Wish they all could be California....

California Mondays are way better than normal Mondays.

We woke up and headed into town for some shopping and exploring. Second stop was Ross. Loved it (First stop was lox and cream cheese bagels, when on a coast you gotta enjoy)! At Ross, Matt bought a shirt or two and so did I. Next stop was Marshalls, Matt was in and out of the dressing room more than I was. In fact, I didn’t step into the dressing room at all! He bought a couple pairs of shorts and I bought a microwaveable bacon tray. From there we went to Sports Authority and looked at the yoga stuff, the camping stuff, and of course, the golf stuff! Matt was disappointed they didn’t have any hockey things! Ha!

For lunch we stopped at one of the first sushi restaurants that Matt had ever eaten at. Iki Ricky’s…or something like that. I ordered a roll and then we split a plate of fish pieces. We tried crab, salmon, fish, octopus, squid, and on and on. I also liked the tempura and the tea. It was probably fun to see the look of shock when they set the whole plate down in front of us, because it was huge!

All shopped out, and on a budget, we headed to fisherman’s wharf. What a cute little tourist’s spot. There were a few shops and we looked at them a bit. We had a caricature done, which I was actually pleasantly surprised with and then looked around a bit. My favorite was the otter that was hanging out under the docks. He would swin down and grab or mussel or something come back up and knock it on the bottom of the bottom to open it. After it was open, he’d swim on back and enjoy the “fruits of his labor”. How smart! Before leaving we did stop at the salt water taffy store, Matt bought some chocolate covered cherries and I had chocolate covered strawberries. Mmmmm.

We finished the day off at Cannery Row. We took a stroll along the length of the walk, stopping in shops and even having a wine tasting. We both picked out a favorite there, his red, mine apricot. We had a 6:30 dinner reservation at the Chart House(recommendation of Sara and Jason’s). It was a beautiful fancy restaurant right on the water. We officially celebrated our engagement and they even prepped the menu for us with our names on it! We started off with an appetizer of mussels in a tomato wine reduction. Matt enjoyed the salad bar which he shared a few bites with me. For main course, I had the mixed seafood grill (crab cake, salmon, shrimp) and he had the NY strip with a side of grilled shrimp. We each had a cocktail and finished off the meal with a giant slice of key lime pie. We left fat and happy. What a great meal and it was perfect to have a stroll back Cannery Row before heading home.

We finished the night off with Jason, Sara, and little Jason. To top it off, Jason made good on his promise to get us a cake topper. We placed a bid on Ebay and ordered “First Dance” to arrive before October 10th. I like how the man handles responsibility!

Best meal: mmmm, I can still taste that salmon from the Chart House.

ALM: “Do you know that when otters sleep they hold their mates hand, so that they don’t get separated?
MJR: “Yes, I know that, Dear.”
ALM: “You’re my otter, because it doesn’t matter where we float, as long as I have you, I’m good.”
MJR: “Yes, Dear.”