9/27/14: Cannery Row (Birthday Trip Part Eight)

Our day did not end after exploring the aquarium. Around 5:30, we left and explored Cannery Row.

I really enjoyed the buildings here. 

I was expecting some defunct cannery buildings but most of what we've seen looked new. It was very touristy but I enjoyed the sights nonetheless.

We weren't very hungry but we felt that we could grab some snack. We ended up in a the Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop. 

I'm down to try the crazier ones but I know I couldn't finish it so I had to compromise and pick one that Q and I could share. This is one of their "lighter" selections, a Mango Sorbet with hot fudge. 

Yup, it was pretty big.

I like eating out even though I can't eat a lot. (I'm not on a diet or anything. It's just that my stomach can handle only so much food and forcing myself to eat more makes me sick.) One of my favorite things about dining out though is how Q and I just get to sit there and talk. I like talking (and if making videos didn't take a lot more effort, you'll probably be in my channel instead of reading these walls of texts). When we're at home, we watch something while we eat which is perfectly fine too but I really enjoy just talking to Q as well. It's like a first date all over again. Just talking, getting to know each other... looking at some nice view...

After that, we explored all the shopping areas in Cannery Row. To my delight, most of them are candy stores! However, I've never seen a candy store so packed that I was as overwhelmed as Q was.

Good thing, I admitted to myself that I still a truckload of candy at home to finish and spending $50-100 more on just candy is not a very smart idea.

There's this other candy store there IT'SUGAR that carried brandname candies and some SNL humor ones. They had fun merchandise and a great selection but it's a little bit too commercialized for me.

Couple of years ago, I remember getting excited when I see gummy candies this big but now that I've actually mellowed down on my consumption of sweets, I didn't even know what to feel. 

I was trying to include myself in the picture to emphasize the scale of these boxes but it's really hard to selfie with a huge phone. They're much bigger than the usual size.

I hope this photo shows what I meant a little bit clearer.

More candy stores.

More taffies.

More Pop Rocks.

And more oversized things. That or maybe I'm just really small. 

At this point, I've realized that I looked sugar high. Q recognized that, despite my enthusiasm, I was getting tired. So he gently pulled me away and we walked out the building to go find a nice place to sit down and have dinner.

9/26/14: Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey (Birthday Trip Part Three)

We arrived at the pier around 6PM but the view was still pretty nice. I grew up in a city in the Philippines so open spaces and nature was a rarity and I'd say, a luxury. That's why views like these just send my heart aflutter.

You know what else sent my heart aflutter? Candy stores. 

There are a couple of gift stores there and we did enter some but we didn't really find anything worth buying or mentioning. However, that's just us so if you get to visit Fisherman's Wharf Monterey, do check them out!

Anyways, back to candy stores. 

Normally, I would get bags and bags of chocolate and taffy but I actually held myself back that night. I still had a $30 bag of taffy at home and I'm really doing my best to stay away from sugar in general. (I might have a set of sweet teeth but my father's side also have a history of diabetes so I should really be careful. Haha.)

Aside from their bags and bags of taffy, they also had this taffy machine at the window front. 

I didn't want to shell out $50-100 on chocolate on that day so I kept my choices very minimal. I bought a cranberry dark chocolate bark, lemon cream chocolate and a chocolate square with cherry in it. 

But the most extravagant thing I got from that store was their Rocky Road Caramel Apple. 

Apparently, while waiting for me, Q was hoping that I don't get a crazy one. (He's really concerned about my sugar consumption.) He said he was already looking at the caramel apples thinking how they fit his description of crazy. When he saw me look at them, he was like "Oh god no" and when I asked for the rocky road one, which was the craziest according to him, he lost all hope that maybe I wouldn't die of diabetes. Haha.

The next stop was another candy store just a couple shops away. 

I think I only bought a chocolate cluster and some chocolate-covered gummy bears from this store.

They have a lot of wonderful candies there too though.  If I wasn't thinking so much about my health and my budget, I'm pretty sure I would've tried every single thing in there.

Another thing that amused me but did not buy was this jawbreaker. I've seen them before but it always overwhelm me. I grew up watching some Nickelodeon cartoons through cable TV in the Philippines and I learned what a jawbreaker was through Ed, Edd and Eddy. It was a cartoon though so I thought they were just exaggerating the size of it but the stories are true! They are huge!

Q said I was literally a kid in a candy store. And I agree! Candy stores are definitely my happy place~

(Man, I looked tired. Maybe I did need all that sugar after all.)