Adventures on the Central Coast

The Boy and I had a fantastic weekend in Monterey, California. There is so much to do there. Fabulous restaurants. Great historic sites. Nice shopping. Here are the highlights:

Breakfast at Grandma's Kitchen, homemade cranberry and pecan pancakes. Yummy.

Campus tour of California State University Monterey Bay. The Boy is considering going there. I'm all for it. It's a beautiful area and I can come visit. Mom-priorities for choosing a college.

My favorite part of the entire trip, dinner at Montrio. The first course was two small plates: lobster mac 'n cheese and crab croquettes, also fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The main course was Florida shrimp on a bed of micro pasta with oven dried tomatoes and arugula for The Boy and slow braised beef rib with garlic mashed potatoes for me. The meal wrapped up with white chocolate bread pudding with passion fruit ice cream.

We finished the evening with a Ghost Tour of Old Monterey. Very cool and creepy. Good ghost stories told by the tour guide. It was cold and blustery though. I guess that kind of adds to the suspense.

The next morning was a visit to the mission in Carmel. Beautiful, old, well-kept mission. Sunday services were going on so we didn't really get to visit the basilica. I guess that was bad timing on my part. Still it was gorgeous.

Next lunch and a movie. Lunch at Lalla Grill. I had a Cuban sandwich, sweet potato fries, and a pomegranet cosmo. Yummy. Then we saw, "The Lady in Black." Pretty good scary movie. It was definitely suspenseful. I liked that. The setting and costuming were gorgeous. It was worth it just for the cinematography. The ending was so-so. I feel tat way a lot about suspense movie endings. It's hard to find a satisfying ending after all the mystery, build-up, and suspense. Still well worth it. If you're not crazy about spending $20 on a movie, then rent it.

The next morning was time to pack up and head home. Ahhhh..... I love three-day weekends.