Day 3 we left Cayucos for Monterey. We were able to drive that beautiful, windy road to get from the 1 back to the 101 to head up to Monterey. Aaron was pretty spent and fell asleep on that road again.
Monterey is such a cute little city. It is certainly bigger than Cayucos and more bustling, but still very charming. We stayed right by the aquarium since that was our main attraction there. It started to rain while we were there, but we were so close that it didn't matter. And we borrowed umbrellas from the hotel.
We checked into the hotel and it was time for Aaron to take a nap. Jeff stayed back with Aaron and took a nap as well while Kyle, Emily & I headed for the aquarium. Since we hadn't had lunch yet, we hit up the cookies store and had sandwiches, ice cream cookie sandwiches.
While the entire aquarium was absolutely amazing, I think the most fascinating thing we learned was about skates and their egg case. "A mermaid's purse holds baby skates. You're looking at living skate embryos. A female skate laid the leathery egg case after mating. These prongs anchor the egg case in seaweed or sand. After almost a year, one edge of the case opens, and the miniature skates flap their wings and swim away." Check out the next picture of the mermaid's purse with little, live skate embryos. Mind blown.
Kyle, Emily & I covered the aquarium (what we wanted to see, which was most of it, but we did speed through some parts) in about 2.5 hours. By then Aaron was waking up so Jeff took Aaron to the museum and Emily decided to go back with him to show him some of the highlights we had seen.
Penguins for Papa
After the aquarium, we went over to a little wine bar and had what we thought would be small appetizers before a later dinner, but they were substantial enough to be dinner. It had an amazing view over the ocean and bay. We watched a pair of sea lions play in the ocean in the rain.
After Aaron took a shower, Jeff gave him the Daddy towel look. What an adorable little guy!
The next morning the rain had stopped and dried up a little bit. We headed up to Jack's Peak for a stunning view of Monterey from what I think remember it saying was the highest point. Even if it isn't (yes, I know I can just google it), it was high enough for a stunning view. And a fun, easy hike for the kids that I believe was about a mile round trip. Easy enough for the kids for sure. Aaron even walked most of the way too (he did have a lot of energy though).
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