40

The waking up.

We woke up ! Yes, at 6am! On time! :D

Sas and I got ready quickly, tried to say bye to Gapa who was still in deep slumber, and then we headed out. Drove, drove, drove and we got to Santa Clara in less than an hour. Picked up junk food at Safeway, went to our respective apartments, changed and rushed back to the car. Drove, drove, drove again until we reached Monterey.

Whale watching.

Out into the cold we went, two jackets, gloves and caps for warmth. Strange how it gets so much colder when you're in the middle of the ocean. I can't imagine how it might be in the night .....and [shudder]... in the winter!

The experience was pretty exhilarating. We saw a total of 4 or 5 whales, complete with the spouting, the shimmering backs, and the tail touching the horizon as they dove deeper. They got really close to another boat though, and I was left wishing I'd been on that boat. I didn't get a sense of how big they could be because we were pretty far away, but it was exciting nevertheless.

Monterey Aquarium.

It's very nice. Lots of entertainment for kids (mannn, the US is totally the country for a great childhood - everything is so much FUN for kids here and they really know how to make fun games and toys!) and the place itself is BIG with lots of things to see and buy.

"Cruisin' through the Jellies"

Jellyfish are the trippiest things that ever existed, I swear. I stared and stared at the many Jellyfish tanks and at the various kinds of jellyfish -- endlessly! There are Jellyfish that have crazy lights running up and down their transparent bodies (look up Sea Gooseberry) I'm not kidding, there are invisible ones, that you can only see in the aquarium because of special lights, there are ones that just flooooooattt and there are ones that have deadly 6 foot long stings, there are Jellyfish with purple stings. WOW, I swear I was high on staring at them and I was whirling for a bit when I got out of the Jellyfish display area. Seriously, WOW. Seahorses are very cool too, but this time, the Jellyfish won.

Oh, and we bought a bunch of things as souvenirs! :|

Ticket.

Yes, I got a ticket. A parking violation ticket, because we'd parked for over 2 hours in a 2-hour-parking-only zone. (Damn!) It's a fine of $35 and well... we need to pay it. Sigh. :( Definitely NEED to read every single board before doing anything! :D

The socks store.

Man, the store was trippy too! All kinds and colours and lengths and designs of socks! I bought me a pair of stockings. Sas bought colourful boxers too. I thought of Anishaa. :P

Pond stop.

There was a nice pond that we stopped at and took photos of sleeping geese. Peaceful. :)

Santa Cruz Beach.

In a tired, high-state (from the Jellies and I suppose lack of sleep as well) I drove Sas and me to Santa Cruz beach. We chilled out there, watching Pelicans and Seagulls and looking at all the rides at the sea-facing amusement park, and then we walked into this big arcade-type building. It was the epitome of the American high school kids' dating joint. They were all stunning, the kids, dressed really well and carrying themselves like the Indian 18-20 year olds of my generation but, well, 14-18 year olds in Anishaa's generation. :D Haha. I felt like I was in a movie. Sas and I looked around at all the video games and the fun things to buy there, but thankfully didn't pick up anything (considering we'd already bought lots at Monterey). It was fun.

Dinner.

We ate at a Mexican restaurant across the road from the beachfront, and then we headed back to the car, which we'd wasted an extra dollar in the parking meter on, just to avoid getting another ticket! :D

The drive.

I drove back along winding roads in the dark. Driving in the dark is usually something I'm not as happy about in India, but here, people stick to lanes, are well behaved, the roads are good and lit, and there's no unexpected things to anticipate. It can get a bit boring to drive though, it's very vegetable-ish. But I love driving anyway!! :) It was such a fun experience driving back! :)

I was drop dead tired by the time we got back though. Sas did a little work and I did all my laundry (there was tonnnnes) and so we ended up hanging out till around 1am. We realised that the next day was a Monday. Then we realised that the car needed to be returned before we went to work. The scramble to want to sleep then was kind of funny. So, Sas took all his stuff to his apartment, and I slept.

What an awesome weekend! :)