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I thought it would be a nice break after tax season (which seemed to drag on FOREVER this year) to take the twins to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Naturally we would spend the night because no one wanted to drive 8 hours round trip in one day. I spent days looking at hotels and special deals. Originally I checked the Clement. Tadd said to call versus just looking online because they usually give better deals. Not so with that place, online a room was $170 and when I called I was told rooms started at $300. I explained the room was cheaper on Orbitz and after a pause the man says “I could give you a special locked in rate of $170″. Where is this special room, in the basement next to the laundry facility? In the end I chose a hotel that was to be family friendly and had really good reviews on tripadvisor.com. When we saw both places we wished we had went with our first choice. Oh well.

We left after breakfast on Sunday. The drive wasn’t bad but the twins refused to nap in the car even though they looked exhausted. Derby kept telling me he wanted “nigh night”. The good news was the hotel said we could have an early check in. I thought they could nap for a bit, go to the aquarium then dinner. Once at the hotel the ground floor with king bed & courtyard seating I originally booked became a 2nd floor with 2 double beds and a window seat. After explaining that we needed an area to hide out when the twins would inevitably be crying it out for the night they switched our room. Now we were on the third floor with a 4′ wide balcony. I was over switching rooms and by then the twins were raring to go.

A word to the wise, try to avoid the Monterey Bay Aquarium on a weekend afternoon. It was PACKED! To no ones surprise they wanted out of the stroller and were running in opposite directions. I packed the child leashes but forgot to bring them. No one was impressed with the HUGE outer bay viewing window or the amazing seahorses. They wanted to play on the escalator or touch the elevator buttons. Derby just wanted to run through the legs of fellow visitors with his mother in hot pursuit. There were a few picture perfect moments. I should say we deleted a couple of hundred shots that were NOT picture perfect.

Somehow the turtles held their attention….for mere seconds

I realize Derby has a gift as a turtle whisperer

Seahorse

Sea Dragon

Sharks trying to get my daughter

After we stopped at a pizza place to feed the twins we went to Dennis the Menace park. Tadd and I took the faux bros Matt, Andrew & John to this park back in 2004. I was excited to see how the twins would like it. When we walked up I was amazed because the whole park had been remodeled. There was so much to see and play on. The twins were excited and I had a thought of I could never do this park alone. The twins favorite was the slides. They definitely were worn out by the time we left.

Fooling around at dinner.

That night we bathed the twins and got them ready for bed. Tadd went to pick up some dinner while I hid out by the closet so the twins wouldn’t see me as they were screaming about going to bed. Loen conked out first then finally Derby was silent, of course that is when Tadd opened the door with dinner and the screaming started all over again. We grabbed our jackets and dinner then went to the teeny tiny balcony to eat/wait. The food smelled SO good, I was ready to eat. Tadd pulled out one container of chicken kabobs then the container of beef. The restaurant switched to the new eco friendly cardboard containers, turns out they get limp when holding hot steamy food. Limp container decided to break open all over the balcony. Tadd was ready to pack up and drive home. After a few moments to calm down and clean up the food that was all over (not to mention drink a much needed beer) he called the restaurant again. They were kind enough to make him a whole new order free of charge. Tadd went to pick it up which woke Derby up as he tried to sneak out the door. Woke Derby up again when he returned. We sat out in the cold eating the most delicious kabob and chutney I have ever had while listening to the wails of my son. You know the guests in the next room hated us.

The twins favorite part of the hotel was the luggage cart. Tadd said maybe we should buy one for home.

The next morning we were ready to start anew. We got to the aquarium right when it opened (I also brought a leash for Derby which helped). We raced ahead of the field trips and crammed in as much fishy goodness as the twins could handle.

This is where Derby, who was attached to my wrist, had to go on a little ride as that dumb shark appeared out of nowhere and the mommy screamed and left the general vicinity. We were much happier playing in the sharkless toddler land.

When asked what they wanted to do the answer was “PARK”. we ate lunch first then back to Dennis the Menace park. They had so much fun and ran up the hill to the roller slide more times than I can count.

They napped for 2 hours on the ride home. When Derby walked through the front door he sighed “home”. I know how you feel buddy.

All in all when asked of our trip I hear “More park, more slide!” I’m so glad we drove 4 hours for a park. No really we had a good time