This trip marks a very special occasion, our “baby” is celebrating her 30th birthday this week! Hard to believe…
We’ve always been a “beach” family, as you might have gathered if you’ve read any of my earlier posts, but Monterey has ALWAYS been our daughter’s favorite. While my wife and I grew up haunting the Santa Cruz Soquel and Capitola areas, if we ever asked the kid where she wanted to go, it was always Monterey.
This time around we stayed at the Portola Hotel and Spa, and it was really nice. Beyond expectations even. We had booked weeks ago and much to our surprise and delight, they gave us an unexpected “upgrade” to one of the Presidential Suites. No kidding. The room was bonkers.
I haven’t stayed in a room this nice since the 90’s when I was lucky enough to be on the road crew with Dogstar in Australia and New Zealand. It was off the charts for a hotel room, certainly bigger than our apartment!!
The trip was pretty mild and rather uneventful, in a good way. Mostly, we ate really fancy foods in nice restaurants (Jack’s & Schooner’s amongst others) and just hung out. We also hit the touristy spots – Fisherman’s Wharf and the Monterey Bay Aquarium – too. They were nothing new as we’ve been to both more times than we can count, but it was a good time nonetheless. The Aquarium is truly spectacular. If you’ve never been and you enjoy wildlife, you should definitely check it out once in your life.
All in all, it was a really nice time. The forecast had called for rain, all day, every day for the time we were there, but luckily the weather people were waaay off and we had really mild weather. Very little rain and even a touch of sun. As a bonus, the weather kept the crowds down to a level that didn’t drive me out of my skin!
Still coming to grips with our daughter turning 30, but this nice, mellow weekend sure helped keep smiles on our faces! And we can’t help be feel grateful that our kid still likes to hang out with us! We must have done something right along the way…
Thanks for stopping by!
The Boring Old Man 
Looks like a wonderful vacation. I’ve never been to California but my dream is to go to Dodger Stadium.
I know some Californians who moved here…nice people.
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It’s certainly a nice place to visit, tho quite often I wish I didn’t still live here! Been trying to “escape” for the last decade, but things keep popping up and derailing plans. There is certainly something to be said for California beaches though – that absolutely would be the hardest thing to give up.
Never been to Dodger Stadium…only been to one MLB game ever, about 45 years ago! I’m sure it’s impressive tho!
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The people moving to Nashville and around it said it was mainly because of expense…they told me about 100 year house notes…that is crazy.
The best beaches I’ve went to with pure white sand would be the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida like Destin and Panama City. I’ve met some people from France saying they go there because those beaches are so nice.
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It’s funny – you dream of coming to Cali and Dodgers Stadium, while I’ve been dreaming of going to Tennessee! My father’s family hails from Hilham, TN but I’ve never been east of Texas… Well, once to IL for work, but I didn’t see anything but the airport, hotel and conference rooms!
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Wow…. I couldn’t afford to live there though! I will say this…Nashville is like a big small town. Nice people and there are plenty places to live. We live around 35 minutes out of Nashville with 3 acres of woods in an A-Frame with around 2700 sq feet. You put that in California…and it’s a monster price.
The cool thing about Nashville now is that Rock is being played downtown some…when I grew up in the 80s…it was all country.
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