Saturday, January 26, 2013

Monterey, CA: Otter Stuff

The next morning I had grandiose plans of running down to the wharf, but falling asleep at 4AM isn’t conducive to healthy activities and instead I only made my way downtown about 2PM. Wups. It was a beautiful, sunny day out. I got a cab, suggested by the front desk, but it was $10 for two miles and there is a bus that goes every hour and the walk is only 30 minutes and this is not New York city so I won’t be doing that again. Front desk chumps.
 
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I went right back to the water I was fearing the night before. Everything looking much more blue and inviting and crisp.
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There was a seventeen mile stretch of scenic ocean views.
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Down to Asilomar State Beach
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Then back to walk around the area trying to find a hair cutting place that I finally found at Bhinb. A lovely hair dresser there from Thailand chatted the whole time, bonding about how dating someone from another country can cause unnecessary fights due to language and accent barriers. Ha. She was super sweet and hugged me goodbye.
 
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I wandered into Caffe Trieste next door
 
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For a cappuccino for no reason and a cookie on the house
 
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The day flew away from me so before it got completely dark I walked into town as dusk settled
 
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Down to the wharf
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Mesmerized by the taffy
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Boats and boats
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Found some seals!
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Basking in the sunset

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Found Fisherman’s Shoreline park and made more plans to run tomorrow. Definitely going to run tomorrow!

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And then I didn’t run. I instead woke up and immediately went otter searching

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Otters are supposed to be all over the place here in Monterey and being an huge fan of adorable things I was pretty disappointed when my otter spotting (I spent hours, hours, sitting by the water looking for the little dudes) was only rewarded with the weird otter paraphernalia.

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They just love otters here

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Well, except this place where they wrap them up in puff pastry and eat them

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The Monterey Bay Aquarium is here, which is like the fish bible on how to eat sustainably and safely.

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And there are a lot of taffy shops

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By night fall I drove around the cliffs and was completely enchanted with the night and the water as I usually am. I decided to go into town to see what the nightlife was like, but when I got there to the bars and drinks all I could think was what these people were missing just minutes from them. Do you know what’s down there?! But these bars did look pretty happening.

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For dinner the next night I went to a restaurant I forget who told me to check out, but it was a local one that was always packed and it was. Monterey’s Fish House. Simple enough on an unasuming road bookend by parking lots, I actually passed it the first time driving by
 
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It was packed with a line out the door and a long wait time, but dining for one has its advantages. I went right to the bar and scored a front row seat to some shucking.
 
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I got to talking to a couple who were in town selling their bees. Real life apiarists! An interesting industry that I forgot all about. They come to this place every time they’re in town and eventually talked me into getting some dessert. Which doesn’t take much.
 
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I liked Monterey, couldn’t spent another few days there. And maybe during one of them I would actually run through the scenery. But probably not.

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