Monterey Bay

What a great city! Now, to be fair… we’ve mostly seen the Fisherman’s Wharf and some part of the center when cruising towards a parking spot to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. But still, we kind of enjoyed this first encounter with America and the American people. We stayed here for two nights, in the Lone Oak Lodge. And it is safe to say that this was one of the best hotels we’ve slept in. Dark rooms, not a lot of noise during the night/ morning. We slept really well! Could’ve been the jetlag as well though :-).

The next day we went on a (pre-booked) whale watching trip. There are a few organizations providing trips. From 8 A.M. or 9 A.M. till noon, in the afternoon or full day trips. You can make a reservation before coming to the US, or you can make a reservation the day before, just passing by the booths… But we like to plan a few things a head – mainly because we didn’t know if there would be enough places left for us, and we like to do some research about the organization we book our tour with. So we decided to go on board with the Monterey Bay Whale Watch Center. They have a good rating on Tripadvisor and … they deserve it! We really had fun, and our guide talked a lot so at the times that you don’t spot a whale, you get to know about them a lot. During our trip we saw a few humpback whales, including one full breaching whale – but without pictures to prove it as we weren’t expecting the whale to jump out of the water. We also saw a Killer Whale and a lot of Pacific White-Sided Dolphins. Apparently we also saw a few Northern Right Whale Dolphins. It’s freezing on the boat, so dress in layers (which they’ll tell you as well).

In the afternoon we decided to drive towards the Point Lobos State Reserve and Carmel. Why? Well, because we thought we had enough time to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium afterwards, as I read that the openings hours were ‘till 8 P.M. So we arrived at the aquarium around 5.10 P.M. wanting to buy two entrance tickets. At the booth they told us that ‘today’ the aquarium closed at 6 P.M. Say what? So I got a bit angry at myself, got back outside. Then we discussed it a bit further and decided that we weren’t coming back any time soon so we decided to make a quick visit to the aquarium. We got 10% off the tickets, because we only had 45 minutes left. And we saw it all! In a rush, but still. We didn’t saw any of the sea turtles though. And my favorite parts were the jelly fish, the giant squid and the cute little puffins (although I kind of felt bad for them all because they had to life in such a tiny space).

The second day we woke up, ready for the Pacific Coast Highway. Before taking off, we’ve heard something about works along the road, so we looked everything up and saw that we could drive to the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, but then we had to go the same way back, to take the Highway 101 instead of the Highway N° 1. Bummer! So we started our day with the 17-mile Drive, although we didn’t planned on doing it, as they profit from the works on the Pacific Coast and increase their prices every few months. Before we left (or at the time that I was planning the trip) it was $9.75 to drive along the private road. A few months before we arrived it was $10, and at the moment we were there, it was already $10,25. Still, it’s not the most expensive part of our trip, but at the rate that the prices were growing… Included in the price there’s a map with the sceneries. All you have to do from that point on, is following the red stripes on the streets and enjoy the views and take pictures. The most epic one according to what you find online, is the Lone Cypress. I’m going to be frank with you all: I do not know what the fuss is about. It’s a tree, on an edge. But it’s not lonely. But just go and see it for yourselves.