We started this morning by heading back down to Cannery Row to look for sea otters. We didn't see any around the wharves there. We walked around the corner & found one of the universities had a harbour seal observation area & there were seals there. We watched them for a while & then I went to get the car from where we had left it. While I was gone Robyn saw an otter. Doh!! We drove down to Fisherman's Wharf as that was another area for sightings. There we heard sea lions so we went to where they were but no sea otters. We walked right to the end of the wharf & finally spotted one otter!!! He was so cute - floating along on his back. I wish we had seen more but one will have to do.
We contemplated going to the Monterey Aquarium which is supposed to be very good but it didn't open until 10m. We would need a couple of hours there which would mean having to use the freeway to get to Santa Barbara instead of the coast highway. We chose the coast highway. Sorry, Jane.
It was quite a spectacular drive along the coast highway. At times there was just a bush between the road & a sheer drop into the ocean. This section of coast is most like Great Ocean Rd with the massive rock formations sticking out of the water. The sun was shining & there was no fog.
Robyn particularly wanted to see the Bixby Bridge which is a historic bridge at Big Sur. The first bridge we came to was similar to Bixby but shorter. The Bixby Bridge was just a little further along. It was built in 1932 & is one of the longest single span concrete bridges in the world. It is also one of the most photographed.
The coast highway went up & down mountains mostly right along the coastline & occasionally through tiny towns. We stopped every so often for photos. A few miles on from Big Sur was the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Forest. Here there is a walk to a waterfall which cascades onto the beach. We walked along the track above water that was a brilliant green/blue. It was very pretty.
About 40 miles on we came to the elephant seal viewing area. There is a beach where the elephant seals come to mate & give birth. It is closed to the public but a boardwalk has been built so you can see them. There were lots of seals there of varying sizes. The alpha males are absolutely enormous with long noses. There were smaller males with shorter noses & females who just have a regular seal nose. There were volunteer guides along the boardwalk & we heard one say to walk further along as there could be some pups up there. We did that & another guide pointed out the pups to us. She said they were less than a week old as they hadn't been there last Saturday. The pups are born black to protect their skin from the sun. The mother feeds them for one month & then heads out to sea for about 3 months. The pups have to teach themselves to swim & hunt. She said only about 40% of the pups survive because of that. While the seals are on the beach they are fasting. The alpha males are surrounded by their harem. Other males may come up & challenge them. They engage in a fight & the dominant one will push the other out to sea. It is weird to see these enormous fat slugs rear up & fight each other. But, they do bite each other with their sharp dog-like teeth & cause some damage. The guide told us there was a fight earlier today & they could see blood in the water. They were very interesting to watch.
A bit further along was Hearst Castle. It was a long way off the road so we drove up to the visitors centre. The whole operation was like Graceland. You pay at the visitors centre then board a bus which takes you there. We didn't have the time for a tour so we just bought lunch & continued on.
The next place we wanted to stop at was Pismo Beach. There is a wooden pier that goes out onto the water. The sun was starting to set & it was lovely out there. We walked out as far as we could go. The very end was closed off as there was a Christmas Tree made of lights out there. That would have looked nice at night.
We have noticed since moving away from the cold snowy areas that it is the smaller towns that do the best Christmas decorations. Most of them have a tree in the street or square that had been decorated with Christmas balls & things on the light posts. It always looks nice.
After we left Pismo Beach we continued on the coast road but as it started to get dark we let Marcia put us on the freeway. We still had to get over the Santa Ynez mountains so a properly lined freeway was the better option.
We saw a huge range of scenery today - from coastal vistas to paddocks of cows to field after field of strawberry plants (I think) & another green crop, maybe spinach. But, it was absolutely worth taking the coastal route.
We have checked in at the Fess Parker resort which seems very nice but I think it is disgraceful that hotels charge for WiFi. We won't pay it so we have to sit in the lobby where it is free. I don't know how many hotels we have stayed in on this trip but this is the first that charges apart from The Empress in Victoria. But, they told us to join the club which was free & gave us free Internet. We tried joining the club here but it doesn't work.