Penultimate Day

Sunday 4 November 2018

We awoke early but only because the clocks went back an hour overnight so our 6.30am awakening would have been a 7.30am awakening yesterday morning.  So we made use of the extra hour to lie in bed watching telly, reading our tablets etc.

Beth had warned us that the breakfast provided here was not much chop (indeed, not much of anything) so we decided to treat ourselves to a cooked breakfast at a cafe as after 3 weeks of cereal, toast and bagels something cooked and savoury appealed.  We obviously picked a Sunday morning favourite with the locals as we had a 25 minute wait for a table but the cafe ‘First Awakenings’  was on the outside of a shopping arcade so we passed the time window shopping and Jenny practiced her shooting in an arcade game.  Not much incentive to hit the frog target though because it squirted water at you if you did!

Didn’t seem that long until our name was called (people still queuing as we went in – by this time they were telling people it would be a 45 minute wait and they were still happy to wait!) and we sat down and then had a hard time deciding what to have – so many options!  Eventually Larry chose the breakfast dish which is best described as a like a potato rosti with fried eggs on top.  I had an omelette filled with bacon, avacoda and cheese and with a pile of the potato/bacon on the side.  Huge servings and we probably got about 2/3 of the way through.  Larry was thrilled that he actually found the plate at the bottom of the dish in one spot!

Waddled out and then negotiated the one way streets of Monterey to find parking and headed into the Aquarium just after opening time.  It really is a very good complex and well worth the entry fee.  We headed straight to the sea otters and were there just before feeding time so that was very interesting and well as entertaining.  Sea otters are much bigger than I had expected and so damn cute.  As these ones are well fed they have plenty of play time and were happily interacting with kids along the glass.  Just gorgeous.

We wandered around the rest of the displays and dodged the many pushers and wheelchairs to see into most tanks.  We were particularly taken with the jellyfish exhibit and the very, very tiny plankton that look like mini lighthouses when you look at them close up.

Left the Aquarium about lunchtime and wandered around the Cannery Row area looking at the touristy shops.  We would have bought a “Hairy Otter” T-shirt if we had any room left in our cases – such a cute otter in his Harry Potter glasses!!  Bought some drinks and found the car and then took the 17 mile drive south.

We followed the pamphlet and stopped at most of the points of interest to make the most of the $10.25 entry fee for the road and Larry watched the golfers enviously and I checked out some of the palatial houses enviously.  A couple that I would seriously contemplate buying with my Lotto win!

We emerged at the southern end and drove through Carmel-by-the-Sea before the GPS sent us down some local roads (also very interesting  to see the cute residential houses) and to a luggage place we had asked it to find at the Crossroads shopping centre.  Well I think this shopping centre is for the wealthy that either live in Pebble Beach or at Carmel Heights as it was your $700 type luggage so our idea of buying another small flight case for all the extra stuff was quickly rethought.  Went into a Starbucks instead and had a coffee and a bite to eat – we hadn’t felt like lunch but by 3ish we were feeling like something – then headed back to Pacific Grove.

Our last stop for the day was the Monarch Butterfly reserve around the corner from our motel.  They come here to nest in large quantities over winter and start arriving about now.  There was a docent there who had a couple of telescopes set up to find the clusters who had already arrived.  They are pretty hard to see with the naked eye as they cluster on the eucalyptus (!) branches at such a height that from ground level they just make the branch look a bit darker than the others.  So we were lucky to be able to see them through the telescope and see how tightly they cluster.  Would be an amazing sight when there are millions more here in a couple of months.

Headed on back to the motel and started organising our bags and before we knew it, it was getting dark outside.  The first night of non daylight saving had caught us out!  We drove down to Lover’s Point and went to the Beach House for dinner but unfortunately we missed the sunset and had to make do with twinkling lights over the water instead.  We spoilt ourselves with a cocktail, lovely dinners, salad and dessert tonight as it is the last proper dinner of our holiday.  Lovely steak and shrimp in garlicky butter and a caramel-apple cheesecake.  The salad was the Beach House special and included candied pecans, cranberries and goats cheese.  I do like American salads as they have lots of interesting things in them and are usually not swimming in dressing.

Went to bed with a seriously sore throat (even after all the garlicky butter) and Larry rang Qantas to find out what to do if we are too sick to travel tomorrow and they said, “No worries, we can upgrade you to business class for $10,000 if you like”!!!!!  Hmm, hopefully will feel better tomorrow.  At that price I will certainly try!