The first stop was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The last time I was there was in junior high. So I had to take a picture in front of the big tank again just like the one from 1989. Only this time I wasn’t wearing a neon Guess T-shirt and rolled up jean shorts.
The exhibits were pretty impressive and really kid-friendly. I hope we can go back in several years to take Tate, because I think he would love it. Right now they have a seahorse exhibit, which was really interesting. Who knew that male seahorses give birth to the babies? Wade didn’t care for the exhibit near as much for some reason?
From there we headed over to beach in Carmel. I was thrilled beyond belief when low and behold, the sun came out! It was still cold, but at least there was finally some sun.
The beach is gorgeous, and Wade was all cute and romantic by marking our 10th anniversary on the beach. It took two tries. I think I’ve watched this video 100 times. Cracks me up.
And then we had another yummy lunch at a cute little diner, Em Les, in Carmel.
Then we were back in the car for more driving and the most adventurous part of our adventure. The detour off Highway 1 into the Big Basin Redwood Park took forever. Lots of stop lights and small, two-lane streets, but we finally got there and were not disappointed by any means.
This was one of our favorite parts of the trip. There was a short, flat walking trail that you could go on, and it included some of the oldest of the redwoods. It was late-afternoon by this point. So when there are HUGE redwoods clustered together blocking the sun, it makes things really cold on the ground. Before we got on the trail, I added about 5 layers of clothing to warm up.
Wade was doing major eye roll as I took this picture and exclaimed…It looks just like Edward & Bella’s meadow!
Since the drive into the redwood park took forever, we decided to be adventurous and take a short cut out that I found on the map. There are absolutely no pictures from this because I was doing everything possible not to hyperventilate and had my hands in a white-knuckled death grip. The map didn’t quite show that the road was comprised of: a MAJOR incline up the mountain, barely 2-lane road, no shoulder, can’t see the bottom of the redwoods drop-off, with complete snake-like zig zags.
It was way scarier than anywhere on Highway 1. I kept thinking to myself that if we drive off this road, there is no cell phone service and absolutely no living person around us. Scary! Even my Evil Knievel-driving husband admitted to a few nerves during that part.
But we survived and landed back on Highway 1 to see a view like this.
We also pulled over at a small little beach and watched these kite surfers. You can’t tell from the video that it was freezing cold with crazy winds.
By that point, we were getting closer and closer to the big city. This was when I got all mopey that the trip was almost over. But we pulled off to see the sunset at the Montara Beach for one last picture on Highway 1. So pretty!
We didn’t get into the city until about 7:30 p.m. and got to look out our hotel window at this.
Originally we had big plans to get dressed up and go to a fancy San Francisco restaurant. Clearly being married 10 years has aged us, because we were wiped out and cancelled the reservation. Although, after a quick dinner across the street, I got to give Wade an anniversary surprise. I had secretly had our wedding VHS video converted to a DVD.
So 10 years later, we got to watch the wedding all over again. It was sweet, embarrassing, funny, and wonderful all at the same time. (A separate anniversary post is coming soon.)
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