Whale Watching in Monterey

Monterey is a seaside town about 1.5 hours drive south of San Jose.  It is famous for being the home of the author John Steinbeck.  His novel 'Cannery Row' was set there and the Row is still there, although now it is full of souvenir shops and restaurants.  Where the old cannery used to be is the Monterey Aquarium.  From November to April, the grey whales migrate past the coast here, down to their breeding grounds in the Gulf of Mexico.  We went on a whale watching trip in April, when the whales are swimming back up to the feeding grounds off Alaska.

    The water around Monterey Bay are full of marine mammals like this sea lion.  We also saw some sea otters, which are much bigger than I imagined.  Unfortunately we couldn't get close enough to get a good photo.

    On the way out to the whale 'highway', this school of dolphins rode the bow wave for about half an hour or so.

    A grey whale fluke.  We saw quite a lot of whales, but only bits and pieces of them at a time usually their backs as they came up for air.  Occasionally we would see a fluke like this, as a whale sounded.

Hearst Castle

Further south on highway 1 from Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur, is Hearst Castle.  It was built by the newspaper tycoon Randolph Hearst on his family's ranch.  On trips to Europe, he bought up pieces of architecture (including the facade of a Spanish church) and many other objet d'art.  He used them to create this amazing house.

    Hearst Castle from the valley.

    This is one of the guesthouses at the castle.   Inside are beautiful ensuite bedrooms full of priceless antiques.

    The outdoor pool.  This was created on a Grecian theme as you can see.  Some of the statues are original and some are copies.  If you look closely at the frieze on the building, you can see some very definite Art Nouveau touches.

    The front door of the main house.  The facade comes from a Spanish church and the area in front has been designed to look like an Italian piazza.

            Some scenes of the inside of the main house.

    The indoor pool.

The North Coast

One weekend we drove north up the coast from San Francisco.  It is very spectacular scenery and full of lovely small towns.  We stopped at an area where the snowy egrets nest every spring and took some photos.

        Snowy egrets nesting in a tree.  They are very showy birds and their plumes were once in great demand for ladies hats.

    Herons also nest in the area around the same time.

    Red blackbird.  These look like our blackbirds most of the year, but at breeding time they develop showy red patches on their wings.

            There were lots of beautiful wild flowers in bloom, including these irises and the californian poppy (the official state flower).