{"id":4804,"date":"2021-05-31T18:31:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T18:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/?p=4804"},"modified":"2021-10-25T02:09:14","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T02:09:14","slug":"memorial-day-at-monterey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2021\/05\/31\/memorial-day-at-monterey\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Day in Monterey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>We planned a family trip to Monterey while Westley’s grandparents were in town, and were relieved to have secured aquarium<\/a> tickets despite being 6789th in line when the reservation website opened. We headed out early Saturday for classy dim sum at the Mayflower<\/a> in Dublin and pineapple buns and cakes at Kee Wah<\/a> in Cupertino. Our 5-year old burned off some energy at the Dennis the Menace playground<\/a>, which was packed with half-masked weekenders and their children, followed by a paddleboat ride in El Estero Park<\/a>. We took a breezy stroll through crowded Fisherman’s Wharf<\/a> and waited in vain for a table at Sandbar & Grill<\/a> before giving it up for fried seafood, sandwiches, and disappointing chowder at Carmel’s Sea Harvest<\/a>. Our last-minute AirBnb<\/a> cabin was pricey but spacious, and worth the panoramic view overlooking Monterey Bay. On Sunday, we enjoyed a harbor-side lunch at the Fish Hopper<\/a> and frozen hot chocolate from Ghirardelli<\/a> before exploring the rest of Cannery Row<\/a> on the way to the aquarium. My parents enjoyed watching Westley more than the aquatic life, as he pet bat rays, ignored active octopodes, and recruited other kids for a scream-and-hide game he created. We dined at Vivolo’s Chowder House<\/a> over seafood pasta and more disappointing chowder, then stopped by a sea lion lookout<\/a> on the way to our free parking spot in Pacific Grove (Ocean View Blvd near 3rd St). Back at the cabin, I stayed up late talking with my parents, which made for a lazy start on Monday morning watching deer graze in our backyard and playing Sorry!<\/a> on the patio. After check-out, we headed out to wood-fired pizzas at La Bicyclette<\/a>, hot chocolate from Carmel Belle<\/a>, a kite from Thinker Toys<\/a>, and the public bathroom line at Picadilly Park<\/a>. The Bird Island Trail<\/a> hike at Point Lobos was short and windy, but at least gave my superzoom lens a chance to capture pelicans in flight and cormorants nesting. The return trip traffic made the drive back painfully slow, but was at least broken up with a stop at Milpitas Square<\/a> for sesame bread and pulled noodles at Darda Seafood<\/a> and creamy boba milk tea at Ume Tea<\/a>. With just a week left before my parents head to Vegas, we’ll need to take advantage of the extra childcare. <\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We planned a family trip to Monterey while Westley’s grandparents were in town, and were relieved to have secured aquarium tickets despite being 6789th in line when the reservation website opened. We headed out early Saturday for classy dim sum … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4804"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4940,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804\/revisions\/4940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}