Monterey Peninsula
Jon was busy this weekend, working on his maths, so I went on a little trip with my friend Cassie, down to the Monterey Peninsula. This is home to a special ecosystem, that results in rich marine life, plus several species of plant unique to the area, including the Monterey cypress and Monterey pine. It’s situated about 125 miles, or just over two hours from San Francisco.
We headed over there on Saturday, and began with a visit to the Monterey Aquarium, which is pretty special and is dedicated almost exclusively to documenting the marine life within the local area. We watched transfixed as sea otters rolled and dived, bright jelly fish drifted gracefully, huge tuna and weird sunfish swam around their huge tank and an octopus fixed his suckers to the glass. We were able to touch rays and starfish, then wander out onto the deck and look over the real home to all these wonderful creatures, as the aquarium is sited right by the ocean. After a stroll around the touristy area of Cannery Row, and the consumption of a huge toffee apple, we headed off on a drive along the coast of the peninsula. Part of this took in the 17-mile Drive, a scenic but rather pricey toll road. It certainly offered some lovely views of the rugged coastline, including sights of the Lone Cypress, a 250-year-old Monterey cypress clinging to a narrow rocky outcrop, inspiration to many an artist and even poet, I believe. Several swanky homes and the famous Pebble Beach golf course are also sited along the drive.
That evening, we found downtown Monterey, a very pleasant main street with several tasteful cafés, restaurants and shops, and ate at an elegant but not especially expensive Martini bar/eatery. Many of the buildings are in Spanish style, even more so than around San Francisco.
Today we awoke to a rather murky, fog-shrouded morning. The motel’s offering of coffee and a nasty processed “pastry” was certainly not enough to tempt us to take on the day, so we drove back to the downtown area and had breakfast at a very popular café there (thanks, Lonely Planet guidebook!). We certainly felt safe, with several members of the Monterey police on the next table, complete with their guns and other assorted weaponry! It was a great place – I had a very tasty omelette, but made the mistake of ordering “grits” on the side. I confess that I didn’t really know what these were, but knew that it was some kind of American speciality. Don’t recommend them – basically semolina slop.
We drove down to Point Lobos, a short distance further down the coast. This is a small State park, with a remarkably varied, rocky coastline, and home to a huge amount of wildlife. We walked around a good chunk of the area and spotted turkey vultures, cormorants, little red-headed sandpipers (not sure if that’s the proper name), harbour seals, sealions, lots of gorgeous flowers and even sea otters! It was beautiful, even though the sky was dull. When we were looking around the little museum at Whalers’ Cove, a ranger told us that the vultures were probably waiting for baby seals to perish, which wasn’t so nice. The seals are birthing at the moment, and sadly, some don’t make it. Finally, by the end of the walk, we were just starting to warm up – the Monterey Peninsula suffers even worse than San Francisco from brisk ocean breezes and fog from the Pacific. It was just as chilly at Carmel, the town where Clint Eastwood was mayor for a while, where we stopped to take a look at the lovely white sand beach. Afterwards, we pottered around the downtown, with its many posh jewellery shops and art galleries, making friends with a pack of seven (seven!) husky dogs in the back of a big SUV. On our way back home, we cruised past the Carmel Mission, one of the oldest and loveliest mission churches in California.
We headed over there on Saturday, and began with a visit to the Monterey Aquarium, which is pretty special and is dedicated almost exclusively to documenting the marine life within the local area. We watched transfixed as sea otters rolled and dived, bright jelly fish drifted gracefully, huge tuna and weird sunfish swam around their huge tank and an octopus fixed his suckers to the glass. We were able to touch rays and starfish, then wander out onto the deck and look over the real home to all these wonderful creatures, as the aquarium is sited right by the ocean. After a stroll around the touristy area of Cannery Row, and the consumption of a huge toffee apple, we headed off on a drive along the coast of the peninsula. Part of this took in the 17-mile Drive, a scenic but rather pricey toll road. It certainly offered some lovely views of the rugged coastline, including sights of the Lone Cypress, a 250-year-old Monterey cypress clinging to a narrow rocky outcrop, inspiration to many an artist and even poet, I believe. Several swanky homes and the famous Pebble Beach golf course are also sited along the drive.
That evening, we found downtown Monterey, a very pleasant main street with several tasteful cafés, restaurants and shops, and ate at an elegant but not especially expensive Martini bar/eatery. Many of the buildings are in Spanish style, even more so than around San Francisco.
Today we awoke to a rather murky, fog-shrouded morning. The motel’s offering of coffee and a nasty processed “pastry” was certainly not enough to tempt us to take on the day, so we drove back to the downtown area and had breakfast at a very popular café there (thanks, Lonely Planet guidebook!). We certainly felt safe, with several members of the Monterey police on the next table, complete with their guns and other assorted weaponry! It was a great place – I had a very tasty omelette, but made the mistake of ordering “grits” on the side. I confess that I didn’t really know what these were, but knew that it was some kind of American speciality. Don’t recommend them – basically semolina slop.
We drove down to Point Lobos, a short distance further down the coast. This is a small State park, with a remarkably varied, rocky coastline, and home to a huge amount of wildlife. We walked around a good chunk of the area and spotted turkey vultures, cormorants, little red-headed sandpipers (not sure if that’s the proper name), harbour seals, sealions, lots of gorgeous flowers and even sea otters! It was beautiful, even though the sky was dull. When we were looking around the little museum at Whalers’ Cove, a ranger told us that the vultures were probably waiting for baby seals to perish, which wasn’t so nice. The seals are birthing at the moment, and sadly, some don’t make it. Finally, by the end of the walk, we were just starting to warm up – the Monterey Peninsula suffers even worse than San Francisco from brisk ocean breezes and fog from the Pacific. It was just as chilly at Carmel, the town where Clint Eastwood was mayor for a while, where we stopped to take a look at the lovely white sand beach. Afterwards, we pottered around the downtown, with its many posh jewellery shops and art galleries, making friends with a pack of seven (seven!) husky dogs in the back of a big SUV. On our way back home, we cruised past the Carmel Mission, one of the oldest and loveliest mission churches in California.
Photos available (password: moocow):
http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/trip-to-the-montere/
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