Month: August 2019

 This morning, it was another sunny day. According to news articles, high temperature records had been set in several cities in the Bay Area yesterday due to some high pressure and warm air perched over the area from Arizona. The warm weather continued today.

After our free hotel breakfast, we drove to the Fisherman’s Wharf area. Once parked, we first explored Pier 39 on foot, seeing all of the tourist shops and restaurants along the pier and stopping at the end to enjoy the view and the sea lions that hang out there. We even saw a baby sea lion hauled out on the docks with others.

Gary had booked tickets for a 90 minute boat tour leaving at 12:30, so we walked around and enjoyed some cold smoothies before getting in line for the tour.

The boat was a new hybrid-electric sightseeing ship built in Washington State a year earlier. As we boarded, we were given audio narration radios and headphones. We went upstairs to sit on the top deck in the sunshine.

After the cruise ended about 2 pm, we walked to Fisherman’s Wharf immediately next door and ate lunch at Alioto’s. Since none of the other tourist attractions at the wharf interested us, we headed back to the hotel. Along the way, we saw the crooked Lombard Street and went up and down several steep streets like the kind seen in movie car chase scenes. We arrived back at the hotel about 4 pm and it was quite warm by then.

Today we left the Monterey Peninsula and went north to see the redwood trees. We drove to Big Basin State Park, north of Santa Cruz. It’s somewhat elevated, maybe above 1000 feet, but is inland and quite a lot warmer than Monterey. It was more than 85 degrees when we reached the park and ate our picnic lunch among the redwoods.

After lunch, we went on a 3/4 mile loop trail to see two of the largest trees in the park. And I wanted to see a woodpecker that is rare in Washington but common here, the Acorn Woodpecker. I ended up seeing and hearing quite a few of the birds, high above us in the redwoods.

 After finishing our walk through the redwood forest, we drove to our hotel near San Francisco airport. We checked in to the Embassy Suites, rested for a bit, then drove to the city’s Baker Beach, which has a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

 Then we drove over the bridge and viewed it again from the Marin Headlands. 

We finished off the day with dinner at a seafood restaurant in Sausalito. 

 

Today we spent several hours enjoying the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After breakfast at the hotel, we drove to a downtown Monterey parking garage and got on the free electric trolley that does a circuit around to various tourist destinations. It dropped us off at the waterfront aquarium around 10:30 am. We enjoyed seeing this world class aquarium, including the awesomely large open sea exhibit, where it was feeding time for the dorado (mahi mahi), rays, Pacific sunfish (mola mola), hammerhead sharks, yellowfin tuna, and sardines. All of the exhibits are very well done. We saw various jellies, octopus, cuttlefish, huge tanks of living kelp with associated fish, and cute sea otters. On the deck overlooking Monterey Bay, we also saw a wild sea otter eating a crab, a couple of sunning harbor seals, and a few different birds.

After seeing all the exhibits, we went into the auditorium to watch two short video talks on great white sharks and sea otters, both very interesting.

We emerged into the sunshine about 2:30 and walked along Cannery Row a short ways before seeing a lunch spot. We had a pleasant lunch of burgers, salads, and ice tea. Back out into the sunshine to admire the view and wait for the trolley back to the car. I didn’t take any photos inside the aquarium, but here are some from Cannery Row.

 After returning to the hotel, I went for a walk around a small lake adjacent to the hotel. There were some fancy cars at the hotel because of a car exposition starting later in the week. 

 

 

The fog burned off early this morning in Monterey. By the time we ate the Embassy Suites’ free breakfast, it was sunny. Unfortunately, Caroline wasn’t feeling well due to a cold and decided to stay at the hotel for the day. The rest of us left before 10:00, picked up some picnic food at a nearby Safeway, and then drove south along the coast via Hwy 1. We made several stops at viewpoints along the way. It was a gorgeous drive.

 We were lucky to have such great weather. We also were fortunate to get a parking spot inside popular Point Lobos Park on the way back to Monterey in the afternoon. We hiked around the cypress grove loop trail, seeing rocks offshore with sea lions and pelicans. We even saw two otters floating on their backs in a quiet cove in a patch of kelp. We returned to the hotel about 4:30 in the afternoon.

 

 

 

I joined Gary, Emma, Matt, and Caroline in Monterey today, flying down to San Francisco in the morning and driving a rented car from there to Monterey. After eating lunch in a small cafe in Pacific Grove, we drove along the famous 17 Mile Drive in the sunshine. We ended up in Carmel, where we stopped for coffee.