Everyone we’ve ever talked to has said this aquarium is great and we shouldn’t miss it. The aquarium itself is very pretty, lots of cool exhibits, but I have a real problem with crowds of people. We went on a weekday morning, thinking it wouldn’t be too bad, but it was awful. Lots of people crowded in front of all the exhibits made photos very difficult. Ian hated it which made the whole thing that much worse. A docent I talked to said it has been more crowded the last 3 weeks due to spring break, but these crowds are nothing compared to summer. Wow. This experience finally cured us of going to any more popular tourist attractions for a long time.
The next day we took Sophie to visit some local Leos. I have talked to this woman several times over the years, so it was fun to meet her in person. She has 3 acres in Prunedale. I had no idea until we got there that her husband has built many cool little old-timey buildings in the back yard. Kids and dogs all had a grand time.
After playing with the dogs, we drove down through Big Sur. It was gorgeous. We passed through Carmel on the way. What a beautiful, filthy rich little town. We drove parallel to a beach, and saw loose dogs, so we stopped to let everyone play. It was very cold and windy though, so we didn’t stay long. Any time the kids get to play in sand, they are happy, and any time Sophie gets to be off leash, she’s happy.
After that we drove on down the coast to Big Sur. Every corner we rounded had another magnificent view. Our favorite place was McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. This woman willed her property to the state for a park, with the stipulation that her house be torn down, and access to the beach closed, so that everyone could enjoy the pristine view from above. It has an 80 foot waterfall that empties onto the beach.
I’m working on figuring out how to manage pictures on this new server. The thumbnails below aren’t the full picture. Click the thumbnail to go to the full image, and see the title and comment info. Then you can click the image again to go to a bigger version.
By: alice on April 22, 2009