They also had several large tanks with tons of fish.  My favorite tank had giant tuna (turns out tuna are really big.  I thought they were small because they come in really small cans).  The tank also had hammerhead sharks, a school of smaller fish, giant sea turtles, and a few stingrays.  It was amazing.  I don't know how the sharks don't eat the little fish, but the people at the aquarium assured us that they put fish together in tanks that aren't aggressive towards each other... I'm still not sure I believe it.

We looked through about half of the aquarium and then got hungry so we left in search of some lunch.  The aquarium is on Cannery Row, which is essentially a darling Main Street with tons of restaurants and shops. It was named Cannery Row because it is the area John Steinbeck wrote about in his novel, Cannery Row. It's right next to the Ocean and there are cute little beaches just steps away. We found a nice restaurant where Eric got fish & chips and I got clam chowder in a bread bowl.

After lunch, we decided to go on 17 Mile Drive through Pebble Beach.  It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  The drive is a 17-mile loop with beautiful beaches, golf courses, and forests.  There was a beach that had a rock with tons of birds and sea lions on it, and another beach that had giant waves crash against beautiful rocks.  There was another beach we headed down that had perfect white sand and beautiful views.  There were small animal tracks on the sand (which I think came from a small dog, but Eric insists that a cat made it down to the beach).  We must have been missing our little CC cat because we started making up a story about CC our beach cat.  It was pretty funny.  I don't think CC would like the beach...

It started raining just as we were finishing the drive, so we headed back to the hotel to freshen up a bit before heading back to Monterey.  Our timing couldn't have been better - the rain started pouring as we were driving back to the hotel.  After we had freshened up we went back to the aquarium to see the last few exhibits we missed.  We saw Eric's favorite exhibit - a giant octopus, and some fun penguins.

After we were done we headed back to Cannery Row. It was fun to wander into the shops, and we of course got our traditional Christmas Tree ornament to take home with us.

We then went to dinner at the Chart House.  It was AMAZING.  It sits right on the bay so from our table we looked out into the ocean the entire time.  We saw a cute little otter pop up and a few seals.  It was great.

When Eric made the reservation for dinner he told them it was my birthday, so on our menu, they had Happy Birthday at the top. I love the little details.

The seafood was great and so fresh.  Eric had tilapia stuffed with crab and I had salmon with artichoke hearts.  It was delicious.  For dessert, they brought us mud pie with a candle in it.  It was so much fun to blow out a candle on my birthday.  I don't even remember the last time I had a candle to blow out, so that was really nice.

After dinner, we went to a cute little town called Carmel by the Sea.  It's a tiny little town right on the ocean with the most beautiful beach.  Our plan was to watch the sunset, but it started raining as we were driving over and it was pretty cloudy.  The rain stopped just as we got to the beach so we headed out.  We couldn't see the sunset since it was behind the clouds, but it was nice to be on the beach together.  It was one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been to.

It started getting dark so we headed back to the car and when we were about 10 feet away the rain started coming down again.  Our timing couldn't have been better.  As we were walking back to the car Eric and I were talking about what a great day and a great birthday it was.  I can now say that I've been to the beach on my birthday!  There is something so comforting about water - I don't know what it is, but I love being by the ocean.  It was a great day!