Do You Know The Way To Monterey?

Of course I do! It's my favorite place in the world!

Last week, we got to spend an amazing couple of days in Monterey with Grandpa O and Great Grandma and Grandpa O. The first night, we walked around on the wharf and got some delicious food at Rappa's at the end of the wharf.

I love all of the boats in the harbor!

I must admit, I think I have the most handsome husband there is!

Clay had never had calamari before we met. Because I am a pretty picky eater, people are surprised to find that I LOVE calamari! Zane wanted to try it. Maybe next time, Bud.

I just loved the view from our table at the resturant.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to take a five hour whale-watching expedition. It gets super cold out on the water, so we made sure to bundle up. Zane couldn't stop staring at all the birds!

There are always tons of sea lions hanging out around the wharf, wherever they can hoist themselves up.

We also saw a couple of super cute sea otters playing around a boat.

This is Simon Sea Lion, King of the Giant Bouy.

On one side of the sea lion rocks, all you can smell is ocean. Once you get downwind, it gets pretty stinky! They are all so cute though!

Zane was really happy cruising around before the deckhand made him put on a life jacket.

This was our first shark sighting! Actually it was a dolphin. The first of HUNDREDS of dolpins we saw that day.

There we so many dolphins in the bay that day!

I was pretty proud of myself for catching this particular shot. None of the dolphins we saw were really showing anything but their dorsal fins, so when one actually did something interesting, I captured it!

Poor Zane didn't like his life jacket. But even out on the ocean, he loved his bottle!

Clay took my camera for a while and took some interesting shots. Apparently he liked focusing on the water more than the boring stuff in the distance!

Eventually, after Zane had a nice full belly, we were able to put him in his stroller and he was lulled to sleep by the sound of the engine and the rocking of the waves. Clay and I got to enjoy the boat ride sans baby for a little bit.

This daddy sure loves his son!

One cool thing about this particular trip is that it's led by a naturalist. (Her name is Kate, and she is super famous in the marine biology world). She was so nice, and when we couldn't find any whales, she started walking around the boat, getting to know people. She offered to take some pictures of us. Zane was not thrilled about his life jacket.

We did end up getting a really cute family picture though.

Since we didn't see any whales on the trip (hundreds of dolphins, no whales) they gave us vouchers for a free trip any time in the future. I am excited to go back sometime when it is actually whale season, and when Zane is a little bigger and enjoys the trip a little more! I sure love the ocean!