Monterey

Though embarrassing as it is to be one of those goofy tourists that pulls over to take pictures along the side of the road . . . we just couldn't help ourselves. The drive to Monterey was too breathtaking not to stop and appreciate it along the way.

We also couldn't resist stopping at a roadside farmer's market where I bought a number of goodies including a ginormous and delicious mango, homemade corn-nuts and garlic stuffed green olives.

And now for the main reason we drove to Monterey . . . The Monterey Bay Aquarium!!!

Main Attraction: The Jellyfish

This might be an excessive amount of jellyfish but I just can't pick favorites! I LOVE all these jellyfish photos.  And they were fascinating to watch.  There was even a glow-in-the-dark display of jellyfish but it was harder to get photos of that because they kept blurring.

Other Attractions:
Sardine Ceiling- In one area the ceiling was circular and there were Sardines constantly swimming in circles around you . . . It was probably our second favorite thing next to the jellyfish.  It was particularly fun when, on rare occasions, you caught one sardine swimming in the opposite direction of all of them, refusing to conform with the crowd :-).  We were so proud of those little backwards swimming sardines.

Next up: Seahorses! They had a huge seahorse display but I just picked my one favorite since this blog is going to be quite long.

It was hard to get a picture of this turtle because everyone loved how close he was to the glass so people had their phones in his face the whole time taking pictures.  The other photo below is of a bunch of Mackerel.  They were also fun to watch and there was a whole wall of them.  They were most fun when a shark would swim by them but we couldn't get a good picture of that.

After the aquarium, Reed and I headed over to a place called "Lover's Point" and it did not disappoint.  Very romantic place and we got some lovely pictures.  It was a little crowded though as there were a few people taking wedding photos.

After Lover's Point, we met up with my newlywed sister Jaimee and her husband, Joey.  Jaimee is a marine and is in linguistics training in Monterrey but soon she will be headed to Texas for more training and then to North Carolina! Jaimee and Joey took us to the wharf and then to a beautiful coastal town called Carmel where we got to hang out on the beach.

 Cute couple :-).  It's so nice to have photogenic people around us! And these two were particularly fun because . . . well they are newlyweds! Constantly giggling and flirting with each other. So fun :-).  Oh and that cute picture of Reed standing alone is another Lover's Point picture but I didn't want to move it since I needed a picture that size to fill that spot haha.

By the end of the long day of picture taking Reed was getting a little silly in his poses.  I'm glad I got him to be normal in one.

We finished off the day at a quaint little French restaurant in Monterey.  I had confit de canard, which is always good but never as good as it is in France, and Reed had the MOST amazing spinach Gnocchi.  It was a successful day :-).