Well the sun rose we decided to make a run for Disneyland. So out from Gilroy to the coast, through Castroville with their fields of artichokes 
and on to Monterey. Monterey, we had heard, has world class aquarium. So we paid our 80 plus dollars with high hopes, but it was quite a disappointment. Although the layout was nice, the fish on display were less than impressive. Hailey had been looking forward to seeing whales and dolphins but she had to settle for otters and a singular seal. Reilly had wanted to see their collection of sharks but they only had three that were more than 3 feet long and none of those were over 6 feet. We're really looking forward to Sea World in San Diego now. Then we went through Mr. Eastwood's former reign of Carmel-By-The-Sea and on down the coast. Along the winding headland cliff-edged roads we drove into a pullout to take a picture of an old bridge. 
It was here that I saw a man with two ducks running around and a cage on top of his worn down 1983 Chrysler station wagon(which he obviously lived in) with two rabbits and a young turkey (chick?) in it. The kids came over to see the animals and he was very upbeat and friendly despite his current situation. He had collected some nice shells on the beaches far below and gave them to the kids when they gave him 5 bucks to buy his ducks a meal. Previous to meeting him we had been having quite the discussion on what we all wanted to get out of this trip, after our encounter the kids realized if this guy could be happy that some of their complaints were a bit petty. We headed further down the coast and saw first hand the results of the freshly extinguished brush fires.
We arrived in Big Sur as it started to get dark and the Delica was getting low on diesel, after asking around we found out there was no diesel there and none down the coastal highway so we had to turn back towards Carmel. It was dark as we came upon our new friend again, he was sitting on a rock overlooking the Pacific playing guitar for his pets the black rabbit on a rock the turkey in his jacket to stay warm. We thanked him for his lesson to the kids and gave him a few bucks more, he then placed the black rabbit on his head 
and proceeded to recite a tragic poem his father had written about life at sea. So we fueled up in Monterey and navigated through the dark backroads to Salinas and down the 101. I decided to pull an all nighter at the wheel while the others slept and after a few quick stops to nap we made it as far as Santa Barbara by morning. On the advice of a local passing by, we had breakfast out on the public pier. He told us to ignore what we saw on the menu and ask for the 2 dollar breakfast that they don't advertise. Pancakes, bacon and eggs. Not a bad deal. Then we made the final 100 mile drive to Anaheim which felt more like 200. It's 9pm now and I'm sitting poolside typing this as the kids have a final swim of the day.
and on to Monterey. Monterey, we had heard, has world class aquarium. So we paid our 80 plus dollars with high hopes, but it was quite a disappointment. Although the layout was nice, the fish on display were less than impressive. Hailey had been looking forward to seeing whales and dolphins but she had to settle for otters and a singular seal. Reilly had wanted to see their collection of sharks but they only had three that were more than 3 feet long and none of those were over 6 feet. We're really looking forward to Sea World in San Diego now. Then we went through Mr. Eastwood's former reign of Carmel-By-The-Sea and on down the coast. Along the winding headland cliff-edged roads we drove into a pullout to take a picture of an old bridge. It was here that I saw a man with two ducks running around and a cage on top of his worn down 1983 Chrysler station wagon(which he obviously lived in) with two rabbits and a young turkey (chick?) in it. The kids came over to see the animals and he was very upbeat and friendly despite his current situation. He had collected some nice shells on the beaches far below and gave them to the kids when they gave him 5 bucks to buy his ducks a meal. Previous to meeting him we had been having quite the discussion on what we all wanted to get out of this trip, after our encounter the kids realized if this guy could be happy that some of their complaints were a bit petty. We headed further down the coast and saw first hand the results of the freshly extinguished brush fires. We arrived in Big Sur as it started to get dark and the Delica was getting low on diesel, after asking around we found out there was no diesel there and none down the coastal highway so we had to turn back towards Carmel. It was dark as we came upon our new friend again, he was sitting on a rock overlooking the Pacific playing guitar for his pets the black rabbit on a rock the turkey in his jacket to stay warm. We thanked him for his lesson to the kids and gave him a few bucks more, he then placed the black rabbit on his head and proceeded to recite a tragic poem his father had written about life at sea. So we fueled up in Monterey and navigated through the dark backroads to Salinas and down the 101. I decided to pull an all nighter at the wheel while the others slept and after a few quick stops to nap we made it as far as Santa Barbara by morning. On the advice of a local passing by, we had breakfast out on the public pier. He told us to ignore what we saw on the menu and ask for the 2 dollar breakfast that they don't advertise. Pancakes, bacon and eggs. Not a bad deal. Then we made the final 100 mile drive to Anaheim which felt more like 200. It's 9pm now and I'm sitting poolside typing this as the kids have a final swim of the day.
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