Monterey: Definitely NOT the Cannery Row of Steinbeck's Day! & A Baby Update 102306

So, this past weekend, Claron and I traveled to Monterey to visit his dad, who is attending a chemistry conference there. We left Saturday morning after a lovely breakfast at Taco Bell. Do you know that the Bell opens at 9 a.m.? I was surprised. Well, we got on the road. Claron and I had never driven further north than Goleta, so it was all new to us (Note: we have both flown further north in CA though). We drove through the wine country and up into the mountains. At San Luis Obispo, we decided to veer off of the 101 and continue on Pacific Coast Highway.

The drive along the PCH was amazing. It was quite interesting to see the beachscape change as we traveled north. There were less palm trees and more rocks. Claron and I stopped to see Hearst Castle in San Simeon. I knew that it was up on the side of the mountain, but do you know that you can't even really see it unless you pay $20/person for one of the tours!? The California State Park system is definitely running a racket. As Claron and I didn't have an extra three hours, we decided to forego the tour and took some pictures from the highway. I must give the castle credit though. It looks amazing even from afar.


At the castle, we saw ads for all of the state parks along the coast. One that caught my interest was just a few miles up the road. It was a viewing station for elephant seals! I'd seen these funny looking seals on the Discovery channel, and I just had to see them! So, I again forced my poor husband to stop. As we got out of the car, we were greeted by an interesting looking little squirrel… well, not so little. You could definitely tell that he hadn't missed many meals. He had the shiniest coat of any squirrel that I'd ever seen though. He walked right up to my feet and looked at me like, "Lady, I can tell you don't miss many meals. Give me some food!" I took a picture of him and will put it on the blog site. The vistas at the seal site were amazing. Off to the right there was a lighthouse and to the left there was a beach of the elephant seals. From my Discovery channel days, I knew that these were the females. There was a male out in the water. He was splashing around and making crazy noises. It sounded almost like someone was blowing bubbles. We took some pictures and got back on the PCH. As we left, we saw an old lady actually pet one of those fat squirrels. She was brave!! She must not be from Mountain View.





Shortly after the seal beach, the PCH narrowed to a single lane each way and we began climbing. This was definitely the road for me to have my beloved Lotus! The Blazer did this road no justice. Basically, it was switchback after switchback with not too many guard rails. Scary! To add to the fun, while I knew we were next to the ocean, all you could see is clouds over the edge of the cliff as far as you could see.

We entered the Los Padres National Forest. It was lovely. There were some redwoods. None of them were bigger than the car though. Claron says we need to go north of San Fran to see those. We went through the Big Sur and Carmel and finally entered Monterey. The drive was amazingly beautiful though.


Claron and I drove around Pacific Grove. It was lovely. It is quite reminiscent of the East in some way. Maybe it is all of the little Victorian houses.
We heard from Claron's dad. So, we drove out to Asilomar to meet up with him. It is quite a lovely conference center. Like most things in Monterey, it is on the water. Dad, Claron and I drove down to Cannery Row and had dinner at one of the fish places right on the water. It was really nice and not too expensive. Cannery Row has definitely changed since Steinbeck's time though. None of the canneries are actually working anymore from what I can tell. They have been replaced by posh boutiques and restaurants.

As dad had a conference after dinner, we drove him back and set off in search of our Hyatt. Claron and I found it finally after wandering Monterey for awhile. It was right by the Naval Postgraduate school. From the outside, I was a bit concerned. It didn't look like a normal Hyatt. It looked more like a motel honestly. We checked in and were informed that we were upgraded to a suite… a motel suite!? We found our room and went in. Magically, the inside looked just like a normal Hyatt and our room was huge!! Not too bad for a free room! (I used hotel points.)

The next morning, Claron and I went back off to Cannery Row area as dad had conference and we found this awesome little crepe place run by Algerians. Mmmm… crepes!! They were amazing and believe it or not, cheap!!

After crepes, we headed off to the aquarium. Yes, it was $20/person to get in, but I think it was completely worth it. In the outer bay exhibit, we got to watch the tuna feed. What amazing animals!! Tuna look like swimming drums. They are huge and fast! We also saw the great white shark. Believe it or not, he doesn't look that menacing. He is only a baby though. Next to the sunfish, he actually looked kind of small. Also, there is no flash photography allowed as it scares him. So the pictures are always dark. Claron and I went around the rest of the aquarium. I really liked the penguin exhibit. They were really funny. Claron liked the eels and the sardines.
Finally, we headed back off to pick up dad from conference. We decided to go to Palo Alto visit dad's uncle Carl and aunt Helen. It was quite a drive as there was an accident on the 101 and we had to reroute. We arrived in Palo Alto and talked for awhile. We ate dinner and turned around and came back to Monterey. Claron and I immediately got on the road to SB. We decided the 101 would probably be a better alternative. We didn't get home until 12 a.m. last night, but it was a great trip.



Quick Baby Update: Sorry I don't send more out about the baby, but there's not too much to tell. She's getting BIG! She likes to kick me in the ribs. All is well. There isn't really anything to report.
Monterey List

Favorite things about this trip:
-Elephant Seals
-Sun Fish
-Penguins
-Eels
-Mmm… crepes!
-Cheap food and gas ($2.29!!!)
-Free Suites

Not so favorite things about this trip:
-The long drive home
-No guard rails
-$20 just to see the castle!!


Hope all is well.
Love,
Amanda