The weather was nice when we woke up so we elected to go exploring. After a quick breakfast, we jumped into Charlotte and headed southwest on Watsonville Road which passes right by our camp spot at Morgan Hill TT. After a few miles, Watsonville Road, aka CA-152, heads into the redwood groves as it passes up the side of Hecker Pass before emerging on the coast side of the coastal mountains.
The road finally quits turning at the foothills and heads into the town of Watsonville. There is a gorgeous mansion here called the Tuttle House and it is right on CA-152. From Watsonville we picked up CA-1 toward Monterey passing through a place called Moss Landing where we pulled off the road right across the lagoon from the Moss Landing power plant. Wildlife must love the lagoon because we spotted a big sea otter presence, sea lions hauled out on sand bars, fat squirrels and lots of birds we have not seen before. I think the dirt road and parking lot are called Moss Landing State Beach.
We reluctantly left Moss Landing and continued south through Seaside, where old US Army Fort Ord used to be back when I was a kid wrestling mastodons. We finally pulled off CA-1 in Monterey and took the obligatory drive down Cannery Row. It looks like there are lots of upscale shops in the former cannery buildings but I didn’t see any canneries. As you drive south through Monterey, you will soon pass into the town of Pacific Grove where there is an abundance of gorgeous beachfront houses of several different architectural styles. We took too many house pictures here because we had ample supply of subjects.
We tried to turn here onto the Monterey peninsula’s famous 17 Mile Drive which passes one of the most spectacular sections of California coastline. Unfortunately, we were defeated and turned around at the entrance because there is some *!#*!!? golf event here and apparently all 17 miles need to be blocked off so portly guys wearing hideous fashions can cross the street without them or their golf bat slaves being flattened. Maybe next time.
Foiled by golf dudes, we turned north on CA-1 back to Moss Landing where we pulled off at a road to Salinas State Beach. Following the road led us to Phil’s Seafood Restaurant and Market where Peggy had a salmon sandwich and I had the snapper. It was very good. We then went north on CA-1 to Moss Landing again and pulled over for another half hour of otter watching. Most of the sea otters were peacefully sleeping but the adolescents were engaged in continuous roughhousing that sometimes ended up waking the snoozing adults as the youngsters passed right over the sleepy guys while wrestling. Their wrestling is only partially visible because some goes on underwater but the motions of their furry little bodies look like a Slinky in a sock. They make cats look positively rigid.
We regrettably departed from otter antics and got back on CA-152 and went back to Morgan Hill. It was a terrific day.
There are a few pix to see if you click here