carmel-by-the-sea

We went to hang out with my mamacita.  Those are her legs.  This is her beach...or at least the beach by her house.  We had a great time.  I hate trying to write about travels, because it is too hard to fit it all into words.  I might as well try to count the grains of sand on my mamacita's beach. 

But here are a few moments in pictures...

The cousins (because my sister Kara and her family came down to hang out with us and now I miss them more than ever) were forever entertained in the back yard.  That little house at the top of the beautiful gardens is where the older three kids slept.  They loved it.  And who wouldn't - it's seriously awesome in there.  If only I took pictures of it!!!



Here's my little peanut waiting patiently to get her shoes put on so she can go play.  It struck me as so adorable that she just sat there waiting while I went on a sock search.  She just sat and stared and I wonder what she was thinking...


Maybe she was deciding to see if this gate really opens and closes...


yep.  It does.


I spotted these 7 year old cousins up at the rope swing taking a self portrait with my girl's new instax camera.  (Which I'm personally in love with.)



Later I found the little selfie and it was so washed out and overexposed because the camera was on the indoor setting and they took the picture pointing right at the sun reflecting on the ocean behind them.  But I could see that it was cute, so I scanned it and tried to darken it up a bit and I fell in love with it...


so cute, no?

Then there's the beach...



It really is beautiful.  And full of tide pools in the rocks to find lots of treasures in...





Or you can just dig around in the coarse sand the whole time like this little betty. 



She hung out with her daddy most of the time while her twinny sister just gaped at the ocean...



Every time a wave crashed she'd say, "wow...WOOOOW..."

If you don't feel like treasure hunting for beachy things, you can walk/run along the path that looks like this:







And then there's the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  They have a seahorse exhibit right now that rocked my world!  And my trip to San Francisco, but I have to stop now and go to bed.  I'm so so sooo tired.

But if you've never gone to Carmel-by-the-sea or Monterey, you should jump on that train and ride.  You won't be disappointed.  Although it would be much better if you could stay with my mamacita;)

Mom, thank you so much for such a wonderful trip.  It was priceless!