After our long day at the aquarium and Carmel, we decided to swing through Santa Cruz to see where Mike used to live. We watched a little surfing from the point. Apparently this is where surfing in America originated when a couple of Hawaiian princes brought it one summer.
Then we had dinner at Mike’s favorite tiki bar and the food was FABULOUS!
The drive back up the coast to San Francisco treated us to a Pacific sunset.
Our first big outing was to Monterey Bay Aquarium. Such a treat to be able to visit. This is certainly one of the best aquariums in the world. The research and education outreach they do is significant.
After the aquarium, and walk on the beach to find “treasures”, Mike drove us through Carmel by the Bay to show us the cute cottages and great views. Annika decided she would move here and find an old lady to help (so that she would leave her estate…). Just a beautiful place.
We had to take a short break in the afternoon for some kids school and zoom activities, so we headed to Mike’s place. What better way than to take the Cablecar up and over the hill. On the Hyde street line, the cars are “uni-directional” and so at each end they turn them around on a huge turn-table. So cool.
We finished our hang-out time at Mikes and decided to go explore Chinatown. How to get there? The Cablecar of course! This time we were hopeful for better seating, as the girls REALLY wanted to ride standing on the side. Wish granted! Annika was not sure, but enjoyed it. Jane was all about it… hanging on the front!
After sleeping in a little to recover from travel day, we met up with Mike and caught the streetcar down to Pier 39 (touristy) to get some sourdough and see the sea lions.
Bread looked good, but we’ll get some before we leave the pier. but we did get some fresh fruit to munch on.
THEN we found the Sea Lions. Oh my goodness, what a crack up, they made all of us smile! Mike said “they’re basically dogs,” and he couldn’t be more right. They just piled on each other, crawled all over each other, and barked at each other. Could have watched this all day.
Oh, Alcatraz was off the pier as well.
When we walked back by the bread, the line was way too long to stand in, so we decided we could come back.
Then we walked down to Fisherman’s Wharf, played some old coin operated games as the Musee Mechanique. It was a lot of fun and we spent all our quarters 😂.
…and down by the wharf, was the mothership of Sourdough, Willy Wonka bread baskets moving along the ceiling from the actual bakery to the shop as well. One whiff of the bakery exhaust was enough to fill you up for lunch. Jane was happy for sure.
After a drop off at the Cincinnati Airport (CVG), we are off! Only a 5 minute security wait meant we had plenty of time for a slice of pizza before loading.
Quick flight to Chicago (ORD) where we refilled water, found some food, watched a 747 unload and load, and the finally boarded bound for San Francisco (SFO).
Easy process, all the bags made it and Mike was waiting for us in the loop.
After checking into the hotel, we decided we needed a “little sweet” so headed to Ghirardelli Square for, as Holly stated, “the best sundae/milkshake ever.”
It’s almost time!! Finally another Linquist Adventure!!
Departing Saturday for parts west… so excited.
