Big Sur

About one third of the way down Highway 1 is Big Sur, a recreational centre of national standing. It would be wall to wall with tourists in mid-summer, but we were there in mid-winter and crowds were thinner. However, the weather was beautiful and welcome. We stayed for two nights in a two-bedroom unit at the Big Sur Lodge run by the state national parks service. Here is our place in the lodge - warm and comfortable and we spied local wild turkeys from time to time.

Our rooms were at the entrance to the park and we took several trails, one to the waterfall below and another to a ridge overlooking the Big Sur River.The whole area had nice stands of redwoods, a tree featuring in an earlier post.

And nearby, there was a federally managed National Park on the coast which contained some lovely coastal scenery. We explored the beach thoroughly, looking at purple sands, climbing rock faces, jumping a creek running across the beach, looking through numerous holes in the stacks, and eventually watching the sun go down - before returning to the lodge in the dark.

It was a lovely day out!

AS

Highway 1

Highway 1, the coastal route from San Francisco to LA, has a middle section perhaps 150-200 km long that is absolutely magical. The following photos tell much of the story and I'll say little about them, except to say that the route clings to the edge of the coastal range, which plunges into the Pacific leaving high cliffs separated by deep canyons. The road itself is very narrow and frequently perched on cliff-tops with massive falls below. It winds endlessly through this great scenery with occasional pull-offs / turnouts. Whilst we travelled along it we saw people frequently looking for bird-life (condors, eagles, buzzards), dolphins, seals and whales and we saw all of these at various stages. Alas, the coast is also spoiled by the homes of millionaires sometimes occupying vantage points along the road. No doubt they would no longer get planning permission these days, but the damage is done. The road is also susceptible to landslips some lasting for months at a time, and one prevented us from seeing the southern end of the coastal route and necessitated a 250km detour!!

Have a look at these pictures in awe ... as we were!

AS

Monterey Aquarium

On Saturday of last week we headed off on a 3-day trip to Los Angeles, a route that was to take us through some of the best attractions on the US West Coast. The route started in Santa Clara and headed down highway 101 before taking a right turn near Salinas to Monterey. This was to be followed by a trip down national highway 1 past Big Sur and Hearst Castle to a little town called Pismo, before reconnecting with 101 for a drive into LA. These are all the subject of future postings. Everything about this trip was stunning and warrants full disclosure, starting here with reflections on a trip to one of the world's foremost aquariums in Monterey,

The aquarium is beautifully located on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and many of the exhibits were spell-binding, several of which are treated pictorially here. The trip to Monterey ended with a walk down Cannery Row made famous by John Steinbeck.

The Aquarium has many large tanks with brilliant displays of fish from all around the world in realistic settings and with great lighting effects. The picture below shows one such tanks which was also home to numerous small sharks and, on this occasion, a diver feeding them and many of the other species.

It also has lots of 'touching pools' where kids like Max can feel the displays and handle them. Here Max has turned over a star-fish and is examining its underside.

The Aquarium has numerous specialisms, several of which are featured in this post. One was a large display of anemones, one of which is shown below.

There was also an interesting collection of the fairly rare Californian Sea Otter shown below. Fifty years ago it appears that species was on the verge of extinction through uncontrolled killing of the animals for fur.

Many tanks were home to various types of jellyfish, two of the most beautiful portrayed here.Look at the long tentacles on the first below and the surrounding plankton.

There was a lovely display of Indian Ocean corals, but that was all.

And finally sea-horses were a great specialism housed in a large number of tanks. Easily the largest and most spectacular was the enormous dragon version shown here, camouflaged to look like sea-weed.

Finally to Cannery Row, which was almost destroyed by the collapse of the Sardine industry decades ago. Now it is very expensive and up-market.

AS

San Francisco 2

We awoke to yet another brilliant winter's day and immediately headed to Fisherman's wharf for breakfast at a swank restaurant. This, we found, was located next door to some feisty occupants of Pier 39, a troupe of sea lions, if that is the appropriate collective noun. They included big bulls, females, and their young. Max was entranced by their aggression - quite a bit of sparring was going on - and loved the statue to the sea lions which we found, for which he immediately found an unintended use.

Next, we strolled of in search of Lombard Street, which has what is billed the world's most crooked street. The billing might be right judging by the next photo. Part of SF's charm lies in its steep hills over which a grid-iron street pattern is superimposed. This means that a lot of streets have crazy angles like this one down which cars zig-zag to people's homes. The residential densities shown on these photos are very high by US standards and the city is not short of money, which makes for many lovely old houses. The next picture shows Lombard street from the top and you can readily see the city's hilly nature.

At the top of the zig-zag we caught one of these! Actually, it was precisely this one. The famous cable cars were designed to provide public transport on not quite vertical streets - but nevertheless quite steep streets. As you can see, people love to hand off the edge of the cars and Max decided to replace one of the guys seen here all the way to the terminal - several kilometers away! I was terrified for him, but no amount of instructions would shift him. Of course, even Ella - now aged 8 months - was fascinated by the experience.

We took a different route on the way back, and even I rode the outside filming as we went. Part-way, we alighted to walk to the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. At this precise moment, SF's famous fog descended and blanketed everything in a dull white colour - not good conditions for observing the city from on high. Fortunately, it hung around for perhaps half an hour before beginning to clear. The next but one photo shows the tower rising above a very pleasant, but steep, neighbourhood. On the walk up, I couldn't resist the street sign explaining why population growth in developed countries is tanking

And from the top of the lovely tower the view was stunning once the fog cleared! For example, have a look at the CBD and the picture of the Ferry terminal.

We ended up walking to the latter which houses up-market shops several of which specialise in high class chocolates - our target. All up it was a great but tiring day. We jumped in the car and headed back to Santa Clara for a well-earned rest,

AS

San Francisco 1

San Francisco has always been one of my favourite US cities and this and the next post will demonstrate why. A week or so ago it took less than an hour to drive from Santa Clara to SF and we headed directly to the Golden Gate bridge to show Max what a real bridge looks like. He was impressed! The first picture shows the party (Emily and Rebecca; Max and Ella) preparing to walk and run to the first of the two pylons. Even I ran across the bridge to the stares of the oldies.

Then we drove across to the Sausalito side in Marin county for a view back across the bridge and the bay. You may be able to make out the bay bridge from SF to Oakland in the background of the third photo. You can also see the SF CBD and, in the middle of the bay a couple of km offshore, the famous island of Alcatraz - our next destination.

 Here it is closer up, a view taken from one of the frequent ferries that ply the route. The rocky outcrop is surrounded by freezing water, often heavy fogs (though not on this winter day!), and strong currents, all of which make escape difficult, nay impossible. Needless to say, some of the US's most desperate criminals wound up here including for a while Al Capone.

Good prisoners had special privileges, like access to the library, where according to one sign, they tended to read Kant, Schopenhauer and Hegel (!!). Another privilege was their ability to use the recreation area below which doubled as a basketball court and bridge club. I can't quite imagine Capone playing bridge, but I sent this photo to my own club in Armidale to demonstrate the superiority of our premises.

Whilst on the island, I was banged up for a short while as you can see. Max loved both the ferry trip and roaming around the island, and it was also useful for us to remind him what happens to naughty people!

In the evening we met up with Greg who came up on the Google bus from work for a delightful meal in what appeared to be SF's Italian district. The meal included some of the best Gelati in the city.

AS