Monterey all day!

Today we kind of went back on ourselves as we really wanted to do the '17mile drive' yesterday but as we (happily) took so long to cover the Big Sur, we cut past it. pushed on to Monterey centre (its all in the Monterey peninsula anyway) and saved it for today.

It worked well as we also wanted to give ourselves a bit of an 'easy day'. This is our holiday after all....

After our breakfast where Dan got to play with a waffle maker thing, we got ourselves together and set off. We're still without Sat Nav btw and loving it too!  This is a path well trodden well before we even knew what GPS was so why the hell do we need it?!

We took a longer route round to the drive so that we could check out the route to Cannery Row from our hotel so that we could go there tonight and drove through some more amazing views that are quite literally on people's doorsteps. How could you NOT want to get out of bed early every day..?

The drive was just wonderful.. It's a private kind of enclosed area that has private residences as well as hotels, shops etc and a golf course. The views are breathtaking and the houses friggin massive!!

Dan actually attempted to drive the car as well whilst on this route. He did a whole 2 miles!!  haha.. he was in his flip flops so not the best footwear for him to try driving on the opposite side for the first time ever!  Note.. I was driving in mine..... ;-)     Only teasing you Dan.......

Once we had completed the drive, we headed to the beach at Carmel and stayed on there for a while. I think it was when i was sat there, looking at this gorgeous white crescent shaped sandy beach and hearing the pacific crashing over and over again right by us, that I finally realised that we were really actually here!!  This trip that we have planned and researched and bored everyone to tears about for 10months+ (at least) was underway!!  Sounds daft but everything has just been so busy and mindblowing so far that this was probably the first time I have really sat back and taken it all in!

Dan finally got to go properly in the sea which was funny to watch as the waves were really fighting to push him back out!  He was as happy as anything when he made his way back bless him.   Apparently it was perishing but reviving!

Headed into Carmel properly then for a bit of a nosey (very lovely little town but not really our type of place) and some lunch. Which was lovely...  Oh and the table sat behind me was like lunching next to the 'real housewives of Carmel' or something like that!  Ha the things they were gossiping about was very funny.   I do remember one of them confessing that she has botox and fillers but did note that the response was not one of surprise!!  ha oh and one of their friends  - you know the one that is an air hostess - was 'now' Bi but only chose/got to  be with women when she was on a lay-over (no pun intended) as she was trying to keep it secret...! 

Lunch was delicious and then we set off back to Monterey.. kind of got a bit lost round the streets of Carmel first but managed it in the end!

Quick dip in the pool and then it was showered, dressed and out to go and see Cannery Row. Its about 1.5miles from our hotel  - Monterey has two sort of key places, Fisherman's Wharf and Cannery Row. We're nearer to F.W.   Cannery Row is names as such as it is where they used to can all the fish!

Its quite a quirky little place, very touristy though. The Monterey Aquarium is there which is supposed to be excellent but we literally just ran out of time to go to it.

Couple of beers and a snack to eat and then we headed back towards our hotel.. with some stops on the way. Another early night though tonight for us.  Got 4 nights in San Franscisco to be fighting fit for!!  

Super excited for SF.....  SUPER excited!

**finally sorted the right app out for me to be able to upload pics on here.. its taking ages to sync everything but there'll be some on here soon.....