Today we made a day trip to Santa Cruz to meet up with some great friends for lunch. What a difference 40 miles makes! Monterey has been overcast and pretty chilly, but Santa Cruz was beautiful - sunny and warm. We enjoyed lunch at Aldo's on the Santa Cruz Harbor; it was quite the picturesque setting, basking in the sun and watching the boats launch into the water. Great food...great friends...great weather. :)
After lunch, we had the opportunity to take a private tour of Aldo's Bakery, and Alexa (and Damon) was in heaven. It was pretty amazing to see the industrial equipment and the manual labor that goes into the process of making the varieties of bread. Alexa's favorites were definitely the hot dog and hamburger buns awaiting to go in the oven. My personal favorite was the pastry tasting we had in the bakery's retail space - it was like we were back at the Italian delis in New Jersey.
This has been such a wonderful vacation; I don't think any of us are looking forward to our flight home tomorrow. It will be a harsh reintroduction to reality when we land in Phoenix and return back to 100-degree temperatures. We will be happy to see Alstott though!
Damon and I have already decided that we need to make trips to Monterey more often; both of us love this city. It will be tough to leave tomorrow afternoon!
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| Enjoying a close-up view of the bread "proofing." Who needs Disneyland when you can get a personal bakery tour? |
Sounds like you have had an ideal vacation. Safe flight back home. Love, Joanne
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