San Francisco Series: Episode 4

On day 4 of our journey, we had another early start and another long drive. This time we drove down to Monterey so that we could go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.The town of Monterey was a pretty cool place, both literally and figuratively. Because it was by the water, it was freezing cold like San Francisco but I really liked the small town feel of it. I would've liked to have more time there to just walk around and explore but there was no time for that. We were able to check out a store or two by the aquarium and I bought a really cute magnetic dragonfly bookmark. What was neat about Monterey was that you could actually see sea animals without actually having to go the aquarium because these were just hanging out on a rock in the ocean:We also saw some kayakers out there who were just sitting and staring at parts of the ocean at either more seals or perhaps the sea otters that are supposed to be hanging out in the kelp in the bay. Anyway, we loved the aquarium! It was humangous and was by far the best aquarium that I've visited. Sea World in San Diego was awesome, too, but I do not consider that an aquarium. Anyway, so the Monterey Bay Aquarium was packed with awesome exhibits and fabulous water related creatures, including gorgeous jelly fish and fun penguins. I was particularly enthralled by:Really cute and fun otters! I love otters! I stayed and stared a long time at the otters. But it made me a little homesick because they reminded me of M*Bark. Admittedly I had M*Bark on the brain for a good portion of our trip and called my parents more than once a day to check on her. In my defense though, some of those times Lance was actually the one who suggested that we call. Anyway, this was one of the most disgusting exhibits:It's called a fat innkeeper worm and it's found in the mud of the wetlands. This picture looks yucky, but it didn't capture the true disgustingness of the animal. We should've taken a video of it moving because that made it even more icky. Anyway, doesn't it look like a certain male body part? And to add to the awesomeness of the aquarium, they also had a really yummy restaurant there. I had this:

and the best cup of clam chowder that I've ever had. If anyone is traveling to the Bay area, I'd definitely recommend that you visit this aquarium. Not only did they have the coolest exhibits, but they also had fabulous food. It was totally worth the two hour drive from San Francisco.

After the aquarium, we stopped by the Monterey Trader Joe's. I love Trader Joe's and it's definitely one of the places I'd frequent if I lived on the mainland. Too bad there's no plans (well, that I know of anyway) to have one in Hawaii. One of the workers said that he had heard that the owner had looked into opening one, but that it would cost too much money and be too much of a hassle since the closest warehouse is an ocean away.

After Monterey, we drove to Gilroy because the MIL wanted to visit the outlet mall there. The outlet mall was very large and then we picked up dinner from an In-N-Out Burger and ate it on the ride home. Lance and I ate our first In-N-Out burger when we were in Vegas and getting another one while we were in San Francisco was on his list of things to do. I love their burgers and Lance was a happy camper on our long ride back.