Second Leg, Oakland to Monterey, and beyond
Sunday morning, we slept in a little bit and then headed for the nearest Fry's. I had to buy a new camera, after all -- there's no way I was going to the Monterey Aquarium and Hearst Castle without a camera! I picked out an Olympus FE-300. It's GREAT. I love it. I also bought an xD memory card (1Gb) and one of those converters to plug in to the lighter in the car (to charge the battery). Then we drove south and stopped for a bit at Gilroy, so I could get new shoes. (My feet were killing me in San Fran!) We found our way to the hotel in Monterey by about 1pm, checked in, and headed off to the aquarium and Cannery Row. We were sooooo hungry (breakfast was at McDonalds, when we were searching for Fry's)... we went to a bbq restaurant in Cannery Row and scarfed down some salads. Then it was time to see the animals!
The Monterey Bay Aquarium exhibits focus on the ecosystem around the bay, the oceans in
northern California, and other local waterways. The first thing we saw was the tank full of jellyfish. Amazing! At this point, I started figuring out how to use the special features of the camera, including image stabilization. My first few jellyfish pics were fuzzy, but the last one came out great!
We skipped the otter feeding - we knew it would be the most crowded event in the building, and opted instead to see the upstairs exhibits. The aquarium has multiple two-story tanks, showing the otters, a kelp forest, and the outer bay. We saw anchovies and sardines swimming around in large groups, sharks, rays, jellies, shrimp,
anemones... it was amazing. We went to the 4:00 feeding in the kelp forest. I know you're wondering, how do you feed kelp? Well, it turns out a lot of fish and smaller sharks live in the kelp forest, so they send a diver in twice a day with a bucket of shrimp and squid and small fish, to feed them. He has a mic in his mask, so he could talk to the audience. It was cool.
They are very keen on the Seafood Watch list -- the list of which species are more or less endangered/over-fished so you shouldn't order them in restaurants. No more rockfish... choose tilapia instead. We went to dinner at Old Fisherman's Grotto (cheesy but well-known seafood restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf) and ate Alaskan crab legs and Dungeness crab cake and Bay scallops. :) We could hear the seals barking out on the rocks, but I couldn't get a picture of them. (Turns out, I got amazing pictures on Monday morning anyway!)
Then we went back to the hotel, and went to sleep early -- we had to get up at 5:30am on Monday to start the drive down to Hearst Castle. I think if I had realized that it was a three hour drive down Route 1, we would have found a hotel a little farther south. But it turned out to be a great way to see the California coastline, the sunrise, and the most amazing herd of elephant seals!
Route 1 down the coast is all hairpin turns, skimming the edges of the mountains above the waves crashing on the rocks. From Monterey, we drove down past Big Sur and multiple other State Parks. We stopped at four or five of the turn-outs to take pictures. It was nice to be one of the only cars on the road -- in either direction -- for most of the trip. We were also able to pick out the parts of the road that have been used in multiple Hollywood movies and tv shows.
We stopped one last time before Hearst Castle -- completely through luck -- at a spot along the coastline where a whole herd of elephant seals have been gathering since the early 90's. It was amazing! We were no more than 15-20 feet from them (there was a fence), at a rest stop by the highway! They smelled a bit... This time of year, the males are fighting to see who is going to be dominant and get to mate with the females. The females were just lying around sunning themselves. :)
Things I learned about my new camera: reduce the resolution so the pictures are less than 2MB each. Makes for difficult uploading to flickr.
Next post: Hearst Castle. WOW.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium exhibits focus on the ecosystem around the bay, the oceans in
northern California, and other local waterways. The first thing we saw was the tank full of jellyfish. Amazing! At this point, I started figuring out how to use the special features of the camera, including image stabilization. My first few jellyfish pics were fuzzy, but the last one came out great!We skipped the otter feeding - we knew it would be the most crowded event in the building, and opted instead to see the upstairs exhibits. The aquarium has multiple two-story tanks, showing the otters, a kelp forest, and the outer bay. We saw anchovies and sardines swimming around in large groups, sharks, rays, jellies, shrimp,
anemones... it was amazing. We went to the 4:00 feeding in the kelp forest. I know you're wondering, how do you feed kelp? Well, it turns out a lot of fish and smaller sharks live in the kelp forest, so they send a diver in twice a day with a bucket of shrimp and squid and small fish, to feed them. He has a mic in his mask, so he could talk to the audience. It was cool.They are very keen on the Seafood Watch list -- the list of which species are more or less endangered/over-fished so you shouldn't order them in restaurants. No more rockfish... choose tilapia instead. We went to dinner at Old Fisherman's Grotto (cheesy but well-known seafood restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf) and ate Alaskan crab legs and Dungeness crab cake and Bay scallops. :) We could hear the seals barking out on the rocks, but I couldn't get a picture of them. (Turns out, I got amazing pictures on Monday morning anyway!)
Then we went back to the hotel, and went to sleep early -- we had to get up at 5:30am on Monday to start the drive down to Hearst Castle. I think if I had realized that it was a three hour drive down Route 1, we would have found a hotel a little farther south. But it turned out to be a great way to see the California coastline, the sunrise, and the most amazing herd of elephant seals!
Route 1 down the coast is all hairpin turns, skimming the edges of the mountains above the waves crashing on the rocks. From Monterey, we drove down past Big Sur and multiple other State Parks. We stopped at four or five of the turn-outs to take pictures. It was nice to be one of the only cars on the road -- in either direction -- for most of the trip. We were also able to pick out the parts of the road that have been used in multiple Hollywood movies and tv shows.
We stopped one last time before Hearst Castle -- completely through luck -- at a spot along the coastline where a whole herd of elephant seals have been gathering since the early 90's. It was amazing! We were no more than 15-20 feet from them (there was a fence), at a rest stop by the highway! They smelled a bit... This time of year, the males are fighting to see who is going to be dominant and get to mate with the females. The females were just lying around sunning themselves. :)Things I learned about my new camera: reduce the resolution so the pictures are less than 2MB each. Makes for difficult uploading to flickr.
Next post: Hearst Castle. WOW.
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