Tag Archives: california

Monterey Bay Aquarium

I don’t normally split a single trip into several pages since it annoys me on other sites where you have to keep clicking “Next” just to get the complete story, however I was impressed enough with the Monterey Bay Aquarium that I thought it deserved separating out. There is another page for the commentary and pictures from Berkeley, Point Lobos and Carmel.

One of the main focal points in the aquarium is the Kelp Forest, a large tank with kelp and a diverse range of fish swimming around. Of course, as a long-time user of Linux I’m always impressed by penguins, and who wouldn’t love a playful sea otter?

Inside the kelp forest, Monterey Bay Aquarium Penguins, Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea otter, Monterey Bay Aquarium

Most of the penguins were stood still but one was busy. It would carefully select a pebble, passing over most of the easily reached ones for that perfect stone. Picking it up in its beak, it would waddle over to a little cave, drop it in there and start over the whole process. Quite why I have no idea. The other penguins seemed either to be just as bemused or maybe just indifferent.

I was most impressed with the jellyfish. I had no idea that they were so diverse and beautiful. It was all helped by the nicely contrasting lighting.

Jellyfish, Monterey Bay Aquarium Jellyfish, Monterey Bay Aquarium Jellyfish, Monterey Bay Aquarium Jellyfish, Monterey Bay Aquarium

The bad news is that it was very dark and most of my pictures came out blurry, dark or both. I guess that just means you’ll have to go see it yourself!

Berkeley, Point Lobos and Carmel

Not since my trip to three countries in one weekend have so many people questioned my sanity. This time only one country was involved, but so was a ten hour flight and an eight hour time difference.

Despite the logistics it was a great time to go to California as spring starts much earlier there than here in London. It’s nice to be able to walk around in T-shirts in the middle of February.

Spring in Berkeley

We stayed in Berkeley. Previously the only thing I knew about it was that the university was home of the Berkeley Standard Distribution of Unix. Until last year I didn’t, for example, know of its proximity to San Francisco, or that you could see the Golden Gate Bridge if you go up a particularly steep hill.

VW Bug in Berkeley View of the Bay Area STOP in Berkeley

After we’d (more or less) recovered from the flight over we headed south to Monterey, which is where we’d spend the Saturday night. But we had other places to visit before we called it a day.

Carmel, CaliforniaCarmel, in the UK at least, is most famous for being the town where Clint Eastwood was mayor. We didn’t see him, but we did see a building that was either owned by or simply dedicated to him. We wandered up and down the main street, peering into the various tourist-oriented shops and some expensive-looking designer outlets. We failed to buy anything more expensive than a coffee and a cake.

The reason we had so little time was a detour to Point Lobos. It’s a beautiful spot on the coast where the Pacific crashes powerfully into the beige coloured rocks. There’s a tradition of taking family pictures here and we were keen to add another to the collection.

Point Lobos, California

Carmel was surprisingly busy and we were pleased with ourselves for booking a restaurant. Back at the hotel in Monterey we slept and then spent some of the morning peering out at the water trying to locate seals and sea-otters. (Partially successfully!)

Carmel Mission, California

Fortunately we didn’t have to rely on luck for closer sightings of nature as we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Carmel Mission, CaliforniaBefore heading back to Berkeley we had a look around the Carmel Mission. We had mistakenly thought is was this building in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, but despite missing the movie references still found it to be an interesting spot.

On Monday we just hung around the East Bay. I wandered up to the main street in Berkeley, enjoying the sun and picking up a Peets coffee.

So am I crazy? I don’t think so. It was a long way to go for a weekend, but it was fun and it was great to have a brief reprieve from the grey, London weather.

California, 2006

Golden Gate BridgeHaving only ever been to the States once before 2006, it came as a bit of a surprise to find myself in California only a month after my trip to New York. To be fair, this one had been planned some time in advance. A good friend of my wife was getting married, so a good chunk of the week would be taken up with bridal activities. However we made sure that there would be enough time for some sight-seeing too, after all, this is where my wife grew up.

Knowing time was limited, we started pretty much as soon as the plane landed. We picked up the hire car and headed straight into San Francisco. Since we had to pass through on the way to Laffayette — where we were staying for most our time in California — it made sense to stop at a few sights.

Sign on Golden Gate BridgeFirst stop was Baker Beach, which provided a great view of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and my first glance of the Pacific Ocean. Later, when walking across the bridge we came across this sign encouraging people not to jump. Is it just me, or does that seem to be too little too late?

The day of the dress fitting, I spent some time hanging around downtown San Francisco. As an Apple and email junkie, it was necessary to spend some time in the Apple Store. (If you can’t go “high-tech” in the Bay Area where can you do it?) Later, away from the technology, we found the City Lights Bookstore, Fisherman’s Wharf, the seals on Pier 39 and many of the other things that The City is famous for.

San Francisco cable car operatorAlthough tragically touristy, I felt that I had to ride on one of the cable cars. One of the things that they don’t tell you about before-hand is that they pack you in almost as much as a London underground train. Unlike London Transport, however, the only thing stopping you falling into the street is your vice-like grip on poles on the tram. It’s not uncommon to breath in or clench buttocks in preparation for a collision with a car. The scrapes never actually happened but surely it must sometimes?

For the whole ride, from one end of San Francisco to the other, only takes twenty minutes or so. For the whole time the operator is pulling levers and tugging on a frayed string that rings a bell. It’s anyone’s guess what the levers actually do.

Napa ValleyAfter the wedding was over, we finally got some “us” time and headed north to the Napa Valley, the Californian wine region. We ended up spending most of the money we’d saved by staying in Lafayette the previous week by splashing out on a lovely spa-style hotel in Yountville and dining in a great French-style restaurant.

Only ninety minutes from the Bay Area, we got to the hotel fairly early, checked in and decided to take a look further down the valley. We headed further up the 29 and stopped off at the St Supery Winery for a quick drink. The staff were suitably enthusiastic — unimpressed with our choice of wine, he insisted we try a fifth variety — and the wine agreeable enough to warrant the purchase of a couple of bottles.

Lacking a “designated driver” we decided to steer clear of further wineries (as tempting as further tasting was). We turned off the main road and headed back in a lazy loop back to Yountville. The map we were using indicated a lake but had no suggestions how to actually get there. We guessed and were lucky. It was a nice, tranquil spot just metres from the main road.

The whole area clearly has pretensions to being Tuscany. The green and gently undulating country-side certainly helps in this and many buildings are built in the style. It’s quite surprising that it gets so close!

Sonoma MissionOur last full day in California was busy. Starting in Yountville we had to head back to the Bay Area and then further south to San Jose at the centre of Silicon Valley. Our last evening would be spent in the company of Madonna.

But we had to get there first and it only takes a couple of hours to get back to Oakland. We decided to stay up in the wine region for as long as possible but wanted to nip over to the Sonoma Valley which runs parallel to the more famous Napa Valley but also has its fair share of wineries.

Knowing that we weren’t in a hurry, we took our time, stopping off a few times on the way. A few times just to take the odd picture, once in Sonoma itself and finally for lunch at one of the wineries.

Grapes growing in a winerySonoma had a nice, shady square bordered by shops. We wandered around, stopping at the Sonoma Mission, learning about all the Christian missions that were built and stretched all the way from Mexico.

We eat lunch and head straight down to Oakland (it was inexplicably late afternoon by this point). After all the green and space, even if it was only for twenty-four hours, the dense traffic somehow managed to come as a shock to the system. Perhaps in-keeping with the relative chaos of the freeway, our last few hours in the country would be hectic. There was the Madonna concert and then a last chance to meet up with family. The whole time has gone in a flash.

Back home we collapsed. We covered a lot of ground in California and could happily do with another few days off to recover. No such luck of course. Still, the good news is that we’ll be back.