Pebble Beach Trip Part Three - Please Don't Flash The Octopus

Well, we have arrived at Sunday, day three of the trip. This was the day of my inaugural visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I was excited to see me some sea critters! First up were the sea otters. Let me just warn you right now - they are cute. Like, I nearly shattered the glass wall, put one in my bag and drove home, cute. Want to rub my face on their little tummies, cute. CUTE!

Seriously, behold the cuteness:

No, seriously:

I don't think you are fully grasping the cuteness:

Maybe this will help:

When I told one that I was going to put his picture on my blog he got downright excited. Apparently, blogging to an otter is just "float upside down with my ass in the air fantastic".

When I finally pulled myself away from the otters I saw some jellyfish (not as cute)

And a sea dragon

And a sea horse

And one seriously deranged river otter.

It was amazing.  Absolutely amazing.

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Pebble Beach Trip Part Two - Grab That Slimy Stuff Before You Float Away

Alrighty then!  Part two of the Pebble Beach trip.  

On Saturday we had an ocean kayaking trip all set up.  I had never kayaked before but The Queen Of Hearts has river kayaked.  I figured that since I have canoed and white water rafted, I would be good.  And I was!  It was a little scary at first given that the guide kept saying things like "Looks like some waves today", and "I love the waves but if it looks like too much for you we can reschedule" and 

"Holy Shit look at those waves!  I bet you ten bucks only half of us survive!"  

Okay, maybe not the last one, but whatever, it's my story.  

So we all got loaded up into kayaks and were pushed unceremoniously into the heaving ocean.  It was amazing.  It was easier than I thought it would be and the views were amazing.  We saw sea otters, harbor seals, pelicans and enough kelp to, well, do whatever you do with kelp for a lifetime.  Let me just say a few things about kelp.  I considered myself "kelp neutral" before our kayaking adventure.  Here are a few things I learned about kelp.

1.  Kelp is slimy.

2. Kelp is what you use when you want to anchor yourself while ocean kayaking.

3.  Tiny little centipede like bugs live on kelp.

4.  Kelp is slimy.

Did I mention that it was slimy?  And had bugs on it?  

I didn't bring my Nikon out on the water, for obvious reasons, but our guide Bob brought a camera and emailed me some photos.  

This is me thinking "Smile and don't die.  Smile and don't die."

And here's the Queen Of Hearts doing her "I'm the Queen of the World" thing.

I can't say enough about the entire experience and if you are in the area, I recommend the company we went with.  You can see their website here.

After the kayaking adventure we were beat. So we went back to the room, rested up, then went down to Carmel for a little shopping and dinner.  On the way we passed the lone cypress tree, the logo for the resorts and a recognizable icon along 17-mile drive.  

We did a little shopping, had dinner here (I can still taste the gnocchi) and stopped by Carmel beach before driving back up to the resort.  The beach did not disappoint.

So that's day two of the trip down.  Stay tuned for the third installment.

Yo Yo Yo

Pebble Beach Trip Part One - Some Men Wear Skirts

Okay, I have decided to give y'all the low down on my recent trip to Pebble Beach in a few parts because, well, it's my blog and I want to.

That, and I took 1,009 photos while I was there and I think it would make Blogger cry if I upload them all at once.

We left home on Friday morning and were at the Inn at Spanish Bay by early afternoon. 

 Let me just say how beautiful this place is. It is beautiful. There.

Our room was overlooking the golf course and the ocean.   Here's the view off the patio.

The room was deluxe. The view was deluxe. The food was deluxe.

Everything was deluxe.

The first thing we did was take a trip down to the ocean. The walk down meanders through the greens and dunes.

The entire resort is very dog friendly. Take Bogie on the beach:

We saw a few surfers...

before heading back to the room to find a birthday card and champagne from the resort GM. We decided to sit outside, sip champagne and wait for the bagpiper. For those of you who don't know, the Pebble Beach resorts (Lodge at Pebble Beach and Inn at Spanish Bay) employ bagpipers who walk the golf courses every night to play for the guests. It was amazing.

As the sun set I was able to capture the iconic image of the bagpiper.

 And get a little video for your listening pleasure.

Well, I suppose that is enough for now. Stay tuned for more stories from the trip!

Kayaking

Thanks to our guide Bob for the great picture!

Waiting For His Owner Outside The Pizza Place