Monterey Bay 2013

 

The day after the Fourth of the July we drove to Monterey, California for our family’s beach trip!! I absolutely love coming here.  I looked forward to it every year…and this time Andrew was able to come!! 

When we first got to the beach we unpacked and ran down to the beach to fly a kite Andrew bought.  This kite was actually pretty fun to fly.  It had these two bands that go around your wrist with strings attached to the kite and you would fly it that way.  Chris and Brandon brought a rugby ball (of course) so we passed that around for a little bit too.

Brandon flying the kite

It took a little while to get the hang of flying that kite so there was a lot of this going on.

Andrew flying the kite (I had the wrong lens on the camera, so I had to run halfway down the beach to get him and the kite in the picture..my bad)

Rugby time!

We tried to get a picture looking like the kite was taking Brandon away and we were trying to pull him back…this was the best one haha didn’t turn out so well. 

One night we were all upstairs looking out the windows when this HUGE flock of birds came by.  I mean there were thousands and thousands of birds (this picture doesn’t do it justice).  They just kept flying by.  It was a constant sea of birds for half an hour or more!  They have been following a big school of fish or something.  Too bad the whales didn’t join in. 

All the guys did the annual surfing/boarding one day when it was warmer and the waves were good…and after I beat them all in pool tee hee. 

 

SHARK!!…just kidding…but some dolphins did pop up a little bit after they were done boarding in the same spot where they were!

We spent one day in Carmel (love this place!) and ate at the delicious Dametra’s café.  The cook even came out and sang to everyone in the café.  We went to the beach in Carmel too, and it was so nice!  The sand was super white and so warm!  And we saw a naked lady changing right on the beach in front of everyone. That same day on the road back to the beach house we saw a guy changing by his car…butt naked…gotta love those California Free Spirits!!

  Of course we had to play Tennis while we were there!  It wouldn’t be complete without Tennis!! 

I’d have to say our Tennis skills are getting better…slowly : )

Brandon, my dad, and Andrew went deep sea fishing one day and came back with a TON of fish!  This fish was favorite haha look at it’s eyes popping out!

We went to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz one afternoon and it is totally worth the $5 to get in.  It is this place where the gravity is messed up in a small area.  There are lots of theories why, but none have been proven yet.  Andrew and my dad think it’s a hoax, but whether it is or not it is really fun!

You think you are standing straight up but really you are standing at like a 20 degree angle!  CRAZY!! 

One night we went to the Santa Cruz boardwalk because you can get an all ride pass for $13 if you bring a pop can!  I think we rode the Giant Dipper like seven times!  So fun!

I could live here!!

But eventually our week was up and we had to head back home…but I do love it here too!  Who could ever get sick of this view from their front porch?

And there have been these two fawns and their mom hanging around the pond by our house.

I went to the beach another time this year and we went whale watching.  We saw some pacific white-sided dolphins that played around our boat and some humpback whales!