What I did this summer - Part 10

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What I did this summer - Part 10

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We went to my favorite place to get away from it all.... the Sea! Okay, it's really the Ocean but whose really keeping track, right? We went to the Monterey coast in Central California! Now I've been to Monterey more times than I can count but we usually go to our favorite spots and don't really change up the routine because we lurve our little jems in and around town. But earlier this year while I was visiting my beautiful bloggy friend In the Garden with Miss Jean, she had posted about taking her two

A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E Grandsons to Monterey and shared some of the activities they went too. Well I just had to COMMENT and Jean shared with me that we HAD to take the kids to My Museum (A kids museum) that recently re-located to downtown Monterey from it's old location in the Cannery Row district and also Dennis the Menace Park. Her tips didn't stop there but I'll save those for the next post of when we went to Carmel! If your not familiar with Miss Jean, she is not your ordinary Grandma! She knows more texting lingo than I do! ha ha ~ I encourage you to visit her and her Man as she shares her love of Scottie dogs, quilts, and so much more!

As we drove into town, we literally almost drove over a large herd of these deer! Oh my stars, I about lost my biscuits that morning. They obviously have the right-of-way!

Ooooh the weather was perfect! This reminds me of why I lurve California!



We arrived bright and early at My Museum and for $7 a person, you have in and out privileges for the whole day so hang on to your receipt. This museum is geared to children 10 and under... in my opinion. We spent 2 hours here without blinking an eye, it was sooo much fun! And it is VERY SANITARY! Nice and clean ~ Mom's like me appreciate that!


As we walked in I spied from ACROSS the building a tiny victorian playhouse. I had to have my picture taken with it.

Here is a bubble machine! You step inside and pull the rope - FAST - and Voila - you are inside a bubble. We seriously pulled this rope about 50 times. ha ha ~Yep, we are easily entertained.

A round of miniature golf anyone?

Now this part of the museum hosted a theatre where the children can peruse through costumes and put on shows. The stage is complete with velvet red curtains and a sound machine for the parents to use for sound effects during the children's performance. NICE costumes too!

The first act was the Monkey and the Parrot!

And this act was Ballroom dancing with the Lion and the M&M! Hilarious - I wish I had a video of that.

Next we visited the Hospital part of the museum. Here my girl is doing a interactive game that requires you to walk your rounds through the hospital through all the different levels to see all your patients. And true to form, if you are too slow, the patients get grouchy! Very cool!

Okay, is this not just the most fun operating room ever! Yes, that is a giant size Operation Game table, complete with the Red Light and Buzzer!

Today on the schedule was Kidney surgery but I was a rebel and went for the arms!

Here my girls is working on the preemie baby dolls in the incubator.

Then we headed for the Ambulance to transport a patient who fell from the tree house. All pretending and imagination here.

 

Across from the station was the Healthy Foods Cafe where the kids served up some healthy entrees.

 

Behind the cafe was the farm area where all the local produce is grown (pretend farm of course).

Here the kids collected ALL the balls and moved them through the turns and cranks of the equipment to get up to the top of the makeshift silo.

 

Here we are helping to collect the harvest!

Then we headed over to the construction area where you could lay the foundation or build walls to the mini house. Very cool!

The museum also had a HUGE tree house inside but my photos of that didn't turn out well but trust me, it is HUGE and it is FUN! Bye, Bye Birde.. we are headed across the street to the....

PARIS CAFE! Oh yea! Miss Jean told use about this lovely bakery and that I can't believe I didn't know about all these years. They just celebrated their 28th yr in business and they deserve all the awards they have earned because you can smell the crusty sourdough bread from across the street. It was a little busy when we walked in but I have to sing the praises of the staff because they came out from behind the pastry case and found us chairs and a table to sit down at before we even had purchased anything, came back to us several times and asked if we needed anything, etc.. Exceptional service the entire time we were there.

The kids asked what they could pick and I said, we are on vacation so pick out anything you want. They picked the little chocolate layered mouse cups. NEITHER of them finished their treats, that is how rich and chocolately they were.

Look how heaven above shines it's glorious sunshine upon those loaves of bread!

Serious eye candy! I mean, really how can you possibly pick something when EVERYTHING looks amazing.

We almost picked one of these....

but in the end we settled on this lemon tart. We were not disappointed. Mmmmm

After coming out of our sugar, carbohydrated induced acoma, we headed a few blocks over to Denise the Menace Park as Miss Jean told us about. Again, I was pleasantly surprised to find clean bathrooms onsite.

When you enter the park, you are greeted with a actual retired locomotive engine. How they got this there I do not know because there aren't any train tracks nearby.

The kids lurved climbing all over this thing.

Dennis, it's been a fun time spending the afternoon with you! See you next year!

We headed back to the ocean to collect some treasures while we waited for our dinner reservation to arrive.

Now how do you feed a family of four a Crab dinner for less than $40?

First, you don't order drinks when they are $2.99 a piece - Yea, $12 for drinks, I don't think sooooo. Instead we asked for water with lemons, added a little splenda from the packet on the table and you've got lemonade! The restaurant provided free bread that was delicious with butter and minced garlic. We also ordered cups of clam chowder and then a crab that we all shared.

I was the official cracker!

On the way out this guy tried to take my purse! Just joking, it was really a statue of Bruce Lee so you KNOW I just HAD to make a memory!

15 hours later and we are still smiling! That was a great day in Monterey!

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