I know, I know. It’s been a lonnnnnng time since we have done a California Trip theme night thingamabob, but as I have mentioned in some of my more recent posts, the whole work-life balance thing has been less life and more work lately. If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure my kids forget what I look like.
They be like…
To make it up to all of you, we are not only doing a California-themed movie night to lead up to our epic trip, but the movie for tonight is an actual, real-life Disney movie. Well, not real-life but Disney. Well, Pixar. But still, Disney.
So you got that going for you. Which is pretty hunky-Dory.
Hunky- DORY.
Foreshadowing.
And man, do we not have a ton of time to get the rest of these nights done.
I know we are planning on doing a few more posts combining California days into one so that should help but still, by my calculations, we have 5 or 6 more theme nights to get done in close to 50 days. I may have to quit my job.
The night
Yeah, so since we were basing tonight around our day in Monterey, it seemed only right we should do Finding Dory. It’s not always a Disney movie matches up with one of our road trip destinations. So when it does, we sort of have to seize the day. Ya know?
No. You don’t know? No one else does these things? Whatever. Don’t judge me.
We kind of limited our decorating for the night to the dining room table. You saw the shot up above there, but look, here’s more of the table.
Everyone loves tables. You know what I like more than a table? A table joke. Here we go:
Q: What kind of table can you eat?
A: A vegetable.
It’s funny because nobody likes vegetables.
Anyways.
Typically when we have done any sea-based Disney movies, we have gone super morbid and eaten some sort of seafood. But tonight, we went in a different direction. Which made us feel like good people.
We made octopus dogs and shells and cheese!
I love this meal. Basically, we started with some Annie’s shells and cheese.
And we made some octopus dogs. Which are like, regular hot dogs but you cut legs into them and boil them. Seriously. That’s the entire recipe.
OK, fine. I also added two little mustard eyes. Well, actually. First, my octopus dog got a mustard shower due to me not shaking the bottle enough. Ew, I know. But then I rectified it and gave my little buddy here some eyes. Then I ate him. The end.
For dessert, we had Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream.
Which is one of my favorite Ben & Jerry flavors, despite it being named after one of the most infuriating “bands” of all-time. I would honestly have expected an ice cream named after Phish to have hints of not showering and patchouli. But instead, this thing has chocolate, marshmallow, caramel, and little chocolate fish. It’s pretty delicious. Especially in a waffle cone bowl.
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The movie
OK, so we picked Finding Dory because we thought the movie took place large part in Monterey. On account of the aquarium. But turns out? It actually takes place in Morro Bay, which is another stop we have planned a little later on in the trip. Whoops.
But I mean, close enough. It seems like its sort of modeled after the Monterey Aquarium. So there you go.
Also? We aren’t going to the Monterey Aquarium until the next post. Ugh, whatever. Just be happy you got a blog post.
I already did a pretty lengthy review of Finding Dory when it was released in theaters here and pretty much everything still holds true. It’s a great movie still. And I cried. Still.
The characters are great, story is great, and it’s a beautiful looking film. Still.
So for this post, I wanted to see what (if anything) new popped out to me. And one thing did. I talked in my original post a lot about how Dory to me symbolized the need to stop and just sort of “be.” Live in the moment. Which is kind of all Dory can do since she can’t remember five minutes ago.
But one quote hit me differently on this viewing…
Yeah, “the best things happen by chance.” I love that. Which is probably surprising because I have done many posts about all the planning we do when it comes to our vacations. Heck, this post is probably going to lay out our plans for Monterey in pretty good detail.
But I do think this quote still applies. We plan so much for our vacations so that once we are away, we don’t have to worry about those details. We can just relax and welcome in those chance moments. When we come back from a vacation, for sure we talk about the meals we had (that we booked months in advance) or the hotels we stayed at (that we booked a year in advance), but it’s always those unplanned moments that stick with us well after we have returned from our trips. So yeah, thanks Dory. I agree.
#CaliFriendsYeah2019 –Day 6 – In which we drive from Yosemite to Monterey, CA
Day 6 begins with us waking up in Yosemite, which in and of itself will be incredible I am sure. Because mountains. Also, if I don’t see a deer on said morning, I am going to be asking for a full refund. Money-back guaran-deer and what not.
There is a slight chance we may and also potentially wake up early for a morning hike. If we hadn’t done it the day before, we might try and get out and do the Mist Trail hike to Vernal Falls. I have a strong feeling we will end up doing this hike on Day 5 so who knows. But I don’t get strong feelings about hikes often. So.
Breakfast on Day 6 will be at the Coffee Corner in Half Dome Village. Place has Peet’s Coffee and I guess there is some sort of cold coffee drink called Javania that visitors rave about. Well, really just one visitor on Yelp. But reviews are hard to come by so that’s still a high percentage.
Then it will be time to hit the road. Jack.
Because we have what Google says is a 3.5 hour drive and everything else we read says is a 5 hour drive to Monterey. So who the heck knows? Google? Anonymous strangers? Wait, don’t do that though. Don’t Google “anonymous strangers.” That is def a recipe for disaster.
Lunch will be on the way and you can bet I have already Googled “In-N-Out Burgers between Yosemite and Monterey.” After the whole “anonymous strangers” thing. Of course.
Once we are in Monterey, the first order of business will probably be to check into our hotel – The Portola Hotel & Spa. Looks like a very nice hotel and it seems super duper convenient in terms of its proximity to Fisherman’s Wharf. Plus, they give you chocolate chip cookies upon arrival. Which makes for a…
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Sweet
…
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Arrival.
But you know what I say? Portola schmortola. Because the rull exciting thing happening is FALZONES!!11 Yep, our friends the Falzones (Tony, Larissa and the always adorable Mia) will be meeting up with us at this point. Those of you that have been reading the blog have been introduced to the Falzones on numerous Disney trips and on our trip to Turks and Caicos last year. We obviously like drinkin…er, travelling…travelling with them. Hiccup.
And the plan at this point? Relax for a little bit. The spreadsheet has us simply swimming and relaxing at the hotel pool and hot tub.
We do love our pool time. And I mean, I am sure this will involve some sort of cocktail. Or cocktails. Plural.
We are also hoping to do the 17 mile drive on Day 6. For those that don’t know, the 17 mile drive is a beautiful drive that takes you through a bunch of beautiful spots – cliffs, trees, ocean lookouts, and of course, Pebble Beach. And we are hoping to time it so we are out there at sunset to catch the bagpiper closing the Links at Spanish Bay.
Dinner in Monterey is somewhat up in the air. As of right now, my plan is to hit Fisherman’s Wharf to sample clam chowder at the various eateries. Most of the restaurants on the wharf give out samples of chowder outside their restaurants. So maybe we can do some sort of chowder crawl down the wharf. Which is sort of the awesomest.
But for dinner, I think we may end up eating at Peter B’s Brewpub as it is located in our hotel and looks really good and brewpubish. And they have this maple bourbon steak sandwich. Which sounds like all kinds of amazepantz.
And man, the outdoor patio. KInda looks perfection.
After dinner, who knows? We may end up back at the pool or hot tub before calling it a night. I mean, probably. We won’t be in a huge rush to get to bed since we aren’t getting up too early the next day. But…Day 7 is packed with a ton of amazing so might be good to get some rest.
WeHeartDisney 