June 2024 – Page 2 – Judy and Valerie On the Road

Monterey

In Monterey we stayed at the Monterey County Fair RV site. The site had water, electricity and ‘sewer dump’ on the pitch and then toilets and a shower. When the fair ground has events the RV site evidently gets very full, but when we were there it just had a few other vans, some smaller, and some huge. The people who ran the site were extremely friendly and helpful. It was fairly close to the centre of town and a bus ride took about 5-10 minutes and was very cheap.

Whale watching

Whilst in Monterey we went out for a morning with the Monterey Bay Whale Watch. Monterey has a submarine canyon close to the shore which reaches a depth of two miles. This creates a special environment providing food for deep water species of whales, dolphins and sea birds. Evidently this unique canyon makes Monterey Bay the best place in the US to view a variety of marine animals all year long.

It was difficult to catch photos of the whales. You’d see a spout and then the whale could be seen turning in the water and going back down to feed. We saw a mother with her baby, and the guide explained that the mother gives birth further south in warmer waters. They stay in the warmer waters while the baby is feeding solely on the mother’s milk and during this time the mother has no food herself. She fasts for several months, until the baby is old enough to swim north to the bay where the mother can feed herself and wean the baby by teaching it how to catch food. The baby stays with the mother for about one year and then is mature enough to go off on its own.

Here are some photos from our trip. All the whales we saw were humpbacks but we also saw an albatross with its huge wings, brown pelicans, sea lions and seals.(click on the images to enlarge).

Bike Hire

We hired e-bikes in Monterey and cycled along the coast, along part of the 17 mile drive, as far as Spanish Bay. There were lots of golf courses along the way – often, to our surprise, with deer grazing on them. The coast line was stunning, very rocky with white sandy beaches and crashing waves. As we set off we saw seals resting along the harbour walls and further along we aw some furry seals and their pups resting on the beach. All along the way the roadside was covered in pretty pink flowers.

On our way back we passed through Cannery Row which was given its name in honour of John Steinbeck and his novel of the same name. In the past it would have been full of sardine canning factories but now it is full of gift shops and restaurants.

Big Sur

Part of Highway 1 (the Pacific Highway coast road) was closed because of rock falls due to the heavy rain earlier in the year, but we drove down for the day from Monterey. The coastline is amazing with rocky coves, crashing waves, forests dropping into the ocean. There was one place where it was possible to drive down to a beautiful beach where dozens of people were enjoying the sunshine. As we were leaving more people were arriving to see the sunset.

We hiked along one of the paths into the forest up to a waterfall. When we stopped to eat our lunch we were joined by a beautiful Steller Jay perched on the edge. As we walked we were surrounded by huge redwoods reaching to the sky.

The redwoods are extraordinary trees and here is some further information about them.

Finally we had some refreshments at Nepenthe a delightful restaurant, cafe and shop in the woods. The place is owned by family of Kaffe Fassett and the shop contained colourful displays of works using his materials.

A brilliant day.

Carmel

While we were staying at Monterey we took the bus to Carmel, a very pretty town a little further along the coast. There are flowers everywhere, in all the public spaces and in the many perfectly tended gardens. There are also lots of “fairytale” houses which look a bit like the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel. They were built in the 1920’s by a man called Hugh Comstock.

We were told that Carmel-by-the-Sea, to give it is full title, is rated the Number 1 dog friendly town in America and we certainly saw a lot of dogs, clearly all pedigrees and all immaculately groomed.

As well as strolling round the town we took a walk along the beach and enjoyed the beautiful soft white sand.

Carmel Mission

A friend who grew up in San Francisco told us we should try and visit a mission while in California, so we made our way to the Carmel Mission Basilica which was founded in1771by Father Junipero Serra, who is buried there. Spain built a chain of 21 missions across the length of California each approximately a day’s horseback journey apart. The Carmel mission had a very pretty garden and two museums, one with artefacts which had belonged to a prominent Monterey family, the Munras family, the other with artefacts, furniture, documents etc from the mission itself. Extracts from Fr. Serra’s diary were on display, talking about how helpful the indigenous people who had converted to Christianity had been, but themuseum did not seem to have any critique about the impact of colonisation on native Americans.