The Gale Family: Our weekend get away to Monterey

Where do I begin??? How about this was a much needed, much loved weekend get away! Our family has never gone to Monterey and since Michael won tickets to the aquarium the week before we decided it was a good excuse to leave town. We had an absolute blast!!! From the moment we arrived till the moment we got home, it was full of nonstop fun and laughter.

We arrived around dinner time on the evening of June 27th, so thought it was fitting that we head over to the wharf and find some good clam chowder. That's exactly what we did. Each of us got our own clam chowder bread bowl and sat in a restaurant overlooking the harbor. It was delicious!

After filling our tummies we decided to check out the shops. We knew after our first mishap in the gift shop that this was going to be one of those trips that go down in history. The kids were all given a budget on what they could spend. That way when their money was gone, it was gone and no more asking for stuff. This really made the kids put more thought into what they wanted to purchase. So, here comes the funny story...Ranse saw a display of rings that he thought were mood rings. So out of curiosity he decided to try one on to see what kind of mood he was in. Somehow he was able to get the ring on but not off. Gale and I watched Ranse for a while try to get the ring off and Gale finally decided he needed a little help. Dad tugged and tugged on the ring and it still wouldn't budge, so I told Ranse to spit on his finger to get it wet and see if it would come off. Still no ring! The lady behind the counter finally noticed what was going on because Gale and I were laughing hysterically and offered us some hand sanitizer to loosen things up. No ring...at this point I decided to pull out the video and catch this on tape. We finally told Ranse he'd have to buy it cause it wasn't coming off. Somehow, once he realized this was going to be coming out of his "budget" he managed to get the ring off. Well, to our surprise we had attracted a crowd during this whole ordeal and the gentlemen in line before us purchased the ring for Ranse and said he had to keep it as a keepsake. He too was laughing hysterically and wanted to make sure Ranse would always remember that experience. You have to watch the video, it's only a small clip but worth watching!

The next day was our day to venture off to the aquarium. I'll try to keep the rest of this blog short since I have written so much already. We decided to walk and take in the sights along the way. We made it to the aquarium and saw that they had a scuba program for the kids and signed Ranse up to do it. He got to scuba in a tide pool right there at the aquarium and enjoyed that a lot. We saw all the exhibits and Michael could not stop talking about the jellyfish. While there we also went to one of their shows which was a game show and Ranse was chosen to be one of the contestants. He had fun playing off the crowd and sharing his acting abilities. After the aquarium we decided to put the whole family in a surrey(a bike that 4 people could pedal but looked like a little buggy) and pedal down the coastline. We thought this would be a nice relaxing way to take in the sights, instead we felt like we were in a spin class at the gym. Thighs burning, heavy breathing and sweat trickling down your forehead. Another hilarious moment. Let's just say we turned many heads, it didn't help that Michael rang the bell at everyone we past while giving them that serious stare that he gives so well. We saw many Asian families doing it no problem, I guess we should have taken into account that us Gale Giants weigh in over 500 lbs. That makes all the difference!!

After the exhausting bike ride, our wobbly legs meandered through Cannery Row and headed back to our room. Mom and dad were ready to relax but we had promised the kids a trip to the pool. They played in the pool and spa and then we called it a night.

Sunday was our last day in Monterey and believe me we did not want to leave. We headed further south along the coast and found a spot to eat our lunch and get out and play. We crawled over the rocks and found many crab and other sea creatures. Taylor collected shells, we built sand castles and flew a cheap Diego kite. We decided to check out the Carmel Mission, which was absolutely beautiful and on our way home we also stopped at the San Juan Bautista Mission just outside of Hollister. We've always seen signs for different missions on our travels but, have never taken the time to stop and we're glad we did.

This was one of those trips that nothing was planned(except the aquarium) and just fly by the seat of your pants. It was definitely the way to go!