Monterey Bay, California Part 2

Coastal Trail, Cannery Row, Old Fisherman's Wharf

In the first part of this series on Monterey Bay, the subject was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I would like to add one more bit about the aquarium. I mentioned the sea otters that you can spot in the water of the bay from the outside deck. But there are also sea otters inside the aquarium. There is a show a few times a day where the caretakers play with the otters. It is fun to watch.

When you leave the aquarium, turn right and go a few blocks on the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail and you will come to the Harbor Seal Observation Area. There is a chain link fence and if you look down at the beach you will see many, many harbor seals lying there. It is quite a sight. As we stood there viewing them a man on a bike came by and asked if anyone had questions about the seals. They actually have a Facebook Page - The Harbor Seals of Pacific Grove. They are protected by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the City of Pacific Grove. They even have certain restrictions during pupping season. They are nocturnal creatures, sleeping on the beach during the day, making for excellent viewing opportunities. 

The coastal trail runs through Pacific Grove with some nice viewing areas and parks along the way. If you travel in the other direction from the aquarium, into Monterey, Cannery Row is along the coast and the trail actually is on the inland side of it until the end of Cannery Row. Then it is along the coast again. The trail is 18 miles long from Pacific Grove to Castroville but I did not explore the whole length. In fact I only walked through Pacific Grove and to the end of Cannery Row in Monterey. But you can't beat it if you like to be near the ocean.

  

     

If you want more than nature and the outdoors, Cannery Row has shops and restaurants. It can get very busy on weekends. It is a cool place to visit just because of it's history and location. It is on the to-do list if you visit Monterey.

Next up is Old Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey. There is a good choice of restaurants with some great seafood. There are also other shops and of course a great view. It is nice to go there for an afternoon to have a meal, walk the wharf and take in the sea breeze. Below is a photo of the delicious food we had on our visit there.

              

There is so much to see and do in this region of California. I only covered the main areas.

Next time we will venture into Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach on the Monterey Peninsula. 

View of Bay

                    

     

Monterey Bay, California Part 1

I had the good fortune to visit this beautiful area of California for a few months in early 2023. It is at the top of my list of favorite places in the state of California.

We stayed in Pacific Grove, right at the Monterey city line. This area is very accessible by foot to the interesting places in that immediate area. 

#1 on the list is the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It sits at the one end of Cannery Row along Monterey Bay. I love this place! Since we would be there for about three months, we opted to get the membership since admission is a little pricey. By visiting multiple times it was a smart choice. You can see many strange and beautiful creatures up close. It was a great place to spend an afternoon and just roam through the many areas or just sit and watch. There is also a big deck area outside where you can spot the sea otters. 

Here are some of the beautiful and interesting creatures you can see there.

  

                                

   

   

                             

  

                                                                 

                                   

There is an area when you first enter the aquarium that tells the history of Hovden Cannery, which was the largest sardine cannery on Cannery Row. The aquarium was built on the site of this cannery. There are pictures and videos plus displays of cans with products from the cannery. Also there was a small area mentioning John Steinbeck, author of the novel Cannery Row and his friend Ed Ricketts.

The aquarium's mission is conservation of the ocean and they work hard and get the message out with many exhibits and educational materials. If you are ever in Monterey, I highly recommend visiting the aquarium. You won't regret it.

Coming soon -Part 2. It will cover some other interesting places in the area. 

Dream Trip - Galapagos Islands Part 5

In this segment of the Galapagos Islands story, I will cover a few additional places we visited.

Dream Trip - Galapagos Islands Part 4

 In this post we will visit some more interesting and beautiful places on the island. 

This was a special day, my husband's birthday. We took a taxi to Tortuga Bay. The trail to the beach is about 1 1/2 miles long and starts out with stone stairs. The trail is paved and runs through a desert-like area. It was a hot day and by the time we made it to the beach we were ready to cool off. But - the first beach we reached is mostly for the wildlife, there are big waves and strong currents here and no swimming is allowed. We got some good closeup shots of the marine iguanas. If you keep walking you reach a cove or lagoon where there is another smaller beach where swimming is allowed. This water was calm, more like a lake. There were lots of marine iguanas swimming around. It's a nice beach with a few trees and lots of little birds.

Dream Trip - Galapagos Islands Part 3

On the third day we made arrangements with W (who had picked us up when we arrived in Galapagos) for a day trip. We would be visiting El Chato Ranch Giant Tortoise Reserve where the tortoises are in their natural habitat. But first we had breakfast at our favorite spot in town, - Kale. Then we got a taxi (one of the white pickup trucks ) back to the apartment where W picked us up. 

At El Chato Ranch they have a supply of rubber boots you can wear that are good for walking around through the tall grass. They were especially good on this day because it was raining. We roamed around for quite a while, walking very close to the tortoises. They were big and it was fun just to be able to walk so close and actually be among them (had to watch out for the big poop). We got lots of photos. They have a snack bar there and we had some refreshments before walking to a lava tunnel. This is where the lava flowed through and made a cave. There were a lot of steps going down into the cave. We had fun exploring. 

Dream Trip - Galapagos Islands Part 2

On the second day of our trip to the Galapagos Islands we walked into Puerto Ayora for breakfast. We found a small restaurant (Restaurante Kale) where there were quite a few policemen having breakfast there. We figured they were locals so it must be good. We got our first taste of Ecuadorian food here when we ordered bolones - fried mashed plantain shaped into balls with add-ins such as cheese and pork. We also had eggs, beef and jugo de tomate de arbol (tree tomato or tamarillo juice). Everything was very tasty. Needless to say, we returned there several times during our stay. After breakfast, we went to the market for fresh produce. After returning to the apartment, we were ready to set out on our excursion.

Dream Trip - Galapagos Islands Part 1

Think of a place in the world that is exceptional, unique and never in your wildest dreams would you think you could go there. Well for me that was the Galapagos Islands. I always thought of that destination as a magical place, full of all types of odd animal life. Plus it is a group of small islands in the middle of the ocean. Kind of scary. 

Five Days in Taiwan Part 5

In the final post of this series I will feature the village of  Wulai and our trip to a spa and end with extra tidbits.


We went to the bus stop outside of the Xindian MRT Station and got Bus 849 to take us to Wulai, a place known for hot springs and aboriginal culture.

Inside the bus

View from the bus going into Wulai

Our bus

Welcome to Wulai sign at bus drop off area

Once we got off the bus in Wulai, we met a woman who had also been on the same bus. She was born in  Taiwan but had lived in the U.S. (Florida) for forty years and occasionally visited home. She was meeting a friend of a friend who was a guideat the museum there. She invited us to come along.

 

Five Days in Taiwan Part 4

In the next two posts I will wrap up our trip to Taiwan by featuring the trips we took outside of the city of Taipei.

On one of our day trips we took the metro to the Taipei Zoo Station of the Maokong Gondola. It is a cable car that goes up the mountain to the peak at Maokong. There are four stops including the Taipai Zoo stop which is at the bottom where you can start the trip up the mountain. We got  a pass with one stop. The second stop is Taipei Zoo South which is inside the zoo. We passed that one. The third stop is Zhinan Temple. This is where we decided to get off. The last stop at the top is Maokong where there are tea plantations and tea houses. I would have liked to go there but we were opting for a shorter day, that is why we only did one stop.

Taipei Zoo Station of Maokong Gondola

Cable Car

      
                                                    

Five Days in Taiwan Part 3

In this post I will feature a great walking tour of Taipei. I was online looking up things to do in Taipei, preferably free or inexpensive. I found a website for TourMeAway. They have a number of different tours. I chose the Longshan Temple Tour. Since this was a night tour, we met at 7:30 P.M. at the Longshan Temple MRT station. The photo below shows some interesting art that was in the station.
 

Longshan Temple MRT Station

Taiwan in Five Days Part 2

The first blog post in this series covered the reason for traveling to Taiwan, arriving in Taipei, the subway and Hotel 73. In this post I will talk about some of the things that I did in the city itself.

 Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
This is a great historical site. We walked here from our hotel. When you approach the area there is an ornate archway that is the gateway into the square. I have seen many different names for this square including Liberty Square, Democracy Square and Freedom Square. I am not sure of the official name. After entering through the archway there are two buildings, the National Theater on the right and the National Concert Hall on the left. They are beautifully decorated and very colorful in the traditional Chinese architectural design. There are ornamental plantings along each side. There is also a pond and park/gardens on both sides. At the far end of the square stands the Memorial Hall which is shaped like an octagon, with eight sides. To the Chinese the number eight is associated with fortune and wealth.

View from steps of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall