Did We Have Fun?

I told Lynn it was time for me to write about our day and find out if we had fun or not. (SPOILER ALERT:  we did!)

Lynn wasn't sure how the day was going to go when first the coffee maker wouldn't work and we had to order a new one from the front desk, and then the ironing board (I've heard that some women use these things) collapsed literally on her and she ended up ironing her pants on the board, on the floor).

However, in spite of these mishaps, we decided she could drive today because of her GPS, Tildy.  I've come to really love her new Accura.

We had looked on line for a place to have a nice Sunday brunch and I came to a place called First Awakenings and we both agreed this was "our place" based solely on this snippet of a review on Yelp by a customer named Michael, who seemed particularly enamored by a menu item called "All that Razz," which is a raspberry pancake with coconut and granola.  Of this dish, Michael says: "The pancake was also crazy good.  Even with the raspberries, granola and coconut, it was amazingly light and fluffy.  It tasted and felt exactly like baby angels were flapping their tiny wings inside my mouth."  Now how can you not want to taste that?

What we didn't realize until we got there was that it was located one block from the Aquarium, our next stop after breakfast.  Serendipity.

We both did have All That Razz and yes, baby angels flapped their tiny wings inside our mouths.

Trust me.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  You'll just have to come here and try it!

Next it was off to the Aquarium, where we spent about 3 hours.  Oh my...this was worth the nearly 30 year wait.  I feared that since we were coming on a Sunday it would be mobbed...and it did get more crowded around noon, but entering at about 10 a.m., when they opened, we had zero problem with crowds anywhere.  We watched the penguins being fed, 

saw the magnificent kelp forest,

and saw so many things but we both agreed that our favorites were the sea horses and the jellyfish.  (I said I wanted to be a jellyfish--brainless, heartless, but beautiful!)  I particularly liked this odd seahorse, which looks like a creature from a Dr. Seuss book.

I have so many incredible pictures, but I will put them all on Flickr when I get home rather than fill up this journal entry.

There were also many things purchased for the grandkids.  Fortunately I had texted Tom "otters, penguins or seahorses?" and he texted back "seahorses!" That made it easier.

We wandered around Cannery Row for a bit, agreeing that John Steinbeck would not recognize it today!  After coffee and a purchase of a Steinbeck book for Lynn ("Cannery Row") we came back to the hotel where we sat in the lobby looking at the ocean.

Lynn went off on a far too energetic walk along the beach while I stayed where I was, watching the ocean and finishing my book.  But I was also talking to two women I overheard reading comments from the internet about the place we had eaten yesterday and I highly recommended it to them.  They, in turn, told me about the place they had eaten last night, which is right across from where we ate, and said how much they liked it.  Lynn and I decided to go there for dinner.  It's called Domenico's and it was just as great as the women said it had been.  We waited 20 minutes at the bar for a window table, but we were in no hurry and appreciated the chance to have a window table so we could watch the sea lions sleeping on the platform right opposite our table.

It was kind of like San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf in miniature.

Our dinner was fabulous.  I had crab-stuffed prawns, which came topped with caviar and were delicious.

This place may have been my favorite of the weekend...and, oddly enough, it was the cheapest!  I liked it because the waiters were all so friendly.

On the way out we met two women from Perth and chatted with them on the walk back to the parking lot.  Then we stumbled on back here to the hotel.  It is 9 p.m. as I write this and Lynn has been asleep for about 15 minutes.

Tomorrow we have a restaurant picked out for breakfast (also recommended by the women I spoke with this afternoon), and then will be heading back to our respective homes.  It's been a fast weekend, but it's a good thing it's ending because I don't know that I could eat like this for another day!!

And to answer the question I posed at the beginning...yes we had a FABulous time today!!!