Hi friends + family. How did you spend your 4th of July weekend? My family and I? Well I’m sure you heard of the little city of Monterey.
Monterey for the weekend?
Thursday night before 4th of July weekend dd and I were putting Riley to sleep. For whatever reason I mentioned that we still had Monterey Bay aquarium tickets. Tickets that we had planned to use durning spring break but didn’t get the chance to use. I told him I was thinking maybe we could take the kids for fall break. To which he looked at me and replied “let’s go this weekend”. “This weekend?” I said. Now if you guys know me by now you know I am definitely not a get up and go person. There’s not one spontaneous bone in my body and I need at least a good week to plan even the smallest trip. But I was intrigued so I agreed. Monterey for the weekend it was. I had 24 hours to get everything together and when the day rolled around we packed the truck and left.
Sanctuary Beach Resort x The Carrs.
Between stopping to change poppy diapers, kids fighting over iPad chargers and 6 chapters of One Italian Summer later we arrived. Sanctuary Beach Resort located in Marina CA. Rewind.. I wasn’t left with much time to find us a place to stay and I scrolled through so many hotels online. It wasn’t until I came across this resort I fell in love. From the first photo I knew this was were we had to stay. The resort was a little pricey but let me tell you it was a million percent worth the price.
When we got there the front desk staff was extremely wonderful. A1 customer service and a beautiful lobby. Dd parked and from the parking lot we were shuttled to our room with our bags. The hotel was so generous they upgraded us to an large ocean view room. They even had complementary goodies for us! The first thing I noticed about our room was the cozy fireplace. It was conveniently electric, easy for the kiddos to use. The next thing I noticed the giant king bed. So white, soft and cozy. But the best thing of all? The views! The ocean was literally fright in-front of our room. Not to far and not to close. You could hear the waves singing. You could almost smell the sand and you could feel the breeze. Seriously felt like something out of a Nicholas Sparks movie.
We explored the sandy beach, played on the hotels playground (where Riley went down her first slide) and though the hotel did have room service and their own restaurant on location we decided to do DoorDash. Can you say picky kids? We had dinner and laughs then turned in for the night.
Hi again Monterey!
If you guys don’t remember when visited the city last year (read it here). We were very excited to get back and I already had our whole day planned out. I definitely planned this all the night before we left. Everyone woke up showered and got ready for the day and we headed to breakfast. A mom and pop shop by the name of Daddy’s City Diner in Marina CA. The food was good and reasonably priced. Even Riley enjoyed some avocado.
Next we headed to Monterey for the day. Dennis The Menace Park which was closed durning our last trip due to covid. We didn’t stay long because it was freezing. But our big kids enjoyed themselves.
Monterey Bay Aquarium was next on our stop. After trying to find parking for 20 years we finally did and entered the aquarium. My kids and even dd absolutely loved this place. Me? I was a little dissatisfied. Everyone I ever spoke to and every article I ever read totally hyped this place up. But the hype undoubtedly didn’t live up to what I thought it would. There weren’t very many big fish and it was extremely crowded. Though it was 4th Of July weekend. So I guess I can’t really complain about that. Overall I found the aquarium a little boring. But again my family loved it so it was worth it.
After exploring Cannery Row and grabbing lunch at Melville Tavern (who have the best blackened chicken pasta btw) we headed back to the resort for the day. Dd and the girls went swimming, while me and the baby stayed behind for some R&R. We did visit the pool to say hello, but it was short lived due to the fact that it was freezing. The night was ended with dd and Aria making s’mores on the beach and us other 3 continuing the R&R. It was a wonderful day with my family.
4th of time to go home.
4th Of July rolled around and it was time to go. I have no idea why didn’t decide to stay into the holiday especially since we had zero plans. But by the time we discussed the idea at the end of the trip we couldn’t make it work. That was okay because we still had the best time the best hotel, and the best memories.
I’m so glad my family and I got to take this trip and looking forward to many more trips back to the city to come. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.
