The Metcalfes in San Francisco: Monterey and Carmel

Right down the street from our hotel was Dennis the Menace park- there were cool things to plan on and statues of him and it was just a wonderful park for kids!

So, last weekend I got to go to a career fair for translation and localization. It was in a town called Monterey that is trying to get itself the nickname of the "language capital of the world."

We headed to Monterey Thursday night as the fair was Friday morning. Driving down Route 1 at night, was not much fun - but we got there safe and sound and checked into the Colton Inn.

The Colton Inn isn't anything super fancy, or on the water even, but they have an AWESOME DVD collection that you can have access to while you are staying there. Since it was rainy and cold out, we took advantage and watched Waitress and Disturbia - both VERY good movies!:)

Friday after the fair, we took a drive down to Asilomar Beach and ate at the Fishwife, which is known for it's seafood. I had pasta, and Dave had some sort of dish chock full of fish!

Then we went to this place called Latitudes for a drink during happy hour - it was right on the water and it was beautiful. (even though the sun had gone down) After that, unfortunately, I got a wicked migraine, one of the worst I have ever had, so we spent the night trying to get it to go away and not sleeping too much:(

Saturday was Monterey Bay Aquarium Day. We had an AWESOME continental breakfast at the hotel and then headed into town for the aquarium. The jelly tanks were awesome.

It is a beautiful area, but the aquarium was a bit disappointing - as we thought it was kind of small:( We still had a great time, and just made sure to go to the exhibits we liked more than once.

Saturday afternoon we had to decide if we wanted to stay in town, or head back to SF, as we hadn't booked a hotel room yet because it was kinda cold and rainy out and the area is a huge beach area - so not much to do inside.

Well, we decided we might as well see if we can stay, as the weather kept predicting raining, but it never rained a lot so we held out hope that it would be nice on Sunday.

We started calling around and found a couple of options from moderate/cheap hotels to luxurious inns. Since we were calling for day of availability and it's the off season, we got some pretty good prices for 2 HIGHLY rated luxury hotels - the Monterey Plaza Spa and hotel and the Tickle Pink Inn in Carmel. We chose the Tickle Pink Inn, cause it is in a BEAUTIFUL and secluded area. We decided to splurge and spoil ourselves with a very nice hotel for one night! (which is very unusual for us)

We checked in and were SO happy to just relax after a few very busy weeks at work. Unfortunately we got the last room available so there was no fire place, and it was VERY windy so the wind howled all night, but it was totally worth it, as in the morning, we were able to open the patio door and hear the waves crashing in and enjoy a fresh baked continental breakfast that was brought into our room!