Joe and I went to Monterey for my birthday! It was the weekend after my birthday (which fell on a Monday this year), and it was lots and lots of fun! A vacation that was highly needed by all.

The drive down wasn't bad. I'd offered to drive, but Joe took the wheel instead. I was so happy he did, I must say. I'd spent the morning teaching fourth graders at the water treatment plant, and had gotten little sleep the night before. Joe had gotten a bit more sleep than me, so he drove, and I was even able to nap in the car for a while.

As we drove, the ocean appeared beside us, and it was such a beautiful sight! I loved seeing the mini sand dunes just off the side of the road, and the waves rippling in the dampened sunlight as rain clouds drifted by. Droplets spattered onto the windshield as we travelled south, and everything was simply out of this world.

I felt so much more relaxed in the car than before we'd left. At home, I'd thrown away the pigeon's egg from the balcony as well as another large trash bag, which leaked old Chinese food sauce onto my favorite jeans. I had no time to wash them, so I changed into a different pair (one which I am far less fond of), and one of my favorite shirts, which left me feeling clean and cute (with a touch of lingering grumpiness). Then we got some chocolate snacks, and all was well in my world.

Monterey is a strange town. It's so small and touristy. It's pretty cool.

First, we settled into the hotel. As they pulled up our reservation information on the computer, the woman said, "No smoking, no pets."

"Okay," we said, as I watched the other employee behind her handling an African Grey Parrot. "Is that your bird?" I asked her.

"Yeah," the girl said, and sighed. "She's being bad. She's biting people for no reason."

Hmm, I wondered. Maybe she's biting you for breaking the rules!

After we settled into the room, we drove around looking for food. We stopped at Old Fisherman's Wharf for a bit. I loved walking by all the boats, and imagining what it'd be like to live on one. I love the look of boats and have always felt drawn to them. But romantic though it may seem, I'm fairly positive I'd hate to live on one.

We saw signs for whale watching tours, and I ran over to look at the brochures. I was thrilled; it's something I've always wanted to do! Joe suggested we reserve a tour for Sunday before we headed back, and I gleefully agreed.

Off we went to find dinner. We saw a cool looking restaurant that reminded us both of Islands, a restuarant down in L.A. But pseudo-Islands was crowded and very loud, and when I agreed to the ten minute wait, the host guy wrote my name down as Peg.

Joe and I both mentioned that to each other when we went outside to wait. We said it at the same time and laughed, which started a theme for the weekend. At least ten times we said something the other was thinking or the exact words the other was about to say. We often said the same things at the same time, too. Monterey must have some spooked out psychic energy going on down there. Weird stuff!

We ended up ditching pseudo-Islands, and eating at a taco restaurant instead. I got black beans all over my fingers as I inhaled my fish tacos. My body was convinced I was starving to death, apparently. But soon, I felt much better, nourished and happy -- the food was quite delicious!

That night we drove around looking for dessert and settled on a few sugary items from Jack in the Box. We snacked, watched t.v., and soon settled in for sleep.

In the morning, we headed out for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I'd heard amazing things from a variety of people, and was looking forward to taking it all in.

Everything we saw was really cool. I loved the touchable tide pool animals. Hermit crabs and snails crawled all over my hands! I also touched seastars, some of which are incredibly soft! I tried to reach the sting rays, but they never swam close enough to me. The water was so cold that my whole arm tingled for a few minutes after I'd dried it off. Kind of scary, actually. But being able to touch some sea animals was very exciting!

We also saw the aviary, a large outdoor tide pool, lots and lots of various jellies, barnacles (I got to see how they eat!), and cool aquarium setups. The scuttlefish was awesome, and we even briefly watched the otters play! Lots of fun!

We ate lunch at the aquarium's cafeteria. Joe stole a garlic fry from me, which I didn't even notice until the poor guy was looking rather sickly. He's had issues with garlic in the past, and it looks like he's become much more sensitive to it in recent times. No more garlic for Joe, it seems. I can't help feeling sorry for him. I mean, life without garlic? Madness! Poor Joe.

Joe bought me a jell-o dessert with whipped cream that was simply amazing! And our sandwiches were pretty good too.

We saw some penguins and a couple of kids' exhibits and then we'd basically seen everything there. I thought it was a great aquarium, but not really all that more exciting than ones I'd seen before. I guess all the hype I'd heard about it had me expecting to feel blown away. But that just wasn't the case. Still, I had a fabulous time and bought some cool postcards from the gift shop. Joe got a great cap made of really soft material, and it looks awesome on him. By that time, between his stomach pain and my foot pain, we were ready to go back to the hotel (wow, we're like... eighty...).

We napped, then went out to the movie theater to watch X-2 together. I thought it was pretty good, even though it had some weird moments that had me wondering, "Wha?" Of course, the show we'd wanted to see was sold out, so we ended up with a great deal of time to waste before the movie even began. We went shopping, ate some hot pretzels, ate dinner. I bought a pillow with a nice curve in it, to support my neck. I've been wanting one for a while, so it seemed appropriate to get one for my birthday (my god, I really AM eighty!). Then we bought a few books at the bookstore, and read parts of them through dinner (well, we read the joke books during dinner). I got Life of Pi, which is fabulous, though I haven't gotten too far into it yet. I did some reading while we waited in line for X-2. Joe read Dante's Inferno. The joke books stayed in the car. There were a couple of barely-teenage boys in line in front of us, who somehow stirred up very junior-high feelings in me. My patience was wearing thin as they kicked at each other and jumped around to avoid each other's kicks and punches, laughing as they came barging into the rest of us who were in close proximity. I came closer than I'd like to admit to swearing at them. I don't know why I let obnoxious teenagers get to me. Luckily, the theater doors opened before I slapped anyone, and Joe and I were able to relax and watch the movie.

Sometime that day, Joe and I were discussing the whens and hows of whale watching tours when I had a realization. I get motion sickness. My prom was on a boat and later that night, when I'd been off the boat a few hours, I felt extremely dizzy and sick. That was the extent of my ill feelings, but I felt no need to re-live that. Especially right before a two hour drive home! (Speaking of prom, when we got back to the motel after the movie, it was crazy-crowded with a ton of prom kids who were all checking into the rooms!)

So anyway, we scratched the idea of whale watching in Monterey and said we'd look into going someplace closer to home. Joe pointed out that if I get sick then, at least I'll have a shorter ride home. He is so wise.

Joe and I toyed with the idea of driving home in the middle of the night, but instead, we just went home in the morning. It was a pretty easy drive back. A lot less traffic than there'd been on the way down. We also made a few fun stops on the way home at such places as Dave and Buster's and Fry's Electronics. At Dave and Buster's, we played a round of Hyper Bowl, and I got my best personal bowling score. Too bad I can't do that in real bowling lanes! Note to self: get more bowling practice. We also won some tickets and contemplated buying something. In the end, we just didn't see anything we really wanted, and decided to wait until we earned even more points.

I did see something else I wanted at the mall, though. We passed a kiosk with a large sand box type of table top and inside were many, many hermit crabs! The land kind, not the sea kind we'd seen in Monterey. I used to have a few as pets, and adored them, and have periodically wanted them as pets since then. All of a sudden, those feelings resurfaced, and I wanted them again! We didn't get any, though. I still want a couple. Such cool pets and interesting creatures! Someday, perhaps.

Eventually, Joe and I made it back home, safe and sound, stuffed with Arby's sandwiches and nice memories of Monterey. It was a short vacation, but well worth it, and loads of fun. A very nice birthday weekend, indeed!