We all headed out to IHOP for breakfast with family. Always like hitting IHOP. Snagged my favorite pancakes and sausages and then snapped a few pics before heading back to my aunt’s place.
It was pretty cool out and the fog was rolling in along the coast. The river that runs through Capitola was generating some fog.
And kitties!
It was a somewhat cool ride Monterrey at 54F per the bike. A welcome change but yea, it’ll be cooler as we head north.
First stop, Cannery Row. Ultimately I wanted to hit lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf but we do have to hit the tourist traps 🙂 Parking the bike of course and locking up the helmets and gear in the trunk (although Jeanne kept hers on).
We stopped at Ghirardelli’s and after the samples, we picked up a mixed bag of chocolate for the gang back at work 🙂 We also stopped in at a wine bar so Jeanne could taste some local grapes and meanwhile I snagged a soda, checked out the ‘Garlic Shop’ then the ‘Candy Shop’. I snagged a few boxes of ‘Throwback Bottle Caps’ (I like the cola and root beer ones) before heading on to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to visit the fish 🙂
Lots of fish 😀
Rays
Birds
(The birds were rescues so weren’t held captive or anything.)
There was one tank filled with lunch… I mean fish 🙂
Frogs
Fish
Spiders!
Lots of odd plantlife
Sand Dollars
Lots more pics of course 🙂
Then we headed over to Fisherman’s Wharf for a late lunch.
I’m a fan of Boudin Sour Dough Bread so we went down to get a couple of Clam Chowder in Bread Bowls. Tasty tasty tasty.
And while waiting, we checked out the bay.
A few folks were running out on small boats or rafts.
Jeanne’s a fan of the ocean, especially the sound of water and the waves. Soothing. As tomorrow we were heading up the coast, this is the first real look out and into the bay. Pretty wistful and longing.
On the way back to Capitola, we ran into some stop and go traffic and I could filter again. At one point there was a bit of a gap and I started to move over and the guy in front of me stopped suddenly but the guy on the left left a gap and I was able to grab some brake, swerve, and continue on. Pretty risky and dangerous out there.
As I understand, filtering only is for low speeds and no shoulder riding. Saw some fast riders and a few shoulder riders. No one filtered up to the stop lights though so I don’t know if that’s okay. When I was in Athens, lots of bikes and scooters filtered to the front but not much in the way of smaller bikes like Athens so maybe not so acceptable here.
When we returned, we gathered up our gear and headed out to the gas station to fill up (should have done it sooner, my bad) and then off to my cousin. Of course 1 was backed up for miles so time to filter again 🙂 We were following my uncle up to the correct exit but it would have taken too long for that. As I knew the exit, I pulled up next to them and yelled out that we would filter up and wait at the onramp of the exit. We filtered up through traffic, couple of narrow spots including a sudden stop again. At the start of the backup, a cop was sitting on the side of the road. Honestly. We stopped at the on ramp and I timed how long it took to go 3 or 4 exits. 11 minutes.
I followed them up to my cousin’s place where we dropped off our gear and then headed out to dinner.
Dinner was tasty however I did spend a bit of time in the bathroom back at my cousin’s so there is that.
Got pics of me with my aunt and uncle. I’ve been practicing smiling for years. My brother does complain that I close my eyes when I smile so maybe less practice 🙂
We spent the evening chatting. Jeanne has been getting along pretty well with my extended family which is good 🙂 We hit the hay after a bit.
In the morning, breakfast and we’re heading up to Napa to see Wine Country (and the crazy place 🙂 ).