Trip to Monterey

We took a really nice day trip to Monterey on Saturday. I was totally wiped from the week and from being sick the previous week. I really just needed to get out of dodge for a few hours to reset. I had talked to my friend Valerie about going. I just wasn't sure if Callie would be into it. She told me she had taken her daughter at around Callie's age. That was enough for me!

We had breakfast at Hobbees before we left and made the drive to the aquarium. Callie slept most of the way. When we arrived it was late enough in the day that it wasn't too crowded. We got to see some great things (although one of our favorite exhibits was closed. No weirdo sunfish for us.)
Our first stop was the sea otter exhibit. Callie loved it! She tried following the frolicking otter all over the tank, not an easy job! While there we met two deaf women. Thanks to our work with baby sign language (American Sign Language) we were actually able to communicate with them! It was so cool! We knew what they were signing when they told us that Callie was a "beautiful baby." I was able to say "Thank you" and we talked about the signs we were working on. Also at the otter exhibit I noticed a teenage couple in formal wear. I thought to myself, "Well that is an odd choice for a before a formal dance activity." As the afternoon wore on it became clear that their dance was being held at the aquarium. It made for some interesting people watching with all the families and the teenagers in corsages and tuxedos. One of Callie's favorite exhibits was the place where all of the anchovies are all swimming in circles. She was trying to follow all of them ! Her head was all over the place.


Video of her and the fishies!

Yay! Jellies!

At the Seahorse exhibit
We went into the kids section, the splash zone as well. It was a little chaotic with the bigger kids, but she had fun.


Callie makes a new friend...Shocking, I know.
One of the funniest things was The Rocky Shore exhibit. There is a spot called the wave crash. It is so cool, it has a walk through tunnel where water kind of explodes over the glass every 30 seconds or so. We had first come across it when we were outside. It scared the crap out of Callie! I had her in the Ergo so she would just grip me really hard and bury her head in my chest. It made for a nice hug, even though she was scared! We stopped in the bookstore before we left. While Bill was holding Callie, she reached out for a little stuffed otter, so of course we bought it. We also found a board book about otters for her.
After we were done we walked up and down cannery row. We stopped for dinner at Sly McFlys.

Callie's new stuffed animal needs a drink, obviously.
Since Callie is finally eating table food these days, it makes eating out a lot easier. But I have noticed that in most places "Kids" menus are not designed to be healthy at all! They are clearly designed for picky eaters:) Mac and Cheese, Chicken tenders, hot dogs, etc. Not really what I want to give Callie at such a young age. So it was breast milk for her and she had some of my rice as well.


Some silliness at Sly McFly's.


After dinner, we walked to one of my favorite spots, Ghiradelli! We got a banana sundae (Callie got most of the banana, with a little ice cream!). After that we were ready to call it a day and headed home.