14th October 2009
A brighter morning today, and one of the first days recently where it has been warm enough to be out in just a t-shirt.
Since we couldn’t explore Monterey Bay yesterday when we arrived, we headed down to the wharf this morning to at least get a look at where we were staying. On the one side of the wharf a lovely long stretch of sand and on the other a marina packed with boats. It seems like a really nice town.
We strolled to the end of the wharf and were lucky enough to arrive at the fish factory at the end during feeding time. A man appeared on the wharf with a large white bucket, and the Pelican’s, Gulls, Cormorants and Sea Lions just appeared, as if by magic. Mayhem ensued while they fought over the scraps being thrown out.
We returned to the car and continued our journey down the coast, stopping at various view points to check for seals (we did find one precariously sunning himself on a rock). It’s a very sweet area, with lots of little shops and beautiful buildings and a path which runs 18 miles along the coastline providing superb coastal views.
We had heard about the Monarch butterfly while we were in Yosemite and were anxious to try and see them here in Pacific Grove where colonies of butterflies migrate to during the winter. Unfortunately we were a little early in the year and we saw just one lone butterfly (I don’t know how they would have coped with yesterday’s wind and rain in any case). We did however get chatting to an American couple from San Francisco and managed to clear up the mystery of the Blue Angels on the weekend. Apparently they were the second lot of planes we saw and they only flew briefly due to the fog that was hovering around the Golden Gate Bridge. So that’s why their show seemed so short, they didn’t even do the full display on Sunday because the weather still wasn’t perfect.
We followed Highway 1 down the coast, one of the great American classic drives and it’s easy to see why, land meets sea in some dramatic views and panoramas, every turn seems to greet you with another stunning view, with crashing surf below sheer cliffs with soaring moutains above.
Our next stop was Point Piedros Blancos where there is a colony of Elephant Seals. Unfortunately, by this point we were well and truly in the fog that had formed, but we parked up and managed to walk along a quiet path until we were above these ginormous creatures. They didn’t really do much except lie there like beached whales on the sand, but to be fair it wasn’t the best weather for playing in the surf!
The weather had turned really foggy by now so we headed onto our stop for the night at Pismo Beach. We found a superb Italian restaurant and enjoyed a lovely meal with one of our bottles of wine that we picked up on our wine tour of Sonoma Valley. Then on returning to our motel we took advantage of the (literally) steaming hot tub and pool. The first place where we have stayed to have a heated pool and hot tub, so it would have been rude not to try it :).