Cannery Row

Fiance and I decided to finish off spring break with our own little mini vacation.

Partially to celebrate our engagement in style, and to celebrate his decent sized tax return we decided to hit one of our favorite places, Monterey. It's roughly halfway between Sacramento and LA along the central coast. We stopped there last year over spring break for lunch but this time we decided to stay the night and check out the aquarium. We found a darling little Bed and Breakfast, called Centrella Inn.

It was about a mile and a half south of the aquarium and had great prices including an aquarium package. We arrived early and planned to pick up the tickets and check in later but the hostess was so helpful. She showed us the room (standard small hotel type room) and then offered to upgrade us (for $50) to one of their little cottages. She showed us the cottage and Fiance was sold (possibly on the TV? hehe). It was so cute, around the back through a lovely garden:

It was very spacious, with a living room, sitting area, wetbar, bedroom and bathroom with clawfoot tub and the place was filled with antiques.

It had a private entrance from the street, where the ocean was only a couple blocks away!

There is a walking/biking path that goes right along the coastline into Cannery Row. If you walk straight down the street above you hit the beginning of the path. At the end of this street was a little Cafe/Grill above a small beach. We stopped here for lunch and watched many albatross, scuba divers and swimmers come through. After hot dogs and BLTs we headed up the 1.5 mile path, and it was beautiful:

It was surprisingly warm for Monterey, in the 70s with not a cloud in the sky and it never got foggy. We hit the aquarium next:

Those otters were so fun! the two of them were fighting like crazy over that red ball thing. Fiance loved the penguins best. It was insanely crowded though, since we were there on Saturday. Too many strollers!

We walked around cannery row a bit and then headed back to Centrella for afternoon complimentary wine and hors d'oeurves! They offered local red or white with cheeses and crackers, olives, fruit, veggies and dip. Yum! Then we went back to the room to hang out for little, before getting dressed up to go to dinner. We are creatures of habit and had to go to our favorite, Bubba Gump's. It's designed after Bubba Gump Shrimp from Forrest Gump. They have tons of fresh seafood, tropical beverages and plenty of forrest gump trivia. So fun.  Fiance got his standard All-American Burger and I got the Pear & Berry Salad with chicken, pecans and feta. I've been to the Monterey, Santa Monica and Maui ones, it's that good! We walked around a bit after, though it started to get cold so we went back and relaxed on the couch watching TV and shows on our laptop with the free wireless.

Complimentary Breakfast in the morning, and not just continental. They had cereals, pastries and fruit on a buffet and then you could choose from a menu one hot item each. I went for the Belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream and Fiance got the scrambled eggs and country potatoes. So delicious! They also had tea, coffee, OJ and AMAZING infused ice water. They put cucumber slices, lemon and mint leaves in the water dispenser. So wonderfully refreshing, I can't wait to try that this summer.

It was a very relaxing, quaint and delicious mini vacation! Monterey is definitely one of my favorite little escapes.