Pacific Coast

Road Trip Days Nineteen And Twenty

Two very relaxing days. Just 90 odd miles down the beautiful Pacific Coast Highway through Santa Cruz and on towards Monterey stopping at Moss Landing. A winding road which affords spectacular views over the ocean and lots of little beaches to stop and relax.

We broke the journey once for a picnic break. GC had great fun beachcombing and getting us all wet by challenging us to "chase the waves" - a fun game she invented to see who could get as close to the incoming water without actually getting wet. We played this over the course of the day at various times. None of us stayed dry but only GC actually fell over!

Can't catch me!

Mummy save me!

Daddy I've got wet knickers!

Time for some posing

Found an RV park at Moss Landing - a nice little arty seaside place which also is a good place to join whale watching boat trips. We booked for the next day and then treated ourselves to another dinner out. Well why not when you have a renowned fish eatery - Phil's Fish Market - on your very doorstep? We all enjoyed the food and wifey was really glad to get a some great Clam Chowder in a Sourdough bun. The live blue-grass band were pretty darn good too!

Yummy!

Next day was still and calm as we joined the whale watching boat - Sanctuary. Along with us, as passengers, there were five Spanish tourists, a pair of pro looking photographers - one from Norway and one local, and a television crew from Channel 5 (UK). They were getting footage for a documentary called 'Whale Adventure' due for screening around Christmas 2012 looking at the migration of Grey Whales from Baja to Alaska. It sounds interesting.

Mike the captain and Dorris the guide explained the drill and dished out sea sickness stuff to those who wanted it. We were going to get a sea band for GC but none would fit her. The Spaniards got one each but no one else bothered. We set off into Monterey Bay. The wind was expected to increase later and Captain Mike wanted to make as much distance as he could before conditions got too rough.

Straight out for an hour to the mouth of the bay didn't provide any sightings. GC was really enjoying riding on the bow riding the waves though. Unfortunately, at some point she came aft to the rear of the cabin to shelter from the wind and then some sea sickness caught her. She spent the rest of the trip looking miserable and cuddling Mummy.

Lenses at the ready!

We spent about three hours in total looking around the bay and didn't spot any whales. The wind had got up and there was lots of swell and white caps. The guys with big lenses thought they spotted one and started shouting excitingly. I couldn't see any sign of whales and could only spy some big patches of floating sea weed. The captain also thought the same and nothing came their excitement. The length of their lenses had been making me feel slightly inadequate but now I felt somewhat better.

Once back into the harbour GC perked up on the flatter surface and we all got a close up with the various Pelicans, Sea Lions and Sea Otters resident in the area. As we hadn't seen any Whales though we were entitled to a free repeat trip on another day. We wondered if we should try again the next day but decided we didn't want to risk another disappointing, nausea inducing trip for GC. One of the guys from the TV crew had told me about some Condors which roosted just near the highway about an hour south on our intended route. We had a plan for tomorrow!