May 6-7, 2006
Monterey and Chinatown
Saturday afternoon, we headed down to Monterey to see their wonderful aquarium. Here, Natalie got her first close-up look at jellyfish, sharks, sea turtles, penguins, and many different types of fish. Henry and I were more enthralled with the jellyfish than she was - I guess looking at graceful, floating, tenacled, mushrooms clouds isn't her idea of fun. She prefered the tanks with the fast moving tuna, sardines, and hammerheads. Her mouth was almost constantly in the shape of an "O" as she pointed and squealed at the movement in the tanks. She kept asking me if she could touch them, and I had to remind her the fish were behind the glass, out of our reach. (At my mom's, she is allowed to stick her hand in the fish tank to pet the goldfish.)
Other than watching the fish, Natalie found great enjoyment in experiencing what it would be like to be inside a wave and playing on the children's playground equipment near the penguin exhibit. Up and down the slide she went, while mommy and daddy sat down for a rest.
I thought the most exciting thing about the aquarium was the exhibit where you could see both the top of the water (about waist-high) and the life underneath. When you looked on the top, you saw ducks swimming and grooming, and if you knelt, you could see fish, sting-rays, and the bottom of the ducks. What I found most interesting, was seeing how ducks' legs move when they swim.
Sunday afternoon, we slipped into San Francisco to tour the Chinatown district. San Fran's Chinatown is huge. I've heard it is the largest in the States and there are people who work and live there and do not leave on a daily basis. It's a little country within the city. We made two pit stops while there worth noting.
The first, is the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company. If you have every wondered how fortune cookies are made, you can see it happen at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company. Located in Ross Alley, you step through a little door into a room that is narrow and long. There are two ovens and two women sit by them waiting for the hot disks to come out. As the disks come into view, they grab them off the hot bricks, stick a fortune in them, and quickly fold them over a metal wand. Imperfect ones, or ones that cool too fast, are thrown to the side and sold as is. Pictures are allowed, but they cost 50 cents each. I took several that you can view in the picture gallery under May 2006.
The second place to note is Golden Gate Bakery. If you are in the mood for homemade tasting tarts and cakes, this is the place to be. It's hard for me to enjoy store-bought baked goods, but this place tastes like home. Famous all over the region, the line typically stretches out the door and down the street. Several people in line were regular customers (offering advice to us tourists about what to try) including a man who travels once a month from San Jose just to go to this bakery. We tried a huge cream puff (very good), and egg custard tart (good if you like egg custard), and a vanilla creme puff pastry (very good). All three hit the spot and tasted fresh, airy, and delicious.
We also saw many cultural sites including a few temples, numerous herbal medicine shops, and all the bazaar shops lining the streets. We thought we knew what Chinatown would be like, since D.C. has one of its own, but we were pleasantly surprised by the novelty of it all.