Mini-moon

About two months before Huelan was born, Liz and I took a leisurely drive down Highway 1, stopping at a few B&B's and seeing the sights.  A Baby-Moon.

This time, we don't really have that luxury.  We don't really even have a ton of weekends left before the little one is due, and even fewer free ones, so we decided semi-spontaneously to make a short roadie down to the Monterey Peninsula for some sun and fun.  Still down the coast, just a quicker round trip.

But first, we weren't going to miss the Greek Festival at the Oakland Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension, just down the hill from us.  I was kind of hoping for Zeus and stuff, but they're some sort of Christians, in case you were wondering.

It was billed by our friends as one of the best food festivals around, and it did not disappoint.  In addition to the Gyros (average), we sampled some tasty pork skewers and their version of donut holes (tossed in honey- fresh, slightly crispy, warm, and gooey).  The grounds were very nice and I am kicking myself for not going into the chapel itself, which was ornate and topped with a classic dome of well-patina-ed copper.  

The best parts were the music and dancing.  Huelan had no reservations about jumping in with the other young girls and circling hand-in-hand.  None of them really knew the steps, so she fit right in.

My favorite (non-edible) part was the teens dancing - they had a pretty elaborate routine that finished with some very cool solos.  It was like a Greek Step Up, which I have a weakness for.  You could just tell that the teens looked forward to the dance performance all year, probably for years even, as an adolescent rite of passage where the boys and girls check out each others' moves and do their best to put on a show for one another.  The smells, flavors and sounds- probably not very different than 200 years ago. I thought that was a fantastic way to build and maintain a community bond many years and miles away from its origin.

Saturday morning we packed up the car for Santa Cruz.  The Boardwalk probably also largely unchanged from a few decades ago.  Only now with waaay more terrible tattoos.  I mean really bad ones in really bad places.  But we were there to get some sun, some thrills, and some empty calories, all of which we accomplished.  

Then we drove a little further down to Monterey so that we could wake up on Sunday and visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  In contrast the to Boardwalk, I saw almost no terrible tattoos here.  And they do a wonderful job of making the entire place very interactive for youngsters.  Huelan got to get up close with tons of different critters and hands-on with a bunch as well.  I thought the highlight was feeding time in the Deep Ocean exhibit- 300lb blue fin tuna booking it around a 1.3 million gallon tank- but Huelan's favorite seemed to be touching kelp. Go figure.  

Actually, what might rival that for Huelan's favorite was the hotel.  The room was nice but unremarkable except for one thing- an orange chaise lounger that Huelan saw and immediately said was a bed "Just my size."  So we threw a sheet over it, tucked her in, and got a bed to ourselves unexpectedly.  Mini-Moon indeed.

More pics here