When your brain wants a holiday nothing could stop it from guiding your body to the nearest.
At last it works so with me. This weekend I had only one day free. And it stressed me all the week. How could you decide what do you want to do on your only day off? Especially in the middle of December when festivities don’t help you to concentrate on the work?!
It was a decision from the dozen of places. And now, I’m happy we did this choice.
Okay, I should say that I googled a bit what to expect from Christmas Monterey, found that there were boat parade, tree lightnings, and other fun things. But all in the beginning of the month. So I had no plan. And so we improvised.
We arrived in Monterey after the lunch and almost two hours before the sunset. With a few places I wanted to see and almost no decent memories of the town we parked near Municipal Beach.
The first my thought was where are all the tourists? The parking was empty, and gulls owned the beach. We walked across the beach to the wharf, spent some time there and moved to the Old Fisherman’s Wharf.


And it was a place where the mood caught me. The rows of Christmas decorated the shops and restaurants stopped me eyes and made me want to visit each and every place.
The whale watching tours were over already. But that doesn’t stop us from finding the mighty sea life around the pier. The sea lions peacefully slept on the decks, gulls were busy with only their business.
But what was the surprise when on the way back from the wharf I saw the sea otter in the water. She made sure that I see her and did few shots of her, and then rushed under the wave.

We completed the loop on the wharf and walked further to the Canary Row on Monterey Bay trail.
Steinbeck plaza met us with another Christmas tree and decorated sculptures surrounded with blooming flowers. Here we finally met the crowds (note for myself, always know what is the most popular among tourist place in the town before the visit)
Sun started to set. It was clear we will not be in time in the place where I wanted to shot the sunset. And so we walked back to the car.
When you walk between the Old Wharf and Municipal Pier 2 make sure to check the water in the marina.
The jellyfish was a surprise for me. I never expected the marine life so close to the shore and so away from the open water.

For the sunset I wanted to stop at Lovers Point. The rocky coastline of the park looked so amazing on the photos! The shore here looks the opposite way from the sunset (as I learnt later). But the hazy skies reflected the light and changed the color to the dark pink.
The waves that day were so huge I worried they will get me or the camera. The water mist made me to clean the lens almost after every shot. But still it was such a fun!