Monterey

Toward the end of May, we had the wonderful opportunity to spend a week in Monterey.  And through the incredible generosity of GA and GU, we spent the week at their house.  The trip started with another wonderful travel adventure, including a mad dash to the airport after someone who shall remain nameless forgot her driver's license.  Good news is we made our plane because of a flight delay.  Bad news is another flight delay in Dallas led to a Monterey arrival that barely beat the California sunrise.  But we slept a little, got our game faces on, and got ready to have some fun in the sun!

We had coordinated schedules so that the first weekend we got to hang out with Gretchen and her son Josh, who is turning ten in September!  Holy mackerel.  John always jokes that it is a good thing he started dating Sarah a few months before Josh arrived.  If it had been the other way around, John would never had had a chance.  It is safe to say that Callie and Reese share their mother's love for Josh.  And he is very much worthy of all the adoration.  He's a good egg, as they say.

Josh has a lot of hobbies, but a true passion of his is collecting sea glass.  He has jars and jars of sea glass in his bedroom, and he knows all the best places and times to gather it.  As luck would have it, were only a couple of miles from one of the best spots in California.  Unfortunately, the best time is at the peak of low tide, which just happened to hit around 6am when we were in town.  Although it was hard to get out of bed, it was a blast once we were on the beach and saw all the wonderful colors of sea glass.

Josh was a very good teacher, and we quickly learned that the best or most rare colors are pink and blue.  And the more common were clear and brown.  Green is kind of in the middle.  We also found pottery shards, which was John and Callie's favorite.  All in all, we spent two different mornings walking along the beach.  It did, however, add about three extra pounds to our luggage on the "weigh" home.  Josh also taught us about finding sand crabs along the tide line.  We had a great time finding them and releasing them back into the sand.

In our ongoing efforts to get in touch with nature, we went for a hike at Point Lobos, located just south of Monterey.  If you have never hiked here, it is absolutely gorgeous and well worth the trip.  And of course, another perk of such an adventure with Josh and Gretchen is all the information they are able to provide about the animals, plants, and environment around us.  Callie hiked the entire time, and was excited to hold hands with Josh along the way.  We got to see a few seals, hundreds of nesting cormorants, cypress trees galore, and a whole lot of beautiful ocean.

As you can imagine, everyone wanted to hang out with Auntie Gret, and Auntie Gret was happy to oblige.  She is just so good with the girls, and Reese loved getting carried around.  But the beauty of the day also got the best of her, and the last half mile of our hike Reese fell asleep while John was carrying her.  We had such a great time on the hike and it was good preparation for future hikes along the coast.


No Monterey trip with Gretchen is complete or even possible without a trip to the Aquarium.  And although this was the first of two trips during our stay, it certainly was a lot of fun.  The picture below shows part of our crew as we waited to watch a movie about Luna, the sea otter that had been rescued and then returned to the ocean by the amazing staff at the Aquarium.

Of course, the real otters at the aquarium were an even bigger hit than the movie.  Hopefully it all will inspire the girls to get into marine biology as they get older.

But what is better than seeing otters in the aquarium?  How about seeing a raft of about forty otters in person at Moss Landing.  Everyone except John went on this expedition to get some fresh fish from the market and they happened upon a great wildlife experience. The otters were just hanging out.  However, one otter even came out of the water and started walking on the beach.  Our first instinct was to run to it, and then quickly remembered it was important to give it space.  But it was such an incredible encounter.


The last night Gretchen and Josh were there, we took time to eat some fresh seafood, have a glass of wine, and watch the sunset.  Few things beat this combination, especially when good friends are involved.

Although it never seems like we have enough time to catch up with friends on each coast, we treasure the moments and days we are able to spend with them.  And we very much appreciate the effort Gretchen and Josh made to drive up to see us.

Just because Gretchen and Josh had left did not mean that we could not enjoy nature.  And so off we went down the coast to see Big Sur in all of its glory.  Our journey took us to Pfeiffer State Park, where another hike was in order.  Among other things, this hike brought us face to face with a number of Redwoods.  As Callie and I are demonstrating here, they were big and beautiful.  We ended up hiking about three miles to a waterfall, and Callie completed the entire thing all under her own power.  Such a wonderful experience!

This picture has a variety of beautiful subjects, and is taken right near the iconic bridge along the Pacific Coast Highway.  Nature was definitely a theme of the whole trip, and this brings us to one of the funner moments of the trip.  Callie was complaining about the drive, and John decided to try and change to mood with a little reverse psychology.  He told the girls to stop looking outside at all the beautiful nature.  Fortunately Callie took the bait and started telling John that she was disobeying and looking at the nature.  Then Reese joined the fun.  But it all culminated in the moment when Callie got upset because, as she so eloquently put it, "Reese is looking at my nature!"  We shared quite a few giggles which confused the girls just a little bit.  So when you are looking outside, make sure you look at the beautiful nature, but make sure its your nature you are looking at and not someone else's.

One of Sarah's highlights of the trip was the afternoon we took the girls to Dennis the Menace Park, which is a place that Sarah used to go when she was a little girl.  And it is an amazing place to play.  There are so many incredible jungle gyms, slides, and other assorted play areas.  The girls had a great time running around and Sarah loved seeing them enjoy the very place that brought her so much joy as a kid.

The park even has a climbing wall for kids!  Callie certainly has been getting braver when it comes to climbing, but it was still pretty amazing watching her work her way up the big wall.  She had fun finding new paths and getting to the top, which also created new opportunities for her Dad to deal with his anxiety over the whole situation.  If early indications are anything, he is going to have to learn to deal with it, because Reese is going to be pushing this envelope even farther.

We had to hit Fisherman's Wharf while we were in town, which meant the girls got to visit several candy shops and picked out an after dinner treat.  Not surprisingly they both picked ice cream.

The trip also created some fine photo opportunities, including the one above.

One of the glaring holes in the trip to the Wharf, however, was the absence of a monkey that is a big part of Sarah's memory of the place.  This monkey was so important that we have a picture of Sarah in her wedding dress shaking the monkey's hand.  It was something she had done so many times before when visiting Fisherman's Wharf.  Well, the monkey may be gone, but there are always places to turn to for good photographs.  And right at the end of the pier is Rappa's, a restaurant that overlooks the bay.


There is a great running/walking/biking trail that goes all the way from north of downtown Monterey to Lover's Point.  And you can rent a surrey bike to take in all the great scenery while also getting some exercise.  Well sign us up!

Of course, when two out of the four members of your group are not pedaling, that exercise very quickly turns into just plain work.  This before picture does not capture the sweat produced over the next hour or two.  But it was all for a great cause, because we were talking Callie and Reese on a magical trip into their family history!

This is a cute picture...but could it get cuter?  Yes, it could.  What if we told you that on this very same tree branch nearly eight years ago their cousins Michael and Brendan took a picture with John, Sarah, and whole bunch of bridesmaids and groomsmen as a keepsake for our wedding day.  Who knew that eight years later we would be putting two happy, healthy girls on the very same branches.  Pretty cool.

After we told Callie that this was the very spot where her parents got married, she was excited to take a picture of us.  And we must admit she did a pretty good job.  It still amazes us that we were lucky enough to get married in such a beautiful place.  And it was a great feeling to share it with the girls.  It is also exciting to know that we have a good reason to go back to Monterey for years to come.

Oh, that's right.  If we didn't want to venture a long distance to experience the beauty of nature, we could just sit on the front porch of GA and GU's house.  It was awesome to watch the girls every morning go out on the balcony and just play.  Not every child gets such a background for playtime. And it still is a little surreal to yell out to them, "Hey girls, stop for a second and look at the dolphin jumping in the ocean!"

Every morning we got up and we went to play in the water.  Callie and Reese loved the waves, but also learned quickly to be ready for the big ones that hit the shore quickly and could take you by surprise.  Reese became a bit of a sentry, yelling, "Here comes the water!" to make sure we knew another wave was on its way.

The beach provided a great setting for more photographs of photogenic Bowes women, as well.  The only thing that might make this picture better was if we captured a dolphin jumping over an otter in the background.

One night we also were able to get together with Sarah's cousin Heath, his wife Ola, and their two kids, Bella and Lucas.  They live in Carmel Valley, and invited us to join them for some time at the local pool that was connected to a hotel who really knew how to please the sweet tooths of kids and adults alike.  As Bella and Callie demonstrate here, they also have some great tree swings.

Bella and Lucas quickly showed us where we could get our hands on an unlimited supply of goodness.  That's right, the hotel had a whole s'mores bonanza at a fire pit outside.  It was absolutely incredible, and the girls' eyes got very wide at the idea of marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers with no end in sight. Meanwhile, Heath, Ola, Sarah, and John loved seeing the four cousins have so much fun together.

One way to commemorate such a good time is to get a tattoo, and Ola had all the supplies on hand.  Each kid got an impressive sparkle-enhanced tat that illustrated their own personality.  Callie got a shining unicorn and Reese got several stars.  Sarah and John got assured that they would come off with a little soap and water. (Eventually)

Before we left Monterey, though, we had to make one last stop at the Aquarium.  Although not pictured, our favorite part was feeding time in the Outer Bay exhibit.  We got to see schools of thousands of fish swimming in synchronized chaos as they ate their lunch.  It was an absolutely dazzling sight.  Really, words can't quite capture it.  Reese and Callie enjoyed seeing all of the big and small tanks, and took the time to learn all they could about the sea life we saw.

The fun thing about the picture below is that, five years ago, the last time we were in Monterey, we took a picture of Callie in this same shell.  And this time we were able to capture two pearls instead of one.  Lucky us!

Although this ended our time in Monterey, it did not conclude our time in California.  Our next stop was the Lucas family reunion.  Watch out Harris Ranch, here we come!