Our Trip To Marina

April 29,2007

Marina is a small town by the pacific coast highway (PCH) in the Monterey Bay, about 10 miles from Monterey. The decision of spending the weekend at Marina, instead of original plan of staying at Monterey turned out to be great one. Almost all hotels in Monterey were full indicating that there would be large crowd in that city this weekend and the beaches would be crowded. Marina has a unique beach in that there are sand dunes right at the ocean front. The town itself is quite serene and picturesque. We booked a resort at the edge of the beach almost walking distance from it by the sand dunes.
We started from Sunnyvale at around 3:00 P.M and reached Marina by 4:30. It was simply amazing ... there were clouds moving on the city roads. The entire hotel seemed as though it were immersed in clouds. It was a bit cold, but the weather forecast promised things to clear up the next day.

We did walk down to the Marina state beach that evening, but the visibilty was poor and the sea was a bit wild. There were some pretty huge waves crashing on the beach and a warning sign indicated that it would not be safe to tread in the water. By the time we walked back to the hotel, we were hungry and decided to look for a place to eat. Dishes bistro located on reservation road turned out to be a very good choice. The pizza here was absolutely delicious; perhaps the best I had eaten since the one in Roma, Italy. Isn't that inviting!!!

The next day as predicted by the forecast, the sun broke out by 10 in the morning, but it wasn't exactly your definition of a sunny day - it was a bit on the chilly side. Nevertheless, this did not stop the enthusiastic surfers here who were riding the oversized waves. Unable to resist the temptation we decided to revisit Dishes Bistro for the Pizza there, but alas it was not open. Craving a Pizza nevertheless we found a place called Mountain Mike Pizza and had our lunch there. The waitress here was quite energetic and got some broccoli for us from the market especially for us!! Upon seeing that the sun was still being shy, we decided to drive a bit south in hope of sunnier beaches. Indeed, as soon as we reach Sand City - yet another idyllic town 5 miles south of Marina, all the clouds dissapeared and it was a gorgeous day.

I got into the water - it has always been impossible for me to resist the temptation. The water was definitely on the cold side but that had never hindered me. What was hard though was to fool aparna into getting into the water. There she is complaining that So I succeeded - well by literally pulling her in!! I got her pants wet and that I had to buy her a new one that afternoon. Well soon she began to enjoy the water. There she is having fun.
After spending some time in the water, and drenched below thighs we decided to dry ourselves in the sun on our beach chairs.

People where flying some very interesting kites here, shaped in ships, dragons and many other shapes. Aparna even helped some kites to get aloft.


There were hundereds of seagulls on the beach and it was a spectacular sight to watch them fly in groups. Aparna ran through them to make them fly so we could get a few pictures of all of them flying at the same time.
We got some pretty good shots.

There was a lot of kelp lying around that had washed away on to the ocean. The kelp usually has air filled bulbs that act as buoys to keep it aflot on the surface of th water. They can be good ear-rings ... there aparna trying some on.

After some walking around the beach, we sat back on our beach chairs to enjoying the beautiful picture in front of us. Thats me with the world at my feet. There were quite a few sail boats afloat in the ocean adding to the picture that god had painted.

It was a great day and we had a great time. In the evening we drove back to Sunnyvale looking at the photos we had taken and the amazing time at Marina and San City.