t 'n t luoma

Before he came in, Ethan and Tracey were in the continental breakfast area (which we call “carb heaven” so I skipped it). They were watching me swim through the window. (Well I wasn’t actually swimming through the window, but it seemed awkward to say “They were watching me through the window swim.”... hrm... “Through the window they were watching me swim”? That’s probably the best option. Anyway, the point is, they were on one side of the window having breakfast and I was on the other side swimming, and they were watching me.) Whenever Ethan caught my eye (well he didn’t really catch my eye, but — nevermind....) he pointed down very dramatically, indicating he wanted me to go underwater. Which I, of course, did, because it made Ethan laugh, and there are few things in this world which are better than making Ethan laugh. He has a wonderful laugh, full-belly, full-body, all-out, snorting, chuckling, grinning laugh. I count making Ethan laugh on a regular basis as reason enough for God to have put me on this earth.

Then we went out to a great lunch at El Torito. Wow, great Mexican. Ethan was packing down the tortilla chips like it was his last meal. Then he wanted to climb the steps again and again. The booth looked out onto the ocean, and we watched the waves crash against the rocks. Quite frankly the meal could have been awful and we wouldn’t have cared (but the meal was great). We also saw a couple of sea lions (I think that’s what they were) playing in the waves.

Afterwards we went for the famed 17 mile drive which was quite beautiful. Ethan slept through most of it. It was really too cold to get out and walk the beach, the wind was blowing so hard we couldn’t imagine how anyone was playing golf — but of course they were!

Tracey ran into the Pebble Beach Golf Course and picked up a postcard for her dad and a golf ball for Ethan.

The houses were lovely, but I didn’t see many that I would actually want to buy (even assuming that I had that kind of money, which I clearly don’t.) They were either so close together or they had no actual view of the water... and even the few that did then have to deal with the fact that tourists are constantly driving through your neighborhood. Bah. Give me a nice quiet neighborhood overlooking a lake anyday.

After the drive we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which I highly recommend. I am not a huge fan of aquariums or museums, but this was a lot of fun. We watched them feed the sea otters, saw a presentation about jellyfish, and watched a woman scubadive into a large tank with many, many different kinds of fish and hand-fed them.

The coolest thing of all was seeing an octopus.... and by “cool” I mean extremely creepy. That’s one ugly-looking beast. It occured to me while walking through the aquarium that there is just such a vast amount of stuff to know in life... People can be experts on things that I never even think about. I feel that I’ve been following that old line about people who are perpetual students in one area — they learn more and more about less and less. For the past several years I’ve been learning more and more about two general things: faith and web design. While those are both very broad topics, I want to expand my general knowledge. I’m going to try to find a way to learn something about a lot of different things over the upcoming year.

Ethan had a terrific time. He was playing in the kids area for quite some time (I actually had to go and feed the meter because he was having so much fun we stayed longer than we had planned). Today was the first time he went down a slide by himself. He kept going down on his belly, but I helped him go down a few times the “regular” way and he seemed to like that too.

We had been there for awhile when some older kids came, and Ethan looked a little overwhelmed and they were not especially careful around him, so it seemed a good time to move on. His excitement seemed to be waning anyway (he had been there at least 30 minutes by then, and 30 minutes in 22-month old is a long time. We stopped at the gift shop and Ethan picked out a “giant” Super Ball (remember that “normal” sized Super Ball’s are only about 1" around, so this one is about 3" around). It is currently “lost” already in the hotel room.

Still a little full from lunch we decided to walk around the Cannery Row area for a little while. Most of the shops had closed, so there wasn’t much to see. We decided to go back to Bubba Gump’s for dinner. I had the “Shrimpin’ Dippin’ Broth (as opposed to last night when I had the Cajun BBQ Shrimp, and not to be confused with the shrimp I had for an appetizer. Last night’s appetizer was clam chowder which was perhaps the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve had it a good many places and have had really good clam chowder. Now this is real clam chowder and not that muck they call “Manhattan Clam Chowder”... tell me what a bunch of Manhattanites know about clam chowder?).

Anyway, I digress. “Broth” in this context was a bit of a misnomer. It was basically a vat of butter, garlic, and other spices, AKA delish. These shrimp didn’t have to be eaten, they just about dissolved on the tongue. Oh, and the restaurant overlooks the Pacific ocean, which isn’t a bad backdrop either.

As I think I said yesterday, one of my goals is to just enjoy eating out, since Gallipolis lacks a diversity of fine dining. So far we have hit the jackpot at every meal. Tracey thought about dessert but decided to skip it, but we did find a Baskin-Robbins 31 flavors on the way home, and she got some concoction called “Gold Medal Ribbon” which is vanilla and chocolate ice cream with a caramel ribbon. I estimated there were 15 carbs simply floating around the air in the car.

We came back to the hotel after a long but very fun day. Speaking of the hotel, Clarion Hotel in Monterey for $45/night ($55 for two beds) is a great choice. Hot tub and heated pool, and the owners seem to be very nice. I say “owners” but I really mean the people who are at the front desk, but it strikes me as a family-run business. We found it thanks to the visitors’ center in Monterey who knew that it was one of the only two places in the area with a heated pool, thus saving us a lot of time looking around for one. One word of warning, however: we have dubbed our bathroom commode “the vortex of death”... don’t stand too close or it might suck you in! Better than the alternative.... There’s nothing worse than a toilet with a tenative flush. Ok, there are worse things, but you get my meaning.

Anyway, tomorrow the park here (“Dennis the Menace Park” I think it is called). Will have to take some pictures. been on vacation two days already and haven’t taken any. If a picture is worth 1,000 words then perhaps tomorrow’s entry will be shorter and more visual :-)