Sarah, Laura, and I went to Monterey in the beginning of August. One of my best friend's from college has a brother working at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He gave us a grand tour, behind the scenes and all. We saw the room where they raise seahorses, went behind the jellyfish display. Saw the kelp forest from the top. Saw a sea otter in rehabilitation that won't go into the wild (otherwise we would've had to wear strange clothing).
I still had quite the limp from my bike accident, but we walked to some of the beaches near Big Sur State Park. Don't ever let the campground attendants pick a site for you. What they give you is a site next to lights, not in the actually redwoods, and that is infested with squirrels which may or may not carry the plague. One ballsy squirrel so much as had the gumption to pull my tent stuff sack away from next to where I was setting up my tent. I didn't see it happen, but saw the orange back hanging half out from under a log at our tent site. So I stole it back.
