The road less traveled ... Our first stop today was the famed Monterey Aquarium. It's an excellent museum, with a lot of informative, lovely exhibits and plenty of ocean life to snap photos of. My favorite was an area dedicated to endangered sea horses. Neat. The jellies exhibit, pictured above, was another cool, relaxing diversion.

After the museum, we walked around Cannery Row. Monterey was once a big fishing industry town, but now it's been given over to stuff like souvenir shops, candy emporia, overpriced sportswear, and (gag) a Thomas Kinkaide gallery. It's been retooled into a consumerist fantasy of what a quaint seaport village might look like. There is a little bit of fascinating history on display: we loved the row of houses once belonging to cannery workers of different nationalities. About this time we came across the amazing Squirrel Beach, yes a beach that was swarming with hungry squirrels! One by one they would crawl up to us, looking for handouts. Unfortunately since we didn't have any food, they left us empty-cheeked.