From San Simeon we drove up the coast on Highway 1, passing along the stunning coast with its views, through Big Sur and we have now returned to Monterey, in order to fulfill our promise to ourselves to revisit the Aquarium. We first visited in 1997 with the kids, we attempted to revisit in November last year, but Sally was too ill, so we just camped in the Monterey Fairground for a week, hoping she would recover enough for us to make the visit.
However this time we arrived in good time and were set up ready to visit the Aquarium.
We set out as early as we could and managed to arrive at the Aquarium just after opening time, we decided that we would like to take the ‘Behind The Scenes’ Tour as well.
This time we were armed with a timetable of events and moved smartly to the Penguins, to see them being fed at 10.30. Cute little Blackfooted Penguins whose home, surprisingly, is Namibia in Southern Africa.
We now had to traverse the length of the Aquarium to see the fish being fed in the gigantic Open Sea Tank. This was a most amazing experience as the main act for this was the feeding of the sardine! Well in this case 20,000 of them. Most of the time they cruise unseen around the bottom of the tank, leaving the top to the tuna, sharks, sunfish, dolphin tuna (mahi Mahi). However come feeding time a handful of Krill dropped in the water brings them swarming to the surface where they swim almost as a single organism, round and round, sweeping up the food being offered. Miraculously parting into two swarms as the bigger fish swim through trying to grab one of them. The group display was amazing. So amazing that when the food was gone and they sank back out of site as quickly as they had arrived there was a spontaneous round of applause – for sardines I ask you!
From there we had a chance to visit one of our favourite areas – the Moon Jellies. They are jellyfish found in Monterey bay and with subtle background lighting they produce yet another amazing display as they appear to bioflouresc (although it is only an effect of the light) in their tanks and drift aimlessly around. It was here taht I really appreciated the amazing optical quality of the tank material, they are designed to be optically neutral, being laminated acrylic. The view was excellent, with very little distortion, great for taking pictures.
From there we went on our guided tour behind the scenes (we really pushed the boat out on this visit), this was great fun and we got a chance to see lots of fish food and water pipes, as well as looked down on the open tank tops and checked out the SCUBA divers area. Then we had time to sit on the patio and have lunch watching the wild life on Monterey Bay. There were a couple of Sae Otters swimming round and a seal also came swimming close into the shore.
We now just caught the end of the a short viewing of the Albatross, which was fascinating
From here we had a look round the shore life exhibits where we could see a lot of hsore birds, who had been rescued and could not be returned to the wild, then we explored the touchy feely exhibit, where we could pick up and touch crabs, starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and abalone. That was relly fun.
This display led us to the Octopus area, where there are two giant Octopus in separate tanks. Lo and behold just as we arrive they start to feed these giants and we see them swimming around and being very lively, it was an excellent display.
Now we got into conversation with a volunteer who kindly took us to see the Sea Horses being fed. The Sea Horses were lovely to watch, especially the Leafy Dragon Fish. While we were there the lady told us that there would be an extra Sea Otter Feeding Session, where one of the sea otters was being employed as a surrogate mother to teach an orphaned baby how to become a proper Sea Otter. That was great fun seeing them being fed and playing around in the water.
All too soon our day was complete, we had really enjoyed ourselves, but were both tired out, so we stopped at the local Chinese Restaurant for a meal. A lovely day.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Sunday is Seal day
Just down the road from the campground is a beach which is famous as the gathering place for Elephant Seals, so we took a picnic and drove down to have a look.
At this point the road runs along by the sea and there is a car park and a wooden boardwalk to give access seals to the beach. When we got there the cr park was not quite full, but pretty busy. We joined others and walked along the boardwalk above the beach, where we could see the seals, but not interfere with them.
There were probably a hundred or so seals on the sandy beach, they were all laid out in the sun. As we stood and watched we could pick out three types, the huge bull seals, the smaller females and the much smaller baby seals. The beach is a complete community as the seals come ashore in January and stay until march. They use the beach to live on, to mate then following year to have their babies then suckle them and mate again.
We watched the elephant seals for about an hour and a half, slowly we worked out how their social system worked. The males tried to create their own harem, so the strongest males had about half a dozen females for themselves, while other younger or weaker males hung around trying to pick off one of the females and mate with her. This brought about conflict as when the owner male saw this he would heave himself across the sand to protect his females, the result being a stand off between the two males. During whic the two males would rise up on thier flippers and roar through their big noses, which would inflate horrendously. If this was ot enough to rresolve the showdown then the males could end up fighting, many mlaes had large lacerations on their bodies. If he was successful in heading off the interloper he then reinforced his dominence by mating again with the female. The more aggressive the male, the more females he has, the more he has to to do to protect his harem. The females mostly lay out in the sun feeding their pup (most had one), or being chased and taken by a male, or just sleeping. The pups either slept or bounced around looking for the mothers teat, though they didn’t seem to mind which mum, or even male they approached, though the adult did and would bark at them or push them away. It was a fascinating visit, full of drama, a bit like watching Big Brother.
At this point the road runs along by the sea and there is a car park and a wooden boardwalk to give access seals to the beach. When we got there the cr park was not quite full, but pretty busy. We joined others and walked along the boardwalk above the beach, where we could see the seals, but not interfere with them.
There were probably a hundred or so seals on the sandy beach, they were all laid out in the sun. As we stood and watched we could pick out three types, the huge bull seals, the smaller females and the much smaller baby seals. The beach is a complete community as the seals come ashore in January and stay until march. They use the beach to live on, to mate then following year to have their babies then suckle them and mate again.
We watched the elephant seals for about an hour and a half, slowly we worked out how their social system worked. The males tried to create their own harem, so the strongest males had about half a dozen females for themselves, while other younger or weaker males hung around trying to pick off one of the females and mate with her. This brought about conflict as when the owner male saw this he would heave himself across the sand to protect his females, the result being a stand off between the two males. During whic the two males would rise up on thier flippers and roar through their big noses, which would inflate horrendously. If this was ot enough to rresolve the showdown then the males could end up fighting, many mlaes had large lacerations on their bodies. If he was successful in heading off the interloper he then reinforced his dominence by mating again with the female. The more aggressive the male, the more females he has, the more he has to to do to protect his harem. The females mostly lay out in the sun feeding their pup (most had one), or being chased and taken by a male, or just sleeping. The pups either slept or bounced around looking for the mothers teat, though they didn’t seem to mind which mum, or even male they approached, though the adult did and would bark at them or push them away. It was a fascinating visit, full of drama, a bit like watching Big Brother.
Hearst Castle Calls
Visiting Hearst Castle is akin to a military operation. We had a tour time of 11.00, we had to be there 20 minutes before and at the shuttle gate 5 minutes before boarding. The Shuttle took us up the long winding road from the visitors centre to the castle which is built onto the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. On arrival we could see that the castle was a very large building surrounded by an Italian looking landscaped garden/grounds. Since we were on the ADA tour we were placed a board an ADA golf cart and taken unceremoniously round to the back of the building, where we had our first architectural shock. The back of the building was just bare walls. I mean bare walls. The building structure was of concrete walls, which looked like they had put up a pre-stressed framework, then shuttering and filled it in with cement, when it was cured they remove the shuttering. After that they 'adorn' the building with window frames, stucco, wooden beams, door frames, architraves, guttering and whatever to make it look as it should be on the plan. Very similar process to building a bridge, however round the back it had never been finished, so you looked at a towering concrete wall, still with the marks of the shuttering, or reinforcement wires sticking out. There were however some window in place – Gothic stone arch windows for the first three floors, with Georgian windows on the top floor. Although a fancy Italian patio door and window set had been added to one portion of the wall. It was about this time that the word 'Bizarre' popped into the mind.
Hearst Castle History and Architecture
After our visit we realized that Hearst Castle architecture was its history. It was in the process of being built and rebuilt from 1920 through until 1947 when William Randolph Hearst left the place for the last time. It was a building dreamt by Hearst as a castle that could be used for him and his friends, who were the movie and incrowd, could play. Also somewhere he could show off his enormous collection of Art work.
Now for architectural style you have to think 'concept' rather than specifics. Internally Hearst had in mind grand Gothic and Renaissance Europe, so the entrance hall was French Renaissance, although it mixed 'chateaux' with 'cathedral' style, even though the grand entrance was Greek style. The room was stuffed with treasures of French art and The Grand Dining Room was Mid European Gothic castle with Monks Stalls round the walls, the drawing room was Moorish Gothic.
However the outside is made to look like an Italian hillside, with a Moorish cathedral at its centre. It has a focal point, which is a piazza just outside the front door (you can’t get a car to it, as the piatza is up some steps). The front facade of the castle is dominated by the entrance, which is adorned by a mixture of 600 year old figures, a 400 year old Madonna and child and 300 year old stone plaques, set in cement stonework. Above is a chinese style teak roof, with the two Moorish towers on the corners. The word Bizarre came readily to mind.
It is however a total experience. Some people would say the style is eclectic, personally I think I wold call the style Macdonalds, it is the fast food of architecture – anything you want you can have, we just stick it on to the concrete walls. The gardens however were lovely, with their beautiful views down to the sea, or across to the mountains.
Hearst Castle History and Architecture
After our visit we realized that Hearst Castle architecture was its history. It was in the process of being built and rebuilt from 1920 through until 1947 when William Randolph Hearst left the place for the last time. It was a building dreamt by Hearst as a castle that could be used for him and his friends, who were the movie and incrowd, could play. Also somewhere he could show off his enormous collection of Art work.
Now for architectural style you have to think 'concept' rather than specifics. Internally Hearst had in mind grand Gothic and Renaissance Europe, so the entrance hall was French Renaissance, although it mixed 'chateaux' with 'cathedral' style, even though the grand entrance was Greek style. The room was stuffed with treasures of French art and The Grand Dining Room was Mid European Gothic castle with Monks Stalls round the walls, the drawing room was Moorish Gothic.
However the outside is made to look like an Italian hillside, with a Moorish cathedral at its centre. It has a focal point, which is a piazza just outside the front door (you can’t get a car to it, as the piatza is up some steps). The front facade of the castle is dominated by the entrance, which is adorned by a mixture of 600 year old figures, a 400 year old Madonna and child and 300 year old stone plaques, set in cement stonework. Above is a chinese style teak roof, with the two Moorish towers on the corners. The word Bizarre came readily to mind.
It is however a total experience. Some people would say the style is eclectic, personally I think I wold call the style Macdonalds, it is the fast food of architecture – anything you want you can have, we just stick it on to the concrete walls. The gardens however were lovely, with their beautiful views down to the sea, or across to the mountains.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Birds on Pismo Beach
We have been at Pismo Beach for 2 or three days, it is a very pleasant town. The campground is pretty good by Ca SP standards, having hook ups and being by a small lake. The weather has been dominated by cold nights and windy days, the wind being cold. However when you get in the sun it is warm enough. We have tried to do as little as possible, but that gets boring. We visited the State Beach and found that you could take your car onto the beach and drive along the sand for miles, so we did. We enjoyed watching the Kite Surfers, the Dune Buggies and ATV's and the little waderbirds, which we have found out are called Sanderlings. Sanderlings are very funny to watch. They are very small, blackbird sized and run up and down the beach following waves in and out, presumably looking for food brought in on the waves. However they also stand just above the water line. As we watched we noticed various behaviours. They stand absolutely still in tight little groups of up to 50 birds. Then we noticed that they all face exactly the same direction, into the wind (It was quite windy). Then that some of them stood on one leg, actually a lot of them stood on one leg. Then as they followed the waves, they ran on one leg (hopped)! The we saw that some groups stood in a dead straight line, which looked strange, but reduced the effect of the wind. The whole thing looked like a pelaton from the Tour De France, as every now and then the one at the front of the line ran round to the back. We then saw large groups hiding in the lee of clumps of seaweed, every now and then one or two would run from one group to another and the whole group would shuffle round to accommodate the new, or close up the space where one had left, then stillness again. It was fascinating watching the birds moving. It appeared to be a dynamic combination of a social dance and making sure that they lost as little body heat as possible. Even the standing on one leg is a mechanism to reduce body heat loss.
On lour last day we stopped for a meal at the local diner - a real converted train. it was great fun and the food was good as well.
On lour last day we stopped for a meal at the local diner - a real converted train. it was great fun and the food was good as well.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Los Alamos - Lost Hotel
Sunday
After two nights at El Capitan we have now moved another 60 miles up the coast, taking a shortcut on State Route 101. On the way we passed Los Alamos, which is a very small town south of Santa Maria. Because we had been to Los Alamos in New Mexico we detoured into the town in search of a coffee/tea. Well what a lovely little town, mostly Main Street with lots of wooden fronted shops. Right in the middle is the prize gem – The Union Hotel. Built in 1870 it was a staging post for Wells Fargo (no references to Dale Robertson could be found), it was still in almost its original condition, with a faded timber front. We went in and there was a large room with great big padded armchairs arranged round a big fire, with lots of original knick knacks. We were made most welcome as we sat by the fire with our coffee and tea. To one side was a Saloon, with proper swing doors, that had been imported from New Orleans, out back of the Saloon was a pianola, a paper roll piano. It was wonderful place, even the toilets seemed to be original, they had the same front emptying porcelain W.C that we have at home. It was a really excellent experience just sitting there reading the Sunday papers (headline being that Whitney Houston had died).
We reluctantly moved on and found our camp site at Oceano Campground State Park, one of the few on this coast with partial hook-ups, we are booked to stay here until Friday, so we are hoping to get more time to relax in the sun.
Also hope to get Internet back on tomorrow.
Ventura Surf Beach
Tuesday
Today we moved on along the coast, we drove past all those fabulous Malibu Beach houses, on past a place called Paradise Cove, made famous by one James Rockford, as it was here that he had his beach side trailer in the Rockford Files. We were bound for Ventura, only 50 miles up the coast, to the Fairground there. The fairground is actually on the beach and with full hook up is a cheap deal at $35 per night.
Wednesday
Today I thought I had got up really early to get some sunrise pics of the sea, only to find that even though it was almost dark there were some surfers already out on the water. After yesterdays wind it seems that todys surf would be very good.
Sally gave in on her back and we went in search of a Chiropractor, we found one only a couple of minutes away and Sally spent some time having her back crunched, her neck clicked and her legs manipulated and amazingly she seems a lot better and in less pain, She goes back on Friday for the man to finish the job.
Sally gave in on her back and we went in search of a Chiropractor, we found one only a couple of minutes away and Sally spent some time having her back crunched, her neck clicked and her legs manipulated and amazingly she seems a lot better and in less pain, She goes back on Friday for the man to finish the job.
In the afternoon we sat on the beach watching the surfers. The weather had deteriorated yesterday and today’s surf was quite spectacular, even though by now the sun was out and it was pleasantly warm.
Thursday
Relax and chill out again. We wandered the beach again amongst the surfers, this time we walked to the pier, which is described as the longest pier in California (as opposed to the last pier we visited, which was Oceanside Pier, which describes itself as the longest pier on the Pacific Coast (go figure). This pier at least was built as a working dock which was used as a place to import and export stuff, which enabled Ventura to become a successful community.
Friday
We packed up and would have left, but for Sally’s, early morning, second visit to the Chiro man. That over with we hitched up the wagon and moved 50 miles up the coast through Santa Barbara to El Capitan State Beach, where we found a lovely site on a cliff top where we could see the sea and watch dolphins and sunsets. It was lovely, though quite (as in rocking the trailer) windy at times.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Malibu Creek and the Film Industry
Saturday
We relaxed today
Sunday
We took a walk up to the Visitor Centre. It was here that we learned more of the peculiar nature of the State Park. It was originally owned by Twentieth Century Fox and was the place where they would shoot all their outdoor scenes, they sold/gave it to the State in 1976. It’s greatest claims to fame were that the original set of MASH was there (though we didn’t get up to it), the place where Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid jumped into the Colorado River, the House that Mr Blandings (Cary Grant) built and the Welsh valley from How Green Is My Valley. The countryside also featured in The Planet Of The Apes. In fact some 150 films are documented to have been filmed in part here. We chose to visit a place called The Rock Pool, which is a beautiful and secluded pool in a little canyon, well it would have been secluded but for the 30 or so other people who were there enjoying their Sunday afternoon. Although this rock pool has appeared in many films the only one that we knew of was Dr Dolittle, but it was very pretty.
Monday
Today we are taking the movie theme further, because just up the road is the Paramount Ranch, which was where Paramount shot a lot of outdoor scenes, particularly Westerns, in fact there is a complete cowboy town which has been abandoned. We had a good old stroll round this abandoned set, with its huge list of films shot there, most of them were made before the war, notably ‘On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine’ a Laurel and Hardy movie of note. More recently the Herbie films were shot here. Although we didn’t remember seeing these sets in the films we had a great time and enjoyed exploring these bits of movie history.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
On Towns with a Theme
On Saturday we drove inland to a town called Solvang, which has made the decision to appear to be a Danish town!!! So all the shops and houses are sort of painted with beams, with lots of Bavarian woodwork, spires and towers as well as windmills, the overall effect is slightly right of Disney’s version of Pinocchio. It was absolutely awfgul, still, I suppose someone has to do a quaint version of Denmark, complete with Brother Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson.
I sometimes wonder if there was at one time a giant convention of town officials in U.S.A. and they drew up a huge list of food items, animals, countries, artefacts, materials and stuff and then bid for what their town could exploit So Plant City (FL) got Strawberries, London (KY) got chicken, it is the Chicken Capital of the World, Petaluma (CA) got chicken too! (ah, but it’s West coast Chicken), Helen (GA) got Switzerland. Now Santa Rosa managed to Charlie Brown Capital Status, which is pretty good. Some are not so obvious, I am racking my brains for the town in West Virginia which is so memorable as the Grits Capital of the World, hardly surprising I can’t remember it.
But there are a lot of unfortunates who had to end up with the wrong end of the manure rake, here though we have two towns next to each other, both of whom are in competition for the most unimaginative Capital of the World – Solvang has Denmark (which I suppose at least in not Belgium) and right next to is Buellton which has as it’s claim to fame: Buellton - The Home Of Split Pea Soup!! I don’t think you could actually invent that one.
I am now determined to create a list of towns which are famous for ……., are the World Capital for ……, or are The Home Of …….. Watch this space.
The most inspiring place in Solvang is the Mission, Santa Inez, which is number 18 of the 21 missions that were founded in California. We have visited several already, this one is not particularly remarkable, but is a very lovely place which is very peaceful. Sally and I enjoyed our wander around it.
The Cruise Highlights
Tuesday So today we take to the little launches that will take us to Catalina Island. The Sun is out and it is nice and warm. We are landed on the pier of Avalon and left to stroll round the little town at our leisure. There are some nice shops, but the best entertainment was the pelicans, the fish we could see going in and out of the kelp forests and the dolphins that were swimming in the stretch of water between the ship and the harbour. We did have a nice cup of tea/coffee and spent a few minutes watching the bluegrass Jam in Anthony’s Pizzeria. By lunchtime we had exhausted the tourist bits and returned to the ship for our buffet lunch, before finding a bluegrass jam, which was a bit slow.
Dinner however was excellent, poor Sally could only find Lobster Tail and Shrimp to eat on the menu, so she ordered two of them. I on the other hand could order the lobster and shrimp as well as a slice of Prime Rib, which complemented each other quite nicely.
Wednesday
Today we arrived in Mexico at a town called Ensenada. It is barely in Mexico and is not much of a town. Still we took the shuttle bus into the mains street and walked from there back to the boat. The overridding impression is that of dirt, poverty, poorly maintained roads, buildings and pavements. Almost everyone we saw wanted to sell us something or to beg for money. It was not a very pleasant experience and we were glad to be back on the ship for lunch. Now I am sure that this is not typical of Mexico, but it’s the only bit I have seen (apart for a view from El Paso last April), so that is my experience.
Thursday
A day at sea, when we would try and do some bluegrass jamming. The morning was a total write off as Jerry had tried to organise a slow jam, which just did not work for us. The afternoon was much better and we had a real swinging time on the Promenade Deck.
Friday
We were disembarked pretty early on Friday, but it was well organised and gave us plenty of time for a last breakfast on board. We returned to our rig in the Queen Mary Car park and set off for our next campground – Malibu Creek State Park. It was our intention to use this park as a base to visit Los Angeles, but when we got there it was such a pretty park with so much to do that we never did go back to see Los Angeles.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Internet Problems
Well. At the moment we are unable to get ourselves on line. We seem to have a problem with Windows 7. But I am working on it.
Be back soon.
Be back soon.
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