We all went to the Cannery Row this afternoon and it was lots of fun. When I was a kid it was nothing more than a bunch of old warehouses falling apart next to the ocean. Back then, I would climb around underneath the piers looking for starfish and real pirate treasures from the Steinbeck days. Now it is a tourist trap with mobs of people crawling all over the place, but the city still did a pretty nice job restoring the area to look a little like during the heyday of the fishing canneries. Our highlight was seeing the Monterey Bay Aquarium, pretty amazing to see. My favorite exhibition was the so-called "Floaters." These are invertebrate sea creatures who cannot propel themselves and are thus prone to the random ocean currents to take them everywhere all over the world. Beings whose soul purpose is merely to drift and hopefully get some place where they will survive in an unpredictable climate. Kind of reminded me alot of my existence, so to speak. When we left, I made the kids buy caramel apples because it was so American and they had to experience this (unhealthy) cuisine. But after two bites it made them all feel sick to their stomachs (Dutch kids have never had anything like that before), so I ended up eating all the leftovers. I have to admit that although it tasted great at first and I had to prove myself a worthy American father by consuming the three encapsulated fruit treats, I did feel slightly nauseous for the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow it's up north to the San Francisco Bay area. That should be alot of fun seeing the relatives again after all these years.