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Published: October 8th 2006
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Sea Otters
at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium or the Big Sur
What a drive! It's like driving the Rimutaka Hill Road down the West Coast!
We climbed aboard the mighty Chevy to leave San Fran on Wednesday morning. We cruised south in the traffic to Silicon Valley to the dulcit tones of 107.7 The Bone and admired the glass palaces of Yahoo and Oracle. We headed south on Highway 1 to Monterrey, where we visited the magnificent aquarium. (The guidebook was right about this one, no mistake!) Despite the fact that the jellyfish exhibit was closed, the rest of the facility was amazing. The sea otters were gorgeous, the bat rays were slimy (you can touch them....!) and the ocean Sunfish was absolutely fricking enormous. It was definitely more an amusement than learning kind of a place, but there's something satisfying about seeing fish.
We had fish and chips (and they weren't so flash - no surprises there) on the waterfront, and then headed south to the 17 Mile Drive. It's a long windy road around the Monterrey Peninsula through acres of stinking richness and golf courses. The houses were enormous and ugly and the golf courses were priced at about $400 USD
Jellyfish
at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium a round. Ouch. But the views of the Pacific were really lovely, along with the pelicans and seals. We rounded out the drive in Carmel, which is a quaint, kitsch little place a lot like Greytown. Lots of little boutiques and eateries and shops where rich people go. 😊
The Big Sur highway though, was incredible. It's hard driving - about four hours along winding roads to San Luis Obispo - but the views are amazing. It's hard to describe, and until I can get photos on this monkey, it's going to be difficult, but bear with me on this. We were several hundred metres above the sea enjoying views of the pinnacles and cliffsides of the Big Sur. As we came out of the hills, we came across a beach covered in sun baking Elephant Seals. I have never seen, heard or smelt something so ugly, but it was a real treat to watch them playing in the waves and honking at each other.
San Luis is a college town, about the size of Upper Hutt. It's a nice little place really and home to the quite incredible Madonna Inn. Check it out
here. We mostly cruised
Seals
on the 17-Mile Drive around in the dusk looking for our motel, but it was worth it - having a bed, a private bathroom and cable TV was brill. Ever thought that when we've got 5 channels and there's nothing on how nice it would be to have 100. WRONG!
Thursday was much less interesting. We rolled into Santa Barbara about lunchtime, and admired a magnificent courthouse built in the Spanish Colonial style. It looks more like a Spanish fortress than anything else. GREAT! We had lunch on the waterfront in the sun and wandered up Stearns Pier. From the top end, it was possible to see SEVEN oil rigs about 5km offshore. Very odd.
The drive to LA was pretty nice until we left Wal*Mart at Oxnard. (I bought a T-shirt. It says "I hear voices and they don't like you." Very me, I thought. Jen bought one with a Carebear saying "Que tu miras?" - you guys can work that out.) We arrived outside LA at about 4pm, and by 6.30pm, we'd driven the 10 or so miles to the airport. I promise to never complain about traffic again, except to say that someone round here needs to start giving
Beach Squirrel
on the 17-Mile Drive American's the 'merge like a zipper' lesson.
LAX is still an awful airport and I pity the TSA guy who asked me to take off my shoes. Teehee. The flight to DC was only four and a half hours, but it was most unpleasant. I can safely say that Jen and I were well happy to see Pete and Mary at the baggage carousel at Dulles airport. It was a miserable day in DC at 5.30am and Mum and Dad will be pleased to know that I'm glad I humped that blasted overcoat all the way here.
Anyway, More on DC later. Right now, it's late and I need to hit the hay. I've just come back from the new Jet Li flick - worth seeing. I can also say, since it won't be about in NZ yet, that Eragon, the film of the book, comes out at Christmas and a new Transformers movie will be out here in July '07. Not that I'm excited.
Talk soon,
Take care all,
Alex and Jen
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