Day 144
Today is our 6 year wedding anniversary so Ron planned us a little weekend getaway to Santa Cruz and Monterey.
We left around 8am once Simon woke up from his nap and arrived in Santa Cruz in time to get breakfast at Santa Cruz Diner. We had seen it featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on Food Network and they offer typical diner food with some Asian influences. Their pho is supposed to be really good but I was in the mood for breakfast. Next time we’ll try the pho…
I ordered the pandan waffle. A little crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, all it needed was a touch of butter and didn’t even need the maple syrup. Yum!
Ron had a patty melt with garlic fries. The garlic fries were very fragrant and delicious.
After our breakfast, we headed over to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to walk around with Simon. We found a Santa Cruz Diner for his size in the kids section of the Boardwalk.
A few days ago, we purchased a new baby carrier by ErgoBaby on the recommendation from our two different friends, both named Jen. It has much more cushion than the Baby Bjorn but I thought I’d test it out during this weekend excursion. He seems to like it a lot better than the car seat, at least he can look around and not be so restricted.
On our last trip to Santa Cruz in January, Simon was still growing in my belly and I took a photo by this bench. It’s fun to be able to bring Simon here and I hope we can bring him again when he’s old enough to ride on the rides.
Or play on the beach. Looking cool here in his sunglasses.
Ron decided to play one of the carnival games to win Simon a plush from Despicable Me. It was the game where you have to knock down three of the dummies using three balls (for $2). Ron spent $20 to win it. He missed on the first throw, on the second throw he hit two, and on the last throw he hit one! Simon was sleeping at the time and when we both yelled, it woke him up so he wasn’t all too happy in this photo. Since the plush isn’t really plush (it is filled with those foam pellets), I plan to open it up to either fill it with soft filling or else make a Halloween costume for Simon… what do you think I should do?
After Ron used up all that energy winning the toy for Simon, we went for a snack. Deep fried oreos and a twinkie.
Inside of the oreo. The batter was sweet and kind of chewy. The oreo itself was a bit weird since it was soft but still yummy.
The twinkie insides were all melted and sort of gross. We both hadn’t had a twinkie in a while so it tasted kind of weird to us.
After the Boardwalk, we drove to our hotel in Watsonville. We let Simon stretch out since he was either in the car seat or in the baby carrier all day. This onesie is from Auntie Tina, perfect for the Santa Cruz attitude: hang loose dude! (although I guess you can’t see it that well…)
Simon’s new toy, he’s taller than it!
After Simon and I both had a nap, we headed out to Monterey for dinner. Even though he had a 90 minute nap, he still fell asleep in the car. I took this picture since he fell asleep holding onto one of his toys. He didn’t let go even after we took him out of the car. He only released when we accidentally woke him up.
Ron made a reservation at Sardine Factory in Monterey for dinner. We had eaten here before we were married and had a delicious meal and great service. Ron really remembers them having great creme brulee since there is actual vanilla beans in the creme. Unfortunately we didn’t save enough room to have the creme brulee this time around.
Our bread basket included bread sticks and various rolls, including Parmesan and Sourdough. Served with olives, creamy butter, and (we think) red bell pepper/tomato paste.
For appetizers we got one of their trios, this is calamari balls, shrimp, and an artichoke ring. Delicious sauces and the shrimp had a nice clean bite to it.
They are famous for their abalone bisque but I wasn’t in love with it this time around. The abalone bits were a bit distracting and it had a strong salty bacon flavor. But our waiter did give us a complimentary cup for Ron.
I had their seafood pasta with white fish, mussels, clams, and shrimp. It was a bit hard to eat only because Simon was a bit fussy so I was holding him with one arm. I liked that it wasn’t a huge portion of pasta but more fish to fill you up.
Ron had the steak and lobster. The first plate he got had a long hair in the lobster so the waiter took it away and came back with a new plate in 10 minutes. We’re not sure if they just reheated it again and waited a few minutes to bring it back out or else remade the entire dish… but the steak was very tender, not very juicy but melt in your mouth.
We got a complimentary dessert of their chocolate ganache but we couldn’t finish the whole thing. We were already too stuffed. The meal itself was pretty good but the service was a bit lacking. When we were seated, our waiter did not even come to our table and we did not receive any menus. The server actually came to give us water and the menus and we had to ask him to retrieve our waiter. When the waiter did come, he did not even tell us his name. He was wearing a name tag but it was on the small side. Then throughout the meal, he was usually no where to be found and we had to ask our server to figure out where he was. The waiter was all smiles every time he came to our table but it seemed fake. It was just a weird vibe. We ended tipping our server separately since he was the one who helped us the most.
After we returned to the hotel, we got Simon ready for sleep but had a little playtime with him in the mirror. He actually tried to touch the mirror, perhaps trying to touch the other person he saw in the mirror. Then he got distracted by the frames of the mirror doors.
We let Simon sleep on the sofa bed but at first he didn’t want to sleep. The place probably smelled strange to him. Eventually though he was able to fall asleep with his pillow and wrapped in his blanket. We blocked him from rolling off the bed with the sofa cushions.
Happy Anniversary to my honey 🙂 It was a wonderful day, thank you.