Recap of the Vacation!

Wow, been a while since I’ve blogged and I’ve got TONS to blog about. So to learn about my Xmas in Cali in this post… Hit the jump.

Here we go! So at the bottom of this page, I’ll be putting in my first ever picture gallery for my blog! This isn’t all the photos, mind you, but it’s a few of my favorites. So let’s recap all the way back to Christmas. 

So Christmas Eve was family time and it was fun! I received a GPS Unit so I cannot get lost anymore, haha. No excuses this time. I already received part of my Christmas which was my new bed. I was then able to pick up Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead on the Xbox 360.  Sweetness indeed so I went and packed my bags to head into California to see my niece! Well, unofficial niece but close enough!

Left on Christmas Day – Plane ride was nice, got in just in time, and was picked up by Josh, my friend Adrienne’s husband, and we made the merry trek back to the house where we sat down to a delicious ham dinner and got a chance to enjoy the season.  The next morning, Friday, it was off to Six Flags! Six Flags was a blast, I won a Bugs Bunny (“Love the Bugs.”) in a quick draw match against Josh! I think it was rigged to let the little guy win or else all those years of video gaming paid off against the Air Force! Mwahahah! We went home and just relaxed and prepped up for the Fisherman’s Wharf the next day, Saturday.

 What a beautiful sight.  First off, I’d only seen the ocean from the flights and never on the beach side of things.  So this was my first taste of the mighty blue ocean.  It was just gorgeous! I underestimated the impact it would have on initial sight. So here’s the location we went and snagged an entire seafood dinner to feed two families (over 25 people!) for under $10.  When you can buy a pound of fish for $1, that’s just crazy.  

After the wharf, I experienced the first “fresh seafood” dinner ever, and every aspect of it was delicious. From the Calimari, Clams, Red Snapper, and BBQ’d shrimp.  It was amazing! Definitely wouldn’t object to any of those again, and I also enjoyed most of those dishes for the first time ever.  Not to mention a delicious Pecan Pie!

Sunday hit and it was a little bit more casual mainly because… we’re going to the beach baby! Josh hit the church scene with his folks, and arranged for the baby blessing to be arranged. Before we see the beach… I present to you:

Evie! The new baby! Hehe, sorry. Mentioned baby blessing so I had to give props to the little girl.  Beautiful baby, while I normally am not a fan of children, I dare say Evie is enough to warm anyone’s heart.  Anyway… to the beach!

Monterey is a gorgeous area. The beach was definitely no exception to that statement. It was a bit colder than I expected so I didn’t really dress in appropriate beach attire.  After a while though, we all ended up into the ocean.  The family I went with operates a Rock Shop. With that, we decided it’d be a good chance to get some rocks and shells from the beach! So head first into the icy water, running away as best we could from sizable waves, diving after unique looking rocks, losing grip on a priceless catch, and more was the norm for a good couple of hours.  After all the adventuring was done, and a couple of buckets and bags full of rocks, the cold started to set in on our legs, which most reported as numb yet, it was a fun numb! We headed back and relaxed for the next day was the day in town.  The Monterey Bay Aquarium and Cannery Row. 

Monday, my final day to fully enjoy. We split into two parties with some going on a whale watching expedition, and the other going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I joined the Aquarium team because I’d heard nothing but good things about it.  The place is unbelievable huge. The memorable things for me were the Jellyfish display… and the GRAND Aquarium.  I’m not sure if that’s the right name for the main tank, but it’s about 3 stories tall and just full of aquatic life. Adrienne luckily got plenty of fantastic photos of this visit. It was amazing how much they put into the aquarium. The downside was that it was crowded. Insanely crowded. We knew to expect it, but it was just surprising to see that many people there shortly after Christmas. It was great to see the shark display, the penguins getting fed, and the vast collection they have there.

Cannery Row was fun! For those who don’t know what it is, it’s basically about 3 or 4 mini-malls with very unique shops to visit.  They had one shop dedicated to the 60’s – 80’s.  You could buy movie posters, signs, movie stills and so forth all from the selected time period. Pretty impressive store. Another one that stood out was a Sand Artist. The artist had a video which showed how he creates one of the masterpieces. Lots of patience, lots of colored sand, and a very unique technique made for a very cool picture in a frame! Del Sol won my heart though. Cool concept of UV sensitive clothing that changes colors as soon as the sun hits it! Got a couple of things from there.  Of course, I took a chance to get the papa of the family an aqua massage. It was a pretty busy and patience trying trip, so it was the least I could do.  We ended up going back to swap out a pair of swimming trunks I bought, (wrong size among other things, haha) so that brought the night to a close. 

Then I flew home! So not nearly as climatic of an ending as you’d think, but got home, got relaxed and then worked towards the new years which I’ll post in another one soon.  Until then.