Mummy's entry - Monterey Bay

We left LA around 11am to head to Monterey Bay. The journey took us about 8 hours, including stops in between. We took the scenic route, Highway 1, which was very beautiful indeed and certain parts of the oceanic view reminded me of the Great Ocean Road in Australia.

Our first stop (other than pee and food stops) was at this place where we could see some elephant seals. It was interesting to see how lazy these seals were, well...lying there under the sun.

Halfway through the journey, the road was very winding and it didn't occur to us that the girl may get car sick. We put the car seat in between so that her papa and I can both attend to her throughout the journey. I guess that made it worst for her as towards the end of our journey as we're about half an hour away from Monterey Bay, the poor girl threw up. This was the first time ever that she had motion sickness. She didn't get this at all when we went up Genting Highlands or Cameron Highlands. I guess BIL (brother-in-law) was also driving kind of fast as we were trying to reach our destination before it gets dark which didn't help the poor girl.

After we arrived at the hotel, we settled down for a bit before heading out for dinner. We drove around trying to see what to eat and after a while, we decided to eat at Denny's which was very near to our hotel. I've been hearing about this restaurant (a common chain in US) for a long time now and so, it was good for me to try it out. Unfortunately for us, the service wasn't that good though and the waiter messed up our orders.

a post with BIL, her "unca j-chern" (uncle jason)

posing with her rocket cup that we got for her from the restaurant

Since it was getting late and the girl was eating so slowly (her usual bad habit), we told SIL and BIL to drive back as we can walk back to the hotel. And what a bad idea that was. Throughout our whole US trip, this night was the coldest ever and I was shivering all the way back. Hubby was carrying the girl while I ran like mad to the hotel. I think it was partly due to this (and the lack of sleep) that lead to my sore throat the next day.

The next day, we headed to Monterey Bay's Aquarium. According to SIL, this aquarium is one of the best in US and she was right, we enjoyed it alot! We saw so many marine lives that we won't see in a life time diving (well, for me anyway as I'm not into deep sea diving and i've not been diving since I was pregnant with the girl!)

feeding time


The different types of jelly fishes.....

doesn't this reminds you of "finding nemo"?

And the best part of the aquarium was the deep sea aquarium inside whereby you get to see a Great White Shark as well as the mola-mola (ocean sunfish) among other fishes. Hubby and I nearly had the chance to see the sunfish when we were in Bali for diving 4 years back but when we heard the current was pretty strong out there in the deep sea, we both decided to skip it and only saw the photos taken by hubby's brother. So when we both saw the sunfishes (they had two) at this aquarium, we were stunned and spent a fair bit at that section! It was hard to take pictures of them as we were not allowed to have flashes so the following are the best we got. Don't you think they look so pre-historic? Ugly for sure and yet so beautiful at the same time...hehe!

The girl was pretty well behaved throughout the time we were at the aquarium. Of course, she was running here and there and we had to take turns to keep our eyes on her especially when we were looking at the sunfishes. That aquarium was so huge, like a showcase! She was very keen with the marine lives too, repeating the names of them after we have told her. But she wasn't so keen in touching what we could at the "touching zone" areas. She would only play with the water while the rest of us would touch the kelp, star fishes, etc. This was the same at the other aquarium at Las Vegas as well as the little aquarium they had at the pier at Manhattan Beach in LA. She don't really like animals, afraid of touching them (this is why I delay in taking her to the zoo) and if any one comes near her like cats or dogs, she will start crying in fear. Definitely not my genes! ;)

After the aquarium, we had lunch and then headed off to 17 mile drive and also to Pebble Beach. When I heard of this, I didn't know what it was and why was it a tourist attraction. We had to pay to enter this 17 mile drive if you're visiting (they have loads of very nice houses in that area), I was just curious as to how would they know whether you're a visitor or not. Anyway, it was a beautiful drive and I didn't exactly read the leaflet they passed out at the entrance of the drive so I'm not in a good position to explain the history of this place. But I know for sure that Tiger Wood got famous when he won the championship here in 2000! And after we left that drive, I'm also dead curious as to who own those beautiful houses in that area. ;)

both of them konked out in the car on the way to 17 drive mile, had to force hubby to wake up when we were at the starting point of the drive

I think this was at the highest peak of the drive

This is their signature tree...I forgot why is it so important but I think it has got something to do with it being isolated on that piece of rock!

We stopped by Pebble Beach and while we, SIL, BIL and I wandered off on our own on the beach, the girl woke up and Hubby brought her down to join us...

her papa taking her for a walk among the dead kelp (would you believe that these kelp has a lot of uses in our products we used daily like yoghurt, toothpaste, etc)

a family pic

We stopped by later at one of the famous and most expensive golf course in the world, sorry, I forgot the actual name but I know it has got to do with Pebble Beach! ;)

Waiting for me as I was wandering around the place by myself!

Later that night, we went to the pier but couldn't find any restaurants that was of interest to us so we hung around for a bit before deciding to eat at Carrows (another common chain in US, similar to Denny's).

taking a spin on the car at the pier

Rye Li giving us that "see-how-strong-my-uncle-jason-is" look

this was where the girl slept at our room, kidding! we had a baby cot for her but she found it amusing that she can fit in the drawer.

The next morning, after breakfast, we headed off to San Francisco. On the way there, we stopped by a fruit farm to buy some fruits....

we never knew that brussel sprouts grew like this! hehe...interesting.

the girl enjoying the strawberries we got, they were really huge and mostly very sweet!

look at how big the strawberry farm is and it was like this for a long stretch of our drive!

Next to the fruit shop, there was a pumpkin patch and we decided to get some pictures as we don't get this at all back home.

This was also when the girl started her runny nose and cough, no thanks to me. Will post on San Francisco next....stay tuned!