I had agreed to join the gang to go to the aquarium at Monterey on President’s Day, so I was going to take the boys rain or shine.  Initially Stuart had said he might not go in case of work, but in view of the storm, Stuart decided to come so he could drive us.  I was totally thankful and happy with the decision.  It was raining quite hard on the drive down but we made it there in good time.  We and the Merons arrived at the same time while the other 3 families took a lot longer.  So for awhile, it was just Logan, Connor, Bar and Raz hanging together; they looked at fish, sharks and otters.  They enjoyed the tide pools; they touched a few little creatures, but none of them dared to touch the stingrays.  They also really liked the pretended sushi restaurant; they were ordering different fish on the screen.  By the time all of our friends arrived, the aquarium was getting more crowded and it was definitely time for lunch.  Shortly, we left to a restaurant at a nearby hotel and we finally all got situated at a big table.  The sun actually came out after we had a nice lunch, so the kids migrated out to the deck to play.  Opi was nice enough to play tags with the kids which allowed the rest of the adults hung out in the warm indoor and chat.  When we left the restaurant, most of us did not feel like returning to the aquarium.  The four of us wanted to walk around the strip a bit and to see the beach, so we said goodbye to everyone. 

   We did not stay long as we would like to head home before the storm returned.  Unfortunately there was an accident on 156, so we took a detour suggested by Google map.  The route was quite scenic, but we hit a couple of flooded areas.  Logan was asking about “hydroplane” earlier in the day; during the drive, the boys definitely experienced a real life hydroplane.  Later the road we were driving on got closed down, and we had to take yet another detour.  When we finally got to 101, Stuart and I felt more relieved.  After another hour of driving, we finally made it home.  This was definitely an interesting day; it was fun, crazy and a bit stressful all packed in one.