It's a little late for this...

But Happy New Year! Better late than never, is what I say. I hope all of you had a fabulous time welcoming in the new year. We sure did. It was perfect, very quiet night at home with my husband, our pups and some champagne!

What we did on December 30th and 31st was the real excitement for me. As part of my Christmas gift, Matthew had got me an overnight stay in Monterey (at a dog friendly hotel, so the boys could join us) and an Elkhorn Slough Safari.

We drove down the Carmel on the 30th (Dominos first road trip), walked around the village and took the dogs to the beach. Growing up along the Central Coast and living in the Bay Area for all these years and I had never really been to Carmel! Oh what a beautiful place. We want to go back there and stay at Doris Days' Cypress Inn (they also allow dogs). The dogs had a great time at Carmel Beach, Domino had never seen the ocean before. He wasn't that impressed, but he was really into all the other dogs playing at the beach.

Then off to Monterey. We checked into our motel and decided to go the touristy route and have dinner at the Old Fisherman's Wharf. It actually turned out to be a great meal. The next morning we drove up to Moss Landing for our Elkhorn Slough Safari. I couldn't recommend this enough. If you love sea otters, sea lions, harbor seals and ocean birds, this is a fun way to see them. Next time I want to try kayaking in the Elkhorn Slough. Here are some pictures of just a few of the many animals we saw on our safari.