Today I spent the day in Monterey with three friends visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium! With the plans for a similar trip like this in the works for a couple months, it was exciting to finally get in the car and drive the 1.5 hours to the beautiful, coast-side town!
Waking up at 7 was a pain, but the early morning was totally worth the rest of the day with R, M, and G! Our first stop when we got to Monterey was the aquarium, of course, where we spent.. I'd say.. five or so hours? From jelly fish to the ADORABLE sea otters (my favorite), we saw (I think) all of the exhibits and three of the "feedings".
The food at the aquarium "café" was horrific to say the least. The "apple butter" on my grilled cheese was pretty much applesauce, making the sandwich soggy and weird tasting, and the tomato "soup" it came with was watered down and tasted like... something from a can. A very old can. With things growing in it. As you can tell, I am passionate about food, and when they charge me thirteen dollars for poopy food... Well, I am not happy!
After finishing up our time at the aquarium with a cute narrated video about a sea otter named Luna, the four of us window shopped down the tourist trap and got Dippin' Dots (G bought me some as payback for getting primer in my hair. This would make sense if you read Thursday's blog). After shopping, we drove down (up?) to a nearby wharf for dinner at a place called Isabella's, but since it was only four-ish (kinda early for dinner) we decided to walk along the beach. M and I collected sea shells and sea glass while G and R did their best to avoid the water and our (okay, MY) splashing. It was all in good fun, I promise! On the way back to the wharf, M and I giggled and shared stories while G and R took off ahead of us and talked mysteriously. I don't actually know if they were talking about anything secretive, but I'm sure they were taking the chance away from the girls to gossip - as we ALL know boys like to do ;) My rolled up jeans didn't survive the water unfortunately and I had to deal with sandy toes in my shoes, but I those small discomforts were totally worth the fun on the beach!
Considering that we killed a good forty-five minutes on the beach and we were all freaking hungry, it was time for dinner! We headed over to Isabella's, which had a BEAUTIFUL view of the pier and bay. The waitress who sat us said that she had given us the best seat in the restaurant, which was pretty sweet! The food was excellent and after indulging in two shared desserts, we were delighted to find that the manager had given us our cake and pie for free! Took it off the tab! What awesome people!
On our way out of the restaurant, I saw one of those tiny photo-booth things and coerced my fellow Monterey-goers to squeeze in for fond memory's sake. To preserve my friends' identities, here's a picture we found in the slot along with our own and I took for the very purpose of sharing it with all y'all. What a cute couple. (if this is you, tell me, I'll send you your picture :)
While R went to get the car, G, M and I tried on glitzy masquerade masks in the last store on the wharf and I bought a little memento for the occasion - a pin for my messenger bag! I love my weird collections. After seeing a little sign warning parents to not allow those under 18 upstairs into the "man cave" without supervision, of course we were all a little curious. To our dismay(?), all there was that was for those above the age of 18 was a collection of some really cool, ornate guns, knives, and whips... And some more weird masks along with some pretty ugly hippie-esque clothes. I guess the warning was because of the weapons. No fun. G had M and I going that we had missed something sketchy for a good while, but when we realized he was trolling us we decided to make fun of him to R. Gotta love making vague comments ;)
We all headed back to the car and were soon on our way along the picturesque(r?) route home to watch the sun set over the ocean. Unfortunately the fog rolled in and obscured our view! BAH! Well, we had enough fun listening to music (and singing along) and chatting in the car on the ride home. M and I texted behind the driver's back while G napped in the passenger's seat :3 I think our incessant snickers and meows (yes, you read that correctly) woke him up a few times.
To say the least, today was oodles of fun and I enjoyed every minute of my day with my friends! May everyone have equally wonderful days with their friends this summer! Keep it classy folks.
**Oh, btw, you may have noticed that I am not using actual names in my blog posts. This is to maintain my friends' privacy and keep this from being just a journal for me. :) Thank you for understanding!**
No comments:
Post a Comment