After our day trip to Yosemite, our last stop for our road trip back to SF was going to Monterey. From sunny Modesto, it was a 2 - 3 hour drive to the quaint and a little chilly town of Monterey. Upon arriving at our hotel, thanks to Marriot, we settled in quickly and started our first agenda which was a doing the 17 Mile Drive which is driving to 21 points of interest at Pebble Beach which I guess would mean driving for 17 miles. We didn't really check out all the points of interest but we did stop at the ones that we liked including the famous lone Cypress and we also had the chance to see the seals at the beach. The Lonely Cympress is this one Cypress tree on top a cliff and its been there for more than 100 years. The last stop was Carmel beach. This time around, i bought my swim shorts but I wasn't able to take a dip since it was too cold, just dipping my feet in the water made it hurt, that's how cold the water was. The beach was nice and clean and there were a lot of locals as well as tourist like us just sitting there, enjoying the view or having a picnic which was so nice. It was a nice drive, taking pictures as we go and talking about a lot of things inside the car.
After the drive, we went back to our rooms for a quick rest and to pick up my uncle and now we were ready for dinner. We were headed out to the pier when I saw this street fair going on so we decided to check it out. We smelled something good and ofocurse, it was the smell of barbecue. Without any hesitations, we decided to eat there to eat some ribs. While waiting for our food, we got to talk with some of the locals since there's just this 1 big table where you can eat at. They said that the fair happens every Tuesday and it sells fruits, vegetables and novelty items. We had ribs for dinner that was absolutely finger lickin' good. After a hearty dinner of ribs and my niece losing her teeth (funny, when she took a bite out of her corn, her tooth was left in the cob), we decided to check out what the fair had to offer. There were a lot of nice knick knacks and souvenirs, my niece got a cute heart necklace, while my nephew setlled for a bollon sword. There were a lot fresh fruits and vegetables, so my cousin already did her grocery shopping that day too.
After the fair, we headed to the wharf to see what was there and to buy some souvenirs. There were a lot of seals and they were so close i can go and touch them, but ofciurse I didn't. There were a lot of souvenirs but I did not give in to the temptation and got a ref magnet which I collect. It was getting late at night, also it was getting colder so with kids in tow, we decided to go back to the hotel. The next day, we decided to tour more of the town while my cousin went ahead to SF. We checked out Cannery Row for more pictures and to buy more souvenirs. We got our breakfast fix at Ghirardelli and my hot chocolate was rich and very yummy, it was a good combination with Monetrey's cold morning. I was in a store full of decadent chocolate of different shapes and sizes that my mouth watered. I wanted to stay longer since Monterey was very nice but we had to leave.
I was equally excited to go back to SF anyway and before heading there, we decided to go to Gilroy for some outlet shopping and it was one of my things to do for this vacation. Gilroy was known for their onions so the minute we saw the sign that we were there, we rolled down the windows a little to have a smell. It was lunch already when we got there so we stopped by In and Out to get lunch. I was too excited to see the shops that I didn't bother to eat my burger and just dashed out of the car to check out the stores. My sister said we only had 2 hours to spend there since they want to arrive at SF early. The outlet mall was a little big and the stores were far apart from each other, good thing before we got there I already checked out what were the stores online. I got some good deals at Nautica, Kenneth Cole, CK and Tommy Hilfiger and after a mad dash, I was now ready to eat. I bought quite a few things, and now I'm thinking 2 things, how I'm gonna fit everything in my luggage and how much damage I made to my credit cards, ouch!
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