Monterey, Part 1

We went to Monterey for a few days during Bryan's spring break.

Lincoln was chasing after my finger as I wrote the letters, saying the letter names. 

In the past, we were terrible; we would run ourselves into the ground for months and years at a time without taking very many breaks or vacations. So, we've resolved to be better at that. What a great resolution ha ha.

Day 1

We left around 9 am to drive down to Monterey!

Lincoln loves to read to himself, and I'm hoping that trend continues... it gets us through at least short parts of our car rides painlessly. :) 

We took stuff to make lunches, and ate our first lunch on the patio of the hotel before we were even allowed to check in...lol. If you act like you belong somewhere typically people don't ask questions...but I asked Bryan to go tell people why we were there anyway. I'm paranoid about breaking rules. :) 

Sidenote. Lesson learned from mom from trips to Disneyland: If you pack your own lunches you save lots of money and time. The end. It actually turned out to be a brilliant thing for this trip because a) food is expensive in Monterey, b) Lincoln only likes to eat when he's at home in his high chair not being distracted by FUN, so I had to carry his food around with me at all times, and c) we were able to eat our lunches when Lincoln was napping and didn't have to worry about finding food somewhere else.

After lunch we got out our bikes and the bike trailer and bike down to the aquarium!

Lincoln could not understand why we would stop him from running around and having fun to take pictures. This was a theme our whole trip. :)

Other sidenote: Our primary method of transportation was bikes and the bike trailer once we parked our car upon arrival in Monterey. It worked so well because it is most definitely a tourist town-- there is very little parking, it's all SUPER expensive, and the roads are all tiny one-way things. Biking is the way to go. There was a bike trail that went all along the coast and hit all the major sites.

I was glad that Bryan was willing to pull the trailer (trailer+Lincoln > 50lbs). I'm happy to pull Lincoln all around Stanford but with the trailer dragging him back, Bryan and I were more evenly matched. :)

The Aquarium

Lincoln LOVED the aquarium.

This was in front of a GIANT tank of sharks, giant tuna, huge sea turtles, and all sorts of awesome things. Lincoln loved it. When a shark would pass by he would say, "na na na na CHOMP". It never gets old.

Looking at the eels.

Kid tunnel

PENGUINS! Definitely in Lincoln's top five list of animals. 

Can we all just take a moment and appreciate that eels are perhaps the CREEPIEST looking ocean animals that exist?! At least other frightening creatures like sharks look cool.... these are terrifying.

"YES! A FRUIT SNACK! SCORE!"

After the aquarium

After we left the aquarium for the day we went back to the hotel, checked in, and tried to get Lincoln to take a nap. Fail.

So, we decided to hop on our bikes and head to dinner.

Turns out Lincoln would have had a great vacation regardless of what else we did if we would have just let him splash in the puddles in the greasy parking lot. :)

Only problem: It was raining. We figured that the place we'd picked was close, Lincoln was totally protected from the rain, and traffic and parking was bound to be impossible. So, we waited for the least-heavy downpour we could, and took off.

Turns out, the place we'd picked (a non-touristy Mexican food place) would have been the one place we went all week that was easy to drive to and had plenty of parking. Figures. So, Bryan and I were soaked. And, of course, Lincoln fell asleep in the trailer. Oh well. Dinner was delicious. :)

Bryan said we should take pictures of each other taking pictures of our food. :) Bryan got a yummy burrito and I got pastor enchiladas for Lincoln and me. Turns out that they were too spicy for him so I ate the other half for lunch the next day. 

Crashed on the booth in a Mexican Restaurant. There are worse places to nap. His normal naps don't usually include the same delicious smells.  Sweet dreams!

On the way back from dinner Lincoln was really upset for some reason so we ended up at a couple beaches. Turns out this kid could live at the beach forever and be a happy buddy. He likes the tide-pool-y, rocky beaches best.

I actually don't remember at what point in our day we stopped at this beach, and Lincoln's in different clothes than the "on the way home from dinner clothes"... hm. Oh well. 

This boy thought hermit crabs were the coolest things ever. Don't mind the runny nose.

We headed back to the hotel for the night.

Stanford Cactus Garden

Today after church, lunch, and naps (yay!) we went over to the Stanford Cactus Garden to explore! It was very cool. Lincoln thought it was the coolest place he's ever been; he enjoyed wandering around the trails, exploring, smelling all the flowers, and pointing at each cactus and saying "ouch!" 

We felt a bit daring letting our toddler run around a cactus garden without holding our hands, but he had no interest in holding our hands, and was surprisingly good and didn't touch a single sharp object. He sounded like he was sneezing over and over because of how often he would point at cacti and say "ouch!" It was hilarious. 

We planned on being there for like 20 minutes, but it turned into a much longer adventure. I'm sure we'll be back. Lincoln loved it. Here are some pictures!

Lincoln was not thrilled that we were trying to get him to look at the camera instead of all the cool cacti behind him. 

This face kills me. :) 

This boy loves to smell flowers. 

He did not understand why we kept stopping him from exploring to take pictures!

But dad's more fun to look at behind the camera, so I got a good picture with him. :) 

This one reminded me of a porcupine. 

In hind sight, I have no idea why we brought the stroller. 

I don't know why, but this one was so creepy to me! It looked like worms! 

These ones are the scariest to me- the hairy needles would be so painful! 

These were like Mickey Mouse ears with bundles of spiny terribleness all over them. 

I loved these... like beachballs of death. 

Look how long the needles were on this one!  

A giant aloe vera plant (at least 8 feet tall). 

Feeding Lincoln to the giant aloe vera plant. :) 

Looking for the source of the ambulance sirens (with a great view of the garden in the back). 

Running right up the side of a giant tree. Lincoln wanted to climb it SO BAD. I might be in trouble.

Sitting at the base of the giant tree. I thought it looked like dinosaur legs and feet.

Smelling the flowers, avoiding the spines. 

We walked over to the Mausoleum that the Stanfords are buried (entombed?) in. Lincoln thought it was pretty cool. Before we left he went up the steps, waved at the doors, and said "bye bye!" over and over. It was hilarious... and slightly creepy ha ha.

We walked past the cactus garden on the way back to the car, and Lincoln wanted to stick around some more. He found a rock, picked it up, threw it, chased after it, picked it up, and threw it again, over and over and over. Then when he was tired he found a nice patch of pathway and sat in it and drew. When he got tired of that, he handed us his rock and had us draw letters with it so he could say them. Funny boy.

It was a fun afternoon with our favorite little boy! :)