Day 19

Mike:
Day 19 started as every other day so far has; we woke up early. The hostel provided us with an amazing waffle that we split. It's not that they would only give us one, but we weren't very hungry, so we only asked for one. I think we both agreed after eating the whole thing that we probably could have eaten a whole one each. But what's done is done. We packed the car up, but left it in the hostel's parking lot while we hit up Cannery Row during daylight. There are a lot of really touristy shops, and quite a few restaurants. While strolling through the neighborhood, we decided to walk out on a viewing dock, and were rewarded (that's right, you can be rewarded just for deciding to walk somewhere) with a view of some otters out in the ocean. They were diving and eating and there were even a few seals out on the rocks. After looking back at the shops and eateries, we opted to visit the aquarium.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium was HUGE. They had a skyway that connected two blocks of real estate. We saw a feeding in the large fish tank upon entering, and proceeded through the different exhibits. There were areas for each level of water, starting at tide pools and ending in deep ocean. The highlights are definitely the otter tank (they groom and wrestle all day), the seahorse exhibit (they're just neat*), and the jellies (which are too weird for words). We spent probably three hours walking around in there.

After that we grabbed a slice of pizza and got out of town. We only had to travel about 60 miles to the next hostel in Pescadero, so we headed south first to visit Carmel-by-the-Sea. We didn't do much besides walk down the beach, but it was well worth the time. The water over here is ridiculously cold. Colder even than the 60 degrees down in LA. While we were walking, we saw a family get washed away like we did by a sleeper wave. Those things are real jerks.

We made it up to Pescadero by around 7:30, and spent the rest of the night exploring the different buildings of the hostel, which is built directly next to an old (read: out of order) lighthouse. Early to bed and early to rise, you know.

*Chrissie wanted me to make sure that you all knew that seahorse males give birth to the young, not females. How weird!