By 9 the next morning we were at Point Lobos State Park, four miles south of town (pt-lobos.parks.state.ca.us). One of only two remaining natural groves of Monterey cypress can be found here.

We strolled through breeze and sunshine, across the meadows, through the pines and out to the cliffs. We sniffed the wild lilac and saltwater. We watched the sea lions swimming in the emerald green water and sunning on the rocks.

Then we came back to Carmel to a shop called Jan de Luz (on Dolores between Ocean and 7th) to pick up an apron we were having monogrammed. It was not ready, so we stepped next door for scones at the Tuck Box English Tearoom. The Tuck Box is built in a fairy tale Tudor style and is so cute that we expected to see Beatrix Potter bunnies dining next to us.

By noon we were headed back to Monterey to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (886 Cannery Row. Admission is $25 for adults; $16 for 3- to 12-year-olds. 831-648-4888. To avoid long waits during July or August it's better to buy and print out tickets online at www.montereybayaquarium.org).

The aquarium is built on the site of what was the area's largest cannery, and it has outdoor and indoor exhibits, including a beautiful kelp forest. As always, when we visit an aquarium, we were suckers for the touch pool.

But also we adored the frolicking sea otters. The display at Monterey Bay lets you get close. We learned each otter's name. (A new exhibit of river otters has opened since we were there.)

Have you ever seen leaping blennies? You can get mesmerized watching these wormy little Samoan natives, as they pop from the water onto a rock, then slither back into the tide pool.

We were there on a weekday in spring, and there were no lines and just enough school groups to make the place feel lively. We spent an hour and half and could have stayed twice that long.

Our sidetrack here was a conversation with docents who were educating visitors about what seafood to eat and what to avoid (www.seafoodwatch.org). They talked about how tuna is caught, what type of entrapment is best to reward with our purchases. (There was no mention of mercury or how many times a week the FDA recommends feeding tuna to children — i.e. albacore not more than once a week, and canned light not more than twice a week.)

Then it was time to return to San Francisco. If we'd had two or three more hours we'd have gone to the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas. As it was, we did have time for a quick stop at a produce stand. We ate berries as we drove north.

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E-mail: susan@desnews.com