Of course, no one can go south from Santa Cruz without stopping at Gayle's Bakery in Capitola for a chocolate macaroon. Then it was off to the incomparable Monterey Acquarium.
The wildlife that so casually coexists with man in this place continually amazes me. While the aquarium had plenty going on outside its doors, I was sad to have missed two favorite spots on this trip: Point Lobos and Elkhorn Slough. We have fond memories of hiking out to the end of Point Lobos on another occasion, to find ourselves alone with a sea otter family fishing and floating away. We watched them for hours.
Elkhorn Slough remains our best wildlife viewing experience in all of California (with the probable exception of watching blue whales off the Channel Islands near Santa Barbara, but that is a story for another day). If you didn't know better, you would pass by the Slough without thinking twice. It empties into a harbor right next to a large PG&E power plant. The harbor is separated by from the ocean by a natural spit. You can drive right out onto the spit, and with binoculars see everything you would like in the Slough and harbor, as well as in the ocean on the other side of the spit. One evening, we pulled onto that spit just before sunset, and saw no less than 17 sea otters floating in the harbor, along with sea lions, dozens of Brown Pelicans, egrets and countless other shorebirds. After getting our fill of that grand spectacle, we turned to the ocean side only to see dolphins playing in the surf as the sun set on a fog free night. I will never forget that moment. We will miss Cali in a big way, no doubt about it.
Next up, Big Sur.
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