Ocean!

(Apologies for the small type. I can't correct it.)

I think everyone on the west coast, and probably points beyond, felt the effects of the two weather fronts that passed through last weekend. We decided to pay attention and stayed put in Bakersfield for three days, (for the record: staying first at Orange Grove RV Park where we picked more oranges! and then at Bakersfield RV Resort)  where we caught up on laundry and grocery shopping, and managed a little geocaching as well. We had some big rainfalls and some big wind, but only at night, and managed to escape the worst of the storms. This meant changing our plans and missing our chance to get up close and personal with the elephant seals north of Morro Rock, a disappointment, but so it goes. 

Oilfields on the way out of Bakersfield -- as far as the eye can see.

The hills were alive with wildflowers on the way into Bakersfield from Temecula. Apparently not a common occurrence.

I had to stick my hand in a hole in a palm tree to find this geocache in Bakersfield. But I did, and it was there!

Amber found this cool sign in Bakersfield, a town filled with neat photo ops.

And yes, we visited the peacocks again. Who can resist?

Sandy hills on Alfred Harrell Hwy on outskirts of B'field.

This was a hard geocache find at River Walk Park in Bakersfield, but intrepid Amber persevered.

Yesterday, Wednesday, we drove northwest to Moss Landing, on Monterey Bay, and we're all glad to be back near the ocean. We had fish for dinner last night at Phil's Fish Market , a funky popular spot with live bluegrass music (where, despite a substantial local fishery, they serve farmed salmon!!!-- go figure), and today did some exploring. 

Phil's Fish Market

Moss Landing is a curious little village (population 204), at one time a whaling station, currently dominated by a huge gas power plant towering above a block-long main street with cool-looking storefronts, a B&B, two alluring Mexican restaurants, two marine research facilities, a working fishing harbour and marina, and the Elkhorn Estuary (one of the top 10 birding areas in the US), which is chock-full of sea otters and the aforementioned birds. Not to mention a whole bunch of beaches with crashing waves, a few surfers, and miles of dunes. There's no grocery store, but up on the highway a produce stand  sells 7 avacadoes for $1 and 5 artichokes for $1. (We're very close to Castroville, "the artichoke capitol of the world".) We all quite like it here.

The Whole Enchilada, a cool-looking Moss Landing restaurant.

We're staying at the Moss Landing Express KOA, which is also a curious little place. We've never much cottoned to KOAs: they tend to be expensive with facilities that don't match the price. But it's one of only two or three RV parks close to the Monterey Aquarium that fits us, and so we picked it. Like the town, it's kind of funky, but it has good showers and is close to everything in town -- but then everything here is close to everything in town, so that's a dubious attribute. 

Gas-fired power plant. On the way in, it was shrouded in fog. Spooky.

House on the Slough at Moss Landing.

Moss Landing's economy is based largely on the power plant, a 600-boat marina, and the estuary (see the otter).

Moss Landing State Beach backs up against the estuary, which is one of the best places in the world(!)  to see sea otters -- almost made extinct in the 17- and 1800s, mostly because of a demand for otter fur hats.  Their fur is an astounding million hairs per square inch, and the cute little critters are always grooming themselves to keep the fur healthy. They tend to be fairly solitary creatures, but here they loll about adorably in groups and are a lot of fun to watch, even though apparently their true nature can be quite violent.

Violent? Moi?

 

Sea otter group, lolling together, not usual for the species.

 

Elkhorn Slough from Moss Landing State Beach

We got to chatting with a surfer on the beach, and on his advice, after getting our fill of otters and surf, we drove north to Capitola, also on Monterey Bay, just south of Santa Cruz, in search of a beach that wasn't as open to crashing waves and riptides. We found it in this slightly faded but nifty town that claims it was the first seaside resort in the state, where we had some lunch, then just hung out, some of us playing for a l-o-n-g time on the sought-after sheltered beach, an activity which the same some of us had missed terribly. Even though the desert is full of sand, it ain't the same. Others of us strolled around the downtown beach area, noting some charming looking hotels, lots of vacation rentals, many galleries and restaurants, and an old wooden wharf.

 

Lunch at Zelda's

Lots of beachside hotels and vacation homes in Capitola

Ron on the wharf

Downtown street in Capitola

Homes on Soquel Creek just before it empties into Monterey Bay in Capitola.

Flower on a wall.

The desert is nice, we all agree, but we do love our beaches.