Dear Scarlett,
We had a great trip to Monterey this past weekend for Father’s Day. Will post photos from our trip tomorrow (having trouble with uploading photos from my camera right now). We got on the freeway on Saturday morning at 8:30 AM. We stopped about halfway up at Avila Beach and ate breakfast on the beach (yogurt, granola, & fruit we brought in the cooler), and then stopped at Avila Valley Farm so Scarlett could see the farm animals.
She loved seeing the goats, sheep, alpacas, ponies, horses, calves, roosters, chickens, ducks, and pigs. We loved the cute country store with all the goodies and yummy samples! I was surprised by what a cute area Avila was, and we are definitely planning to make Avila (and its natural, mineral hot springs!) the place for our next camping trip.
We arrived in Monterey at about 1:30 PM, and after checking into our hotel (not the same one we originally thought we’d stay at), which had a GREAT location, we freshened up, walked out to Fisherman’s Wharf and immediately got suckered into eating lunch at a place that ended up not being that great. Oh well – lesson learned. We won’t sit down till we’ve checked a Yelp review on a place now!
After a lackluster lunch, we walked down to the aquarium.
It was about a mile long walk from our hotel, and there was an awesome bike/pedestrian shared use path through town to the aquarium, so it was great to get a little exercise. In fact, once we parked at the hotel, we didn’t get back in the car again until we were leaving town. Once we got to the aquarium, it was PACKED. And Scarlett was being kinda fussy – she had slept quite a bit in the car in the morning, but hadn’t had any afternoon nap. But, we dragged her through the aquarium for a couple hours. And she had some fun, mixed with fussiness. At one point, when Scarlett was being fussy, Chris put her up on his shoulders. She loves that. Then I noticed she was throwing up a little bit. And not spit-up. Full-on vomit. So, I grabbed her, and checked her out. She seemed fine. Smiling. Not even upset. Then I checked out Chris’ head – it was sporting some vomit.
Chris went to the men’s room to wash his head. I was laughing later thinking about him going in there to wash his head. I asked him what happened – did anyone look at him funny? He said he went into the restroom, to the sink, cupped water in his hands, and put it on his head. Repeat. He did say that he got some weird looks, and that cracks me up. What were the other people thinking? That he was so concerned with his appearance that he wanted to wet down his hair in the bathroom and comb it back with his hands? Remember, the aquarium was pretty packed that day, so there were lots of dudes in there to witness this spectacle!
After a few fussy hours at the aquarium, we walked back to the hotel, and stopped at a cool cafe along the trail back to the hotel. Scarlett had fallen asleep by this time, so Chris and I enjoyed a couple cocktails and live music while looking out at the water. This was actually the highlight of the day. Life’s funny like that – the things you think will be great (like lunch on Fisherman’s Wharf) can end up being just okay, and the things you don’t even plan (like stopping to get a drink at a trailside cafe) can really provide a lot of enjoyable conversation and time together.
When we got back to the hotel, I took a shower, and just as Chris went to hand Scarlett to me in the shower, she peed on Chris’ feet! It was just not his day – he got thrown up on and peed on. After that she went to bed in the pack n’ play, and we ate dinner at the hotel. We were planning on waking her up to take her out to a restaurant with us, but after she was asleep it seemed too cruel to wake her. So, we ate unimpressive hotel food, and then went to bed.
The next day was great – much better for Chris! He didn’t get thrown up on or peed on! Pretty good considering it was Father’s Day. Plus, the food was better. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow (with pics hopefully!)
Love, Mom (Shelley)
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