Monterey Get-away

So thanks to all of Mark's traveling to UT, he accumulated a lot of Hyatt rewards points and super status with them. We had two rooms at Baycon for 3 nights so we got offered a free night but had to use it before Aug 31. We looked at our schedule, we looked at his India schedule, we looked at Chris's flight schedule for SC, we looked at my brother's schedule (since he's our babysitter), we looked at our planned camping trips for August, and finally the start of our school year. After having looked at all of that, we realized this weekend was the only weekend the stars aligned properly for us to be able to know we would get to use it. So Mark said let's go somewhere. I said ok, let me find something.

And I picked Monterey.

Now my reasoning went something like this. The last night we got away we went to SF. The time before that (a year ago) we stayed in town to make sure things would be okay (first time leaving Nico) and then went to SF. So I figured, let's go the opposite direction. Santa Cruz is close enough to do anytime and he's recently read Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday and talking about Steinbeck so let's go do that and do the stuff there the kids never let us do.

So away we went.

Now we got started WAY later than we wanted to yesterday because he was mucking around with his car (something about wanting a partially working speedometer rather then the totally non-functioning one he had). We didn't get out until almost 5p. (I should mention at this point that I hadn't eaten lunch cause I didn't want to be the reason we couldn't leave sooner).

We got checked into our hotel down in Monterey after a lovely drive down Hwy1 in the convertible. We asked someone who worked at the hotel where we should go for dinner that wasn't on the Row. He recommended The Monterey Fish House. We followed his directions and couldn't find it. Used our map function on the phone and found that we had driven past it. It seriously barely has a sign hidden by a tree and it's a tiny place. We got there and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. We were originally told it would be about 1hr, maybe 1½hrs. Everyone we heard coming in was raving about the place and how it was the best around so we stuck it out. And then we waited. And waited. And waited. (catching a theme here?) It had now been close to 2hrs and one of the couples who had been there before us still hadn't been seated yet and tons of people with reservations were crowding us in the tiny entryway. We finally said a table is not important and got on the list for seats at the bar. We got seated quickly and had a lovely meal. I can see why it's so popular. The poor people ahead of us that were still waiting...not sure what happened to them but I think they eventually gave up. So two thumbs up to the Fish House, but get reservations especially if you are going on a Saturday night.

Back to the hotel room which had the surprise of having a door that doesn't fully close when you go out it. It was still partially open when I went to use my key. And of course, Mark had left his man-purse in the room. Thankfully everything was still there but that was definitely a fun moment.

Got up this morning and called over to First Awakenings which my brother had recommended as a must for breakfast. Walking distance from the Aquarium and no wait list so we headed on over. A bit of a wait by the time we got there but having gotten our names down before we actually arrived meant we were seated fairly quickly. Again, wonderful food. Huge pancakes, wonderful omelette, and Mark seemed very happy with his Eggs Benedict. Service was very good as well. Definitely some place I'd like to go to again. (and for the record, the water bottles on the tables outside are NOT as Mark was thinking to have a water fight with the other tables, NOR a way to get your waiter's attention, NOR a way to tell other tables to shut up their obnoxious kids but rather as a deterrent for the pigeons that like to "visit").

We walked over to Cannery Row and strolled up and down for a bit reading all the Steinbeck signs, seeing "Doc" Rickett's lab and the memorial bust, trying to figure out where some of the other Cannery Row buildings would have been. Did some shopping (mostly for others although I got a fabulous new knitting bag!) and found some wonderful things. We headed back for home early afternoon figuring we would meander our way up the coast stopping at whatever took our fancy and get some food at some point.

Ah, how the universe does love it's jokes. We made it to Santa Cruz and the car had it's "need coolant" light on the whole time. I needed to use the restroom so Mark was checking fluids while I was occupied. Turns out the coolant was fine but it could use some oil. He bought some and put it in and then dropped the oil cap. He then spent the next 20min looking over, under, and around the car trying to find it while not making a mess of his good polo. Then he went across the street to the gas station to see if they had one. Then he walked over to the hardware store to see if they might stock one. Then he bought duct tape at the hardware store to patch it over so we could get to the auto parts store on the other side of town. He patched it up and then did a bunch of revving and hard stops and starts to try to dislodge the cap from wherever it had fallen down. All to no avail (we've now been stopped for over an hour). We finally get out of the parking lot and back onto Hwy 1 and the cap falls out just in front of his tire which crushed it. Good thing we were headed for the auto parts store, back the way we had just come from.

We left Santa Cruz after over 1½hrs.

We then got stuck behind every single person wanting to enjoy the scenic view and lovely drive in their minivans. It was a long, slow drive home and we didn't stop to see any of the lovely things as we had planned. Nor did we stop for lunch. Thank goodness we had some cashews in the car. I'm pretty sure Mark wouldn't have been happy with me had I started gnawing on the leather seats.

Finally made it home around 7:30p. I'm pretty sure my children multiplied with water or something while I was gone because surely it isn't that noisy in my house on a regular basis.

Or maybe my brain had blissfully forgotten just how loud they are.