Mom Taxi Julie: Weekend In Monterey

Saturday after my long run we finally took off for Monterey and the Sea Otter Classic!

Scott had bought this bike rack for the car. It holds 3 bikes. He's got his mountain bike and our two road bikes on there. Looks scary to me but they stayed put for the whole ride!

We drove over to Monterey and then to our hotel. I keep trying different areas and hotels every time we go to the Monterey area. I keep hoping some day we'll find a great one.

This time we stayed in Marina, which was closer to Laguna Seca where the bike event was going on. I picked the Howard Johnson Marina at Monterey Bay.

The first thing I noticed when we drove up? Um it's a gas station too. Weirdest thing ever. BUT totally not a problem because it's kind of sectioned off. I went into the lobby and the owner woman was the nicest lady ever. Seriously have never met such a nice person at a hotel/motel. They have been remodeling and she was all excited and chatty about everything.

The room itself was pretty big for a motel and super quiet even though we were on the bottom floor next to the stairs. I think I only heard people talking a couple times and other than that it was so quiet. Nice! The bedspread was kind of old but she said they were ordering new ones (I know, not nice for us but it will be nice for the next person). I'd definitely stay here again, although I'm still in search of a little bit nicer place.

Jess came to meet us right after we got there and then we went to pick up Scott's race packet. I'm so so glad we did that. The drive in and parking there were crazy. There were SO. MANY.PEOPLE. And the walk to where he needed to pick it up was crazy long.

After we got that done we went and had dinner. We decided to go to Caruso's again (my suggestion) for some good carb loading Italian food. Not that I needed to carb load but I was hungry!

For starters we got some clam chowder. Jess and I shared a bowl instead of buying two since it was only $1 more for the bowl.

Aren't we cute?

Scott got a "cup". They have really good bread too. So yummy.

We all got the chicken parm. Jess and I shared one order.

This is HALF an order.

Yum yum so good. I'm glad we shared it was just the right amount. We ended up calling it a night pretty early since we had and were going to have such a busy day.

Sunday Scott was up bright and early SURPRISE and all nervous for his race. Jess came over again and we went and hit the free breakfast in the hotel lobby. ALL carbs. No protein. I decided to just suck it up and eat a bagel and a banana. I can't tell you the last time I had had a bagel before that.

Then we jumped in the car and went to the race track. The line to get in was CRAZY. So many people. I was starting to worry we wouldn't have enough time for Scott to get to where he needed to be. After we finally got parked I told him to go ahead and we'd catch up to him.

He got there with enough time to line up and about ten minutes to spare. We got there just in time!

We saw him until he got to the starting line.

and then sat and waited until we saw him come in! It was a long hard ride and I'm so proud of him for finishing. I probably would have been in the fetal position singing lullabys to myself.

I got a wee bit burnt while we were sitting there.

DUH maybe we should have brought sun screen.

After the race Scott was super tired and we ended up standing next to this tent. We didn't realize what it was at first but they were giving out free chiro adjustments. I was like dude, go for it! Apparently his neck and back were pretty messed up. They told him he should follow up with a local chiro for more work. I on the other hand got cracked a few times and was good.

After that we just walked through a vendor area and then made the long trek back to the car. And ROUND TABLE. I had a HUGE plate of salad and some pizza. I hardly ate anything all day other than that bagel for breakfast so I was starving.

When we were done we went to the beach to relax. This time we went to the Sand City beach. We all laid on a blanket and just relaxed.

Well Jess went down to the water for a bit.

It was so nice to just lay there and relax and hear the waves breaking on the shore. We were going to wait for sunset but we left about an hour before. We went back to the hotel and watched American Pie. Well most of it until I crashed out. I think we have that movie and I've still never watched the whole thing. Funny but gross.

Sunday morning we got up and hit the free breakfast again. Yep, more bagels! Then we loaded up our stuff in the car and checked out. But we didn't leave. We went on a bike ride.

A REALLY BIG bike ride. We stared out going on the bike trail we went on before and then wound our way over to the 17 mile drive. And we rode most of it and then back to the hotel. Which was pretty much a tour of the whole Monterey area.

The ride we did last time was just down to Cannery Row and back and we were so beat. (how hot is my husband here whooweee)

We've been riding A LOT more since last November, plus now we both have road bikes which make a HUGE difference in the ride.

We made it over to 17 mile drive no problem!

We rode around a bit and then I was hungry. Like STARVING. We stopped at the Pebble Beach Market (disregard that picture in the link that's not from there, it's like a deli/wine store) and I ran inside and said GIVE ME FOOD! Actually I told Scott they have sandwiches and I'm getting one! I didn't care that they were $10 each. We each got a sandwich and shared some coleslaw. I would have took a picture but um yeah I inhaled it. After that we rode until we got to the gate and then realized DUH it's not the same gate!

We looked at a map and I kind of zoned out while Scott figured out how to get the hell out of there without us riding straight up in a mountain to God. I was flipping TIRED! He got it figured out I thought and then we started riding and it didn't seem anything like I thought we were going to do. We were still going up a mountain. Then just when I was about to sit on the side of the road and cry it started going downhill. FAST!!

I like downhill.

Downhill is awesome.

And then there it was, the gate we came in at. We got out and traced our way back (stopping for a Starbucks break along the way) and then eventually made it back to the hotel.