Portola Hotel & Spa Monterey

... caught up on sleep after San Fran. Up at 9am and headed towards Fisherman's Wharf and looked in lots of gift shops. Rich got tempted by clam chowder so we had lunch on the pier, sitting next to lots of huge pelicans outside the window! Very scary. Then drove down Cannery Row, named after a John Steinbeck novel! Went in a shop that sold things that ...

... are a bad hiking shoe. I think we just underestimate the terrain. We took the hike up, passing a sign for quarantined area and beware of mountain cats. The hike had great valley views and lots of twists and turns as it ascended the mountain. The Redwoods were ginormously tall but still no compare to their sister Sequoias. The climb over to the waterfall was a nice one and we ventured past the path to explore where water falls to ...

... rundown, so instead we picked a little town just outside Santa Cruz called Capitola.<br><br>Although not quite the Big Sur that we would be travelling down later on in the week,the drive along the coast was fantastic and we stopped off a number of times at beautiful deserted beaches with rough, Pacific waves. <br><br>When we arrived at our b&amp;b, The Jewel Box, we were so pleased, it was really sweet and had a ...

First all, PCH is one of the best roads we've been down as well. Mark it up with Rt 50 and 270, I think. A few different times we just pulled over to the side and got out to enjoy the view. Not that the wide screen and split-screen TV's weren't enough...best channels ever, but being outside is always different. Fantastic bridges almost just sitting in the canyons between mountains, ocean on the right, nothing below, canyons on the left. I tagged a couple signs headed down as well I believe ...

... of course, and witness this rather unusual site. Apparently elephant seals were nearly extinct a few decades ago, but there are now over 15,000 living off the Pacific Coast.<br><br>The signs announced we still had around 250 miles to go to reach LA, so I put my foot down and we sped off. We stopped once more (for an "In n Out Burger" in Santa Maria), and eventually rolled into Nottingham Avenue at 9.45pm. Wow - a LONG day, but very worthwhile.

... as the captain had no confirmed whale sightings for the morning, he decided to drive towards where dolphins had been sighted.<br><br>OK... In Monterey Canyon.... when they say dolphin sightings, it means tons and tons, hundreds!!! Not a measly one or two but totally surrounding the boat. We saw common dolphins and Risso dolphins and really fast swimming whale dolphins whose name sounded like "Dallas Portsmouth" but is actually Northern Right Whale Dolphins<br><br ...

... s wharf, but since neither of us were in the mood for a boat trip or clam chowder we left dissapointed and headed on to the 17 mile drive and Pebble Beach. Will had sneakily booked himself in for a 9-hole playing lesson at Spanish Bay, one of the 4 main courses that make up the Pebble Beach Resort (the others being Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Del Monte). <br><br>He went round with Director of Instruction Dan ...

Been cruising the sites for a week now. Monterey has much to offer with maritime history. I spent a day walking the wharf, marine museum and historic customs house. Called it a day after having a couple of pints at local British pub (the Crown &amp; Anchor ...

... good restaurants - pity we couldn't sample them all. This area is also the fastest growing wine area in California, producing some excellent & cheap wines (it also currently ships 80% of its grapes to Napa for them to produce their "local" wines!). Pismo Beach San Luis Obispo is inland, so we had an expedition to the seaside resort of Pismo Beach. It has a pier, a prom, lots of cafes & a long beach. There were ...