post-vacation weekend report

"Auntie, your job is to just scream." -- Mark to Mom during the surrey ride

The best part about coming home from a vacation on Friday evening early Saturday morning is that it gives us lots of time to unwind... or go more places. Case in point, my family took Aunt Jill's students to several more attractions over the weekend!

Saturday

Yesterday was pretty fun as we went to Salinas and Monterey with Henry's film club before exploring the latter on our own. Danny didn't feel like coming, so it was just six of us. The reason for the field trip was to learn more about author John Steinbeck and see some spots where the film Cannery Row was shot.

The plan was to explore the National Steinbeck Center first, but my mother decided to skip this part as we were really tired from all that traveling and didn't want to get up too early. Our party instead met after the tour before rendezvousing at John Steinbeck House, the boyhood home of the author that has been converted into a restaurant. The food there was really good. This was no doubt a very special experience.

Our group then met up in Monterey for a tour of the spots where Cannery Row was filmed. The boys weren't too interested in the tour, so Dad rented a surrey and took them out for a ride. I opted to stay with Mom for the tour as we had been on the surrey ride before. The tour was really fun, although we didn't walk too much as the area was quite small.

Dad and the boys picked us up in the surrey just as the tour ended. We rode about two miles through town before having dinner at a restaurant on the Fisherman's Wharf. This was something I had wanted to do for a long time. The dinner certainly didn't disappoint. On the whole, this day trip totally rocked. It was essentially an extension of our Southwest trip.

Sunday

All of us were really tired and so didn't do much in the morning. That said, my parents took the boys to a few more stops in the after noon. First up was the Googleplex in Mountain View. Dad and the boys just couldn't resist taking a joyride on the Google-colored bicycles, including the seven-seat Conference Bike. They were apparently reserved for Google employees because another family got kicked off them when they went to ride one. *whistles innocently*

The other major stop was Shoreline Lake as the boys were interested in going boating. Dad rented a Canoe and took Danny and the twins along. The rest of us stayed on the shore as the canoe could only hold four people and that Mom and I had always figured that canoeing was scary. Dad later told us that it was indeed scary when some water got into the boat. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Overall the weekend was pretty awesome.

Currently playing: Redneck Rampage: Suckin' Grits on Route 66