California- Days 6 & 7- Monterey Bay

After three days at Yosemite, we decided to head back to the Bay Area a little early. We loaded up the RV and treked about 4 hours to Hollister, CA which is close to Monterey. We spent most of Thursday morning driving and arrived in Hollister around 2 pm. I had been reading aobut things to do in the pickup while we were driving and had discovered Gilroy Gardens. It is an amusement park devoted to little kids...about 10 and under I would say. Boppy and Grandma stayed with Owen at the trailer and Richard and I took Harper to Gilroy Gardens. It was so clean, so nice and not crowded at all! Harper had a great time running from ride to ride. She is such a daredevil. Usually roller coasters are her favorite, but at this place it was the "old time" cars she got to drive. The cars were cute, but the "course" you drove them on was precious! They had a gas station set up and you even got to drive through a car wash that misted water. We rode these several times and she was happy as a lark!


Another exiting discovery in and around Monterey was the vast amount of agriculture. They grow...and sell everything. Cherries are the HOT item of the area and they are for sale at roadside stands about every couple of miles along the highway. At our grocery store a small box of cherries is about 3.99...in Cali, they were only $1!!! Wow! Most of the orchards we drove by were growing oranges, apricots and peaches. Lots of vinyards too...of course. But by far the most interesting thing...GARLIC! That's right fields and fields of garlic. We discovered it as we were driving down the highway...we came up over a hill and the garlic smell was overwhelming. Harper says from the backseat..."Yum...I smell my favorite bread!" Can you tell we eat alot of that garlic bread from the freezer section?

{a field of garlic!}

On Friday, we celebrated our last day of vacation with a trip to Monterey. When we arrived at the wharf, we spent some time on a small beach near some of the shopping and restaurants. The best part about this beach was that it was very close to several rock outcroppings where seals and sea lions were lounging. It was low tide when we were there and we got to walk in a few tide pools to look for sea treasures. We found lots of shells...and saw several real "live" starfish. It was amazing to see that wildlife without having to pay a buck! But...we did spend our bucks to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium while we were there. It was worth it! Absolutely Amazing! The exhibits were outstanding and the view from the Aquarium was wonderful! We all had a great time! After the aquarium, we grabbed a quick bite for lunch and headed to Caramel-by-the-Sea...Pebble Beach area. It was an amazing white sand beach. Our little beach bums had a wonderful time playing in the freezing cold water. It was the perfect ending to a perfect vacation!

{Can you see the seals on the rocks? Kind of hard to see!}

{the monterey bay aquarium}

{Harper's penguin friend, Messi. He followed her all over the exhibit!}

{Harper watching the jellyfish!}

{pebble beach golf course}

Thanks for taking to time to read all three posts about our vacation! I just couldn't condense such a fabulous trip! :)