Ramada Ltd. Carmel Hill Monterey

... caught up on sleep after San Fran. Up at 9am and headed towards Fisherman's Wharf and looked in lots of gift shops. Rich got tempted by clam chowder so we had lunch on the pier, sitting next to lots of huge pelicans outside the window! Very scary. Then drove down Cannery Row, named after a John Steinbeck novel! Went in a shop that sold things that ...

... and I could crawl in a decent amount. "Shelves" made of roots were inside, that's where I'd keep my food. The roots almost made a chair as well...and thats a living room if I'd ever seen one.<br><br>Christa and I made some balancing rocks before our trek back down the mountain began. I had lots of trouble getting back down, switching between sliding out of my wet flips to going barefoot. Neither was great since sliding out was grip ...

... had a falafel wrap), we drove down to New Brighton Beach a couple of miles outside town. Unfortunately, as the beach is part of a state park we had to pay to enter, which pleased us no end. We forgot all about the charge though as the beach was beautiful and deserted. Driftwood was scattered all over the sand and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw one of the bits of wood move. On closer inspection we ...

... me back. Harassment isn't a new idea and so I just do a double check to make sure these guys aren't gonna follow me into the dark, and they weren't, they were just standing together under a streetlamp. So, on and on I go, and I look up to see Lola and I see 3 guys. One with the hood open, working some jumper cables or something, another in the driver's seat, and one standing in the street under another streetlamp. My first instinct at that point was "OH ______!! THEY'RE STEALING LOLA ...

... car park on the front, and immediately found a great café with loads of tables on the boardwalk, overlooking the beach. It was one of those places where the slight lack of quality is made up for by quantity! Liz, Juliette and I ordered the "Breakfast Special" - eggs, bacon and hash-browns - whilst the younger members of the crew had the pancakes (these were so voluminous that I think only Olivia managed a whole pancake - and there ...

... Market in London. These were the real deal.Massive, slimy and chewy and yummy!<br><br>For mains, Azrael had linguini with clams in a garlic and white wine broth. Very rich broth and fresh clams. The linguini could have been slightly more al-dente, for me. As for me the greedy pig, I just could not resist the Dungeness crab (since today is our last day at the fishing bay), so I ordered a whole one, baked in ...

... sounding chap on reception, we learned that the person who dealt with lost property couldn't help until the next morning.<br> <br>So it was with our fingers crossed we headed out for dinner at a local tapas restaurant. We were served by a very friendly Scottish, scouser from Birmingham who had come out to California chasing a bird. After 2+ bottles of wine and some lovely food we headed home with not a care in the world.

It's all about who you know on this trip........ Some friends (names shouldn't be shared) got me into this festival by going behind the scenes. It was an amazing feeling to be surrounded by some of the most famous chefs. Plus, being able to taste their signature dishes and have great wine to go along with ...

... too...the only problem is we have to figure out how to eat it now - that should be the fun part. Along the way, we stopped to watch sea lions on a dock...so many sea lions. It was the coolest thing and I took enough video of them so i can watch it all the time. We saw sea otters and more harbor seals in the bay that we were at too. I also managed to fall off my bike(in slow ...

Today we spent the day at Monterey Bay Aquarium, about 20 minutes walk from our Hotel, we also took the optional behind the scenes tour and had the chance to feed the fish at the end of the ...