Monterey

Day 6 & 7

We arrived in Monterey at around 2PM. Our motel is actually in Pacific Grove which is just a hop, skip & a jump from all Monterey attractions. We stayed at the Lighthouse Lodge & Suites. I had originally reserved a double-double in the lodge side @ $129 per nt. But the vacation gods were watching over us and we were upgraded to a Junior Suite. This included a cooked to order breakfast which was very good, afternoon wine & hors d'oeuvres, and afternoon BBQ which was ok as well. We also purchased the Aquarium tickets from them. The price is the same but it includes 2 consecutive days & a boxed lunch. The motel is older but comfy and clean. The staff is great and we couldn’t be happier with our stay.

We drove around a bit but this town closes everything at around 5PM so there really wasn’t much to do the 1st day except drool over the homes facing the Pacific.

The next day we had our Whale Watch cruise at 9:30. We booked with Sanctuary Cruises. When we head out to the harbor the fog was really thick, then when we boarded the boat it cleared up and the sun was shining so I was happy. But after we were out on the water it got foggy, cold & windy. Right off the harbor we saw sea lions & sea otters. The sea otters are super cute. Then it took a while to see any whales. We saw 2 different pairs of humpbacks and that was amazing! None of them breached for us but they did show their flukes.
We were out for a little over 4 hours. Sanctuary goes above & beyond to assure that we experience seeing a whale. But 4 hrs. was a bit too long for me & the girls. We did rent the relief bands which helped immensely, but Kari still got a bit queasy.



After the cruise we had lunch and headed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was about 4 PM and they close at 6PM so it wasn’t very full. This aquarium is beautiful. We loved the jelly fish exhibit & of course the sea otters!

We then strolled down Main St. in Pacific Grove which is really quaint and practically everything was closed, and had dinner at a really good place (which I think is called “Chili Great Chili” and Danny proclaimed their clam chowder the best he’s ever had!

The next day we checked out. Went to the aquarium again to see what we didn’t see the day before then did the 17 Mile Drive around Pebble Beach. We actually didn’t drive the whole thing since we exited in Carmel. We drove around Carmel & through Big Sur (with several stops) on our way to Cambria.