'I'm going back to Big Sur Wish I could leave today I wanna walk beneath those redwood trees Just south of Monterey' ~Johnny Rivers
So, after the fateful hurry-up-and-wait trip in the illustrious Vomit Comet, we finally rolled through Steinbeck's Salinas into the beatific seaside town of Monterey, California. The kids rejoiced at the size of the hotel room, thanks to Mama's Platinum-Christ-Status through Marriott Hotels. We ventured into downtown Monterey to taste the hottest habanero salsa this side of El Paso and eat some fairly good Mexican food. We rented Rio and crashed early that night, beat by the road.
On Saturday morning, I hit the beach trail for my marathon training long run. It was a fantastic run, making me barely aware of the pain of running that mileage for the first time this season. I got back and we had breakfast, then headed out to the world-famous Monterey Aquarium. We are familiar with the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, which is very well-known... Monterey blew John G. Shedd out of the proverbial water. It had all to do with its close proximity to the ocean, of course, but it was absolutely delightful to see the jellyfish and flamingo exhibits. They seemed to know how to keep these sea animals thriving and happy, and that's the key to a good museum-type experience, in my opinion. The kids loved it, and that's what mattered the most. The highlight of the two days we spent in Monterey was the free trolley that took us to all the major sites: the Aquarium the first day and the Point Pino Lighthouse on the second day; although, I have a separate post for THAT one... :)
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