Our annual trip to Carmel and Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was a bit windy when we arrived at the beach and Alison didn’t want us to let go of her. She felt most comfortable on daddy’s shoulder.
We met up with Alison’s friend. It was their first playdate away from home.
We stayed overnight at a lovely home in Monterey – Alison and her friend had a lot of fun feeding the squirrels and birds in the backyard! Here is Alison lounging in front of the outdoor fireplace.
Then we were off to explore Monterey Bay Aquarium. Alison had a great time there – she even saw a rainbow!
We took a few weekend trips recently — one to the Oakland Zoo, one to the Mushroom Dome in Aptos, and one to Blackhawk Plaza in Danville.
At the zoo, Alison finally got to see all the animals we’ve been showing her in books in real life! She was fascinated by the giraffes. (And I was too — I don’t think I’ve seen that many of them in one place before!)
The zoo also had a neat exhibit where you could pet goats and other animals. Alison was really curious what their fur felt like.
On our trip to Aptos, we stopped by Santa Cruz. The beachfront attractions were closed and the sky looked like it was going to rain, so we took a side trip to the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. They had a touch exhibit, so Alison got to touch a starfish!
By the time we got to Mushroom Dome it was starting to get dark, but we managed to take a picture in front of the iconic Airbnb before the sun went down completely.
On another weekend, I took Alison to Blackhawk Plaza while Kathy was at work. There were a lot of ducks that day!
We had been to this plaza before, but not since Alison started saying “duck”. She was also old enough to feed the ducks herself this time.
After we were done feeding the ducks, we got some lunch for ourselves.