Labor Day weekend

We made a quick getaway to Monterey for Labor Day weekend! Last Labor Day, we headed to Pismo Beach for the day with the Wiens family. This year, both our families had visited Pismo recently, so we opted for a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium instead! We found a great deal on a hotel, so we decided to drive down Sunday after lunch. We checked into our hotel and then headed to Cannery Row for some sight-seeing and a super-yummy dinner at Bubba Gump's. The next morning we got to the Aquarium as soon as it opened (the main reason for wanting to stay the night before) and spent 5 1/2 hours exploring every bit of the place! We stopped for lunch, of course, but didn't even have to leave because of the great café they have inside the aquarium! Kind of ironic to look at all the beautiful fish and then eat them for lunch, don't you think? But the clam chowder WAS good! After leaving the aquarium we took a short drive over to Dennis the Menace Park to let the kids get their last wiggles out before the long drive home. It definitely worked...within 5 minutes of driving away from Monterey, 4 of the 5 kids were asleep in their carseats (and it was only 5:30 p.m.). We couldn't help but stop at Cutija's taco stand in Los Banos for a small dinner on the way back (the kids did wake up for that). But after filling their tummies, they all slept the last hour home. Whew! What a weekend!