Monterey - Day 4

Sad panda.  This is the last day of our trip :(

In all honesty, this was probably the perfect amount of time for a trip.  We were probably on the verge of overstaying our welcome at Carrie and Burke's and Ben and I were definitley ready to get back home to Wyatt.  (Who had changed so much in the time we were away!)  

Ben and Burke had an early tee time so they got up and went out golfing.  While they did that, the rest of our crew went to this massage place called Happy Feet.  Its not what it sounds like.  (Doesn't that sound like its an Asian Massage place?  Well, actually it was.  But not that kind) (At least I don't think so)  Anyway.  The place was a far cry from Pebble Beach or Bernardus, but for the price it was a really great massage!

After our massages and golf, we all headed back to the casa to get showered and dressed for the day.  The guys hadn't had a chance to see the seals or Cannery Row so we decided to walk down there to have lunch and do a couple more wine tastings that afternoon.

Of course I made everyone stop on the way to take pictures.

Forced Ben to pose for this cheesy picture. 

Then we went to lunch at a place on the water called Schooner's.  It was a gorgeous day, and we were able to sit outside.  I could seriously get used to lunching like this every day.  Here is Ben with his mojito! 

You need to see a closeup of that mojito.  It was sooooo good.  If I were into day drinking, I would have ordered one for myself.

And, this thing?  Was ridic.  It was called a Mint Chocolate Chip Mud Pie -- not really sure that I would have called it a mud pie, but regardless it was killa.

Ben and I walked around taking more pictures after lunch while everyone else got annoyed waited for us.  

We had avoided Cannery Row on our way to lunch mainly because we were hungry and didn't want a bunch of tourists to slow us down in getting there so we did walk back down through Cannery Row to a couple of wine tasting rooms.

We had big dreams of stopping in at Ghiradelli and/or the frozen yogurt place but after our huge lunch and desserts, we just couldn't do it.  We did stop to take a picture with this poor guy dressed up as an ice cream (?)

So, the thing in Monterey is not to go to actual wineries -- instead you go to tasting rooms.  In the case of the first one we went to on Sunday, Taste of Monterey, they actually just bring in a selection of wines from various wineries all over Monterey.  That way you're not really as limited to one bottler.  We had pretty much ruined our palates with the dessert, so none of us were over the moon about anything we tasted there.

Next stop: Scheid.  We all ate a bunch of crackers once we got there and I guess it cleared up our palates, because we all liked several of the wines we tried there.

These are wines that you can't really find outside of Monterey, so we ended up buying a few bottles to bring back home.

Also, the pours at Sheid are pretty generous.  That resulted in a few of these pictures ...

Paging team donkey ....

I don't have photographic evidence of this, but it also resulted in Becky asking tens of random strangers to give her a high five.  (And most everyone did ...)

We came back home to get dressed for dinner.  It had been like 5 hours since our last meal so it was time to eat again!  (Is it obvious that we ate well?)

Before dinner though, we stopped off at Pebble Beach to buy some things in the Pro Shop

Of course I had my camera and insisted that we get a group picture.

Then off to dinner at a fabulous Italian place in Carmel.  I can't remember the name but it was sooooo good.  Legit too, they made all their own mozzarella, prosciutto, pasta, etc. 

We had very early flights the next morning, so that pretty much wraps up the trip.  Thanks again to Carrie and Burke for hosting us.

And thanks again to my parents for keeping the little dood ...