Monterey Getaway

Now that I’m back in action, I guess I should give you a little glimpse into what I was up to over the long weekend.

First off, a weekend getaway!

San Francisco is perfectly placed to go from the beach to the mountains in about two hours, so man-friend and I decided to head down to Monterey and cash in on a hotel gift certificate that we won at an auction (no we’re not that fancy…it was a work thing).

But before we hit the road for Monterey, I had to pick up manfriend at work and got to see his place of business for the first time…

"LIKE".

Let me just say, this place is magical and if I worked here, I would probably just frolic around all day in awe.

Although I'm not sure I could walk and work, I like this idea.

After living out my dream on a treadmill desk and taking part in the Facebook happy hour (they have happy hour every Friday?!), we set off to Monterey. We arrived around at the hotel at nine, dropped our bags off and proceeded directly to a cute little Italian place called Il Vecchio. Sorry there are no photos-I was excited to be out of the car and out on an Italian food date.

Despite the dark arrival the night before, in the morning we woke up to sea views as far as the eye could see-

Ocean!

which provided the perfect spot for an awkward photo shoot-thanks manfriend.

Yes. I have a lot of hair. Wind does not make it better.

After walking around the beach, we set off for…food! After much Yelping, we decided on the Wild Plum Cafe, a cute cafe right off the main drag in historic Monterey.

Manfriend ordered the pancakes and I had a breakfast scramble…man-friend definitely had entrée envy because my dish was delicious.

Next, we set off for the hallmark attraction of Monterey-the aquarium! I’ve always heard how awesome the aquarium is, so I was excited to check it out. The aquarium was unique in that it is literally right on the water-perfect place for our only good couple picture of the trip.

Aquarium right on the ocean-perfect!

Aside from the gorgeous views, my favorite parts of the aquarium were the jellyfish displays…

The only situation where I want to get up close and personal with these guys...

AND THE SEA OTTERS.

Baby and mom otter.

I definitely probably pushed a few little kids out of the way to get a good view. But I was really in love-the mom sea otter had just taken in an orphaned baby and was treating it just like her own. I die.

In addition to watching the sea otters for about a half an hour, I even got to pet a sting ray along with the other five years olds. I could show you the thousand photos I took, but I don’t want to scare you away too fast.

After some coffee to battle our intense aquarium fatigue, we walked around Monterey and took a few more photos. This one wins most artistic-

Abandoned buildings qualify as artistic inspiration right?

After taking in a bit more time in Monterey, we headed a few miles down the road to check out Carmel, a cute beach side town. Despite the warm-looking photos, it was cold out and I hate being cold.  Luckily Pat was nice enough to get out of the car to take some great pictures while I viewed the ocean from the car. Yes, I hate the cold that much that I would take in this from the car. Don’t judge.

Stay for a while.

Seaside sunset.

All-in-all, it was a fun and relaxing weekend. Even though San Francisco is a charming city, it’s also great to get away sometimes-glad I did. If you’re ever in Northern California, be sure to check out Monterey!