Saturday September 19, 2009
Gilroy to Monterey to Pismo Beach
Action packed day. Up at 0500 with the gang to get going. Coffees in hand, leaving Gilroy in the sunshine around 0730 AM, headed for Monterey for today's first planned stop at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Great drive to Monterey, and very cloudy when we got there. Managed to find the Dennis the Menace Adventure Playground at 0900 and had a great time there for an hour before going down to historic Cannery Row to visit the aquarium. Very impressive facility. Great tanks, lots of sea-life of all types, and great interactive exhibits for the little ones. We spent most of our visit there in the Splash Zone where Charlotte was all over the wave table, and Wolfe was having so much fun he drenched himself, and we needed to take off his shirt.
Wolfe is at that really exciting stage where he is toddling all over the place, just grabbing and clutching and pulling and tearing at anything he can get his hands on. He needs direct and constant supervision.
Parkade-sandwiches for lunch, plus I bought a family-pack box of cinnamon rolls for the road. Headed away from Monterey around 1300, heading for Salinas to take the 101 south.
Hot hot sun today. Salinas is always nice to drive through, and southbound through that whole agricultural valley. Makes me think of all the produce that used to wind up the store from all these farms around Salinas, CA. The names of the farms and packing houses escape me now, but I remember stuff coming from Salinas all the time. Sure enough, we went past lettuce, cauliflower, and corn on the drive today.
Had the A/C on all the way south today - so hot out. The Mazda is performing awesome. Everything working fine, and I'm so glad we have a car new enough that we can take on these long road-trips. I've never owned a car this new.
Got to Pismo Beach at around 1545, I think. Charlotte slept most of the way, while Wolfe slept the last 1/2 of the trip.
Did some playtime at John's while we tried to child-proof the place. Lots of little things down low here, so we went thru and moved things away or up.