Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Emm and I drove up the road to Monterey today, specifically to the quite-lauded Aquarium and the famous Cannery Row. The Aquarium itself was a lot of fun, featuring a lot of pettable manta rays, a few sandpipers (okay, they're birds, but still), some penguins (yay penguins!), a few sea otters, and what has to be one of the world's ugliest fish ever put upon this good Earth.

We also walked a little around the "uptown" area, checked out a lot of random stores, ate at a funky nautical-themed restaurant, had some Starbucks java, and spent--I kid you not--over THIRTY SIX DOLLARS on CANDY. We couldn't help ourselves...the Jelly Bellys were calling out to Emm, and pretty much everything else in the store was calling out to me... :p

We did find a few used bookstores where we found a few neat things, including a completely random book about the Connecticut River that I'm going to send off to my Dad when I have the chance. We ended the day by driving back to Carmel, stopping by the beach at the end of Ocean Avenue (the main drag in Carmel) and getting some really nice nature shots. Later on we're going to check out the Jack London Pub that's a few blocks away (depending on the weather, we may either drive or walk, not sure).

Oh, and I have to say that the place we're staying at? Reminds me of head58's grandmother's cabin at Packard Heights in so many ways. Of course, it's a bigger building and doesn't have the Scariest Wallpaper Ever, but it's got that lakeside (or in this case, oceanside) cabin charm that I love. I can picture myself renting out a room at this place to finish off a novel. Or buying a place like this once I win my Pulitzer. ;)

I'll be posting more pictures when we get back home this weekend, but for now I figure I'll end with a picture that's typical of me:

( Jonc sleeps with the fishes )