Joyce and Jed: Our Getaway to the Bay

It wasn't Guam, which we were hoping to visit this summer, but our trip to Monterey Bay was so amazing. We decided not to take the kids with us so Jed and I could have some alone time together before he leaves in July. It was a last minute decision since the Air Force cancelled the flight to Guam the day before we were supposed to leave. We drove down to Monterey and found a really nice hotel in Pacific Grove. I know I said I'd love to retire near the woods, but after this trip I'd like to revise that to the woods and the beach. Maybe we could get a summer home? lol :) We were cold the entire trip since we packed for Guam and Hawaii, but besides the temperature there was no other complaints. This trip was so relaxing and so much fun!

On Thursday we went to Carmel and visited Mission Santa Clara. It was such a beautiful mission. (Sorry these pictures aren't going to be that great since they were taken with my phone camera) We didn't understand what a lot of the different statues were of, but it was still really pretty to look at and read about the various people who founded the mission.

After visiting the mission we drove through some of the neighborhoods and went downtown to eat lunch and visit the shops. They have such cute homes through the neighborhoods! The food there was incredible! It seriously was some of the best food I've eaten. And the shops were so cute! But we had fun viewing the different art galleries and antique shops. We got a little carried away when we found this antique gun and cannon. We had to talk ourselves out of buying them for Elijah's room (we're planning on doing a pirate themed room for him later). Maybe one day?! We ended our day at the beach just enjoying the view.

Don't these adorable shops look like the seven dwarves should be living here?

I really want these for Elijah, but of course they're not practical... too bad

And I thought this was a cute lamp, not one I'd ever buy but totally dig :)

The beach was super chilly so we didn't stay long, but it was so pretty

Friday, we hiked through Point Lobos State Park. I loved this hike. It was so beautiful! Jed's favorite thing about this entire trip was looking at the tide pools. I loved seeing all of the different views of the ocean and enjoying the trees. It was also a lot of fun finding all of the animals. We saw seals, sea lions, otters, and even saw a cute family of quails. At one point of our hike we had a squirrel following us wherever we went, he was stalking us for our trail mix. We ended our day at the beach again.

Our last day of our trip, Saturday, we went to see the Point Lobos Lighthouse, then drove on the 17 mile drive. It was such a pretty drive and led to a lot of the beaches along Pebble Beach. Jed went out to look at the tide pools again. After enjoying our drive, we went kayaking in Monterey along the bay. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take pictures, but it was so amazing! This was my favorite thing we did. It was a bit windy so the swells got a little big a few times, but we were able to get so close to the seals and sea lions and otters. We are supposed to stay 50 ft away from the animals but they kept popping up out of no where. We actually were about 15 ft away from a huge group of seals at one point. It was so much fun!