Monterey Trip- June 12-14, 2009

This past weekend the boys and I took a little road trip to Monterey! My dad was in a golf tournement with The Divots at Poppy Hills, and we haven't been to the beach in so long, so I though, "What the heck, why not?" It was a long drive, but the boys were prefect in the car both ways and the trip was so worth it! We really fit a whole vacation into the two days we were there. This is a very picture-heavy post, but the pictures really do tell the story of our trip.

At the hotel we stayed at, Cypress Gardens, there was a large hot tub that the boys really enjoyed swimming in. Diane, Dan, Aaron, Johnna and Alexis were all staying at the same hotel and we had a blast hanging out by the pool with them too.

On our first night there, we went to Fisherman's Wharf

for dinner and my dad treated the boys to an

ice cream cone afterwards- what a nice grandpa!!

First thing in the morning we headed out to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We beat the crowds and spent about three hours enjoying the awesome aquarium exhibits. They have a large seahorse exhibit right now, which was really neat to see.

The big tanks were so amazing for the boys-
they loved watching all of the fish and sharks swim by so closely!

The hammerhead shark was, of course, one of the boys' favorites.

This river otter was laying right by the window and posed so perfectly for my picture!

It looked so soft, I wanted to pet it!!

Our little scientist...

Right now James tells us he wants to be a

science teacher when he grows up. These pictures are my favorites from the trip.

This scuba diver was cleaning the glass and stopped

for a minute to communicate with the boys through the window.

It was so neat!

The touching pools

A decorator crab

The jellies are always my favorite to see-

So beautiful and peaceful to watch!

This huge fish can grow to be over 150 years old!

After the aquarium, lunch and a rest, we headed out to Dennis the Menace park in Monterey. This is, by far, the best park we've ever been to. Of course, the boys were "best friends" all day long too, it was the cutest thing ever.

Of course, we spent some time at the beach as well. On the first day we drove out to Seaside to the big sandy beach there, but I forgot my camera in the car and it was too windy. On the second day, we decided to try one of the beaches right in Monterey near Fisherman's Wharf. This beach was really nice- much smaller waves and hardly any wind. We hung out and played for a long time and the boys loved every minute of it!