The first weekend back in CA, we went to the Monterey Bay area. It was a close 1.5 hour drive from home. Both cities are on the Pacific coast. Keeping in mind the fact that it's January, the weather was still fantastic. It was actually pretty hot at one point.
First we went to visit Carmel. This little town has the world famous Pebble Beach Golf Course, an amazing super-white sand beach, and chalk-full of rich people. In its main road area, there are probably as many art shops and galleries as Paris. Carmel in terms of its urban design is a lot like Santa Barbara, and reminiscent of the classic small-European-town-on-the-hills in its atmosphere. Most of the buildings in the area are actually built from stones. The restaurant we had lunch at was very cozy, with an outdoor stone fireplace in the centre.
Monterey is a much bigger city, just ten minutes north. The main attraction was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Their theme is conservation of marine life. That message is more important here than the display of animals. The coolest parts of the aquarium were the touch-stations. Here, you can actually touch and feel the various aquatic life. Some of the animals I got to play around with were: devil ray, starfish, crustaceans, sea cucumber and others I don't remember the names of. I learned that the world seafood supply is close to extinction if we keep at the pace we're currently on. As a matter of fact, the entire city is all about the conservation. All the seafood restaurants here will only offer dishes of fish that are currently sustainable.
It was fun to reacquaint myself with the Pacific coast again immediately after coming back from Toronto. More photos can be found here.
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