Pining for the Fjords

As I mentioned in Part 3 of this post series, the day after the Big Sur Marathon, Chris and I headed just a bit north of Monterey to the Elkhorn Slough, and we had a great time staring at adorable wildlife.  After we disembarked from our pontoon boat, we walked the short distance to our chosen lunch spot (picked via earlier research but also recommended by our guide), Phil's Fish Market and eatery.  On the way, we grabbed some shots of the unique offerings in the Moss Landing area: Well, did you? One of the dangers of working near the docks. Attempting artsy photos of seafood traps Finally, we made it to Phil's! Our roasted artichoke starter - they are serious about artichokes around here. Our meal was great - I had the fish and chips, which were 100 times better than Chris' the day before, and Chris enjoyed a fried fish sandwich.  The portions were huge - we easily could have shared a meal, and everything was tast...

Although downtown Monterey had been packed for the past few days due to the race , when we woke up on Monday morning, it was kind of a ghost town.  We saw a few other runners straggling down the road with their suitcases into cabs and such, but overall, it was back to the city's normal weekday standard.  We were still on vacation, though, so it was off to Loulou's Griddle in the Middle, a great little spot on the pier we visited on our last trip to this area several years ago. This is LouLou's - isn't it cute? This is also not my picture. This, however, is - I got French toast with chocolate chips  and strawberries (I didn't use that giant chunk of butter), while Chris ordered eggs and crab cakes. After reloading our carb meters at Loulou's, we headed back to the hotel (via the French bakery where Chris stopped the previous morning to grab snacks for the road), packed up our gear, and wandered down the street to the parking garage to h...