Vacation Day 2: Santa Cruz Mountains

Sunday: In an effort to ameliorate the pain in missing Muir Woods, Saturday evening I looked through the AAA Tourbook for a substitute redwoods experience. We were headed to Monterey for the night and, as if the gods themselves had placed it in our path, we discovered Big Basin State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

As we headed up through what I had previously thought of as hills, I soon realized that the "mountains" part of Santa Cruz Mountains was entirely apt. We twisted our way up and down and around, skirting weekend warriors on their two wheels and relay racers on their two legs. We soon found ourselves in a quiet, redwood forest that I would've thought more at home in the Rockies or Sierras.

Big Basin was the first California State Park and is home to some amazing trees. The half mile path is marked with easily missed numbered posts that correspond to descriptions in the interpretive flyer (only 25¢!) that we took turns reading. They may be only coastal redwoods and not as large as their cousins the giant sequoias but those trees were impressive.

Again the day was beautiful and mostly clear until we were heading around the Monterey Bay past the artichoke fields to our hotel in Seaside. We were glad it rained then and not on us in the forest. Plus Jordan got a nice nap. When discussing where we should eat (lunch was snacks in the car), Anne described her dream restaurant looking over the bay with waves crashing beneath us. When we stopped at the hotel to check in, I checked in with Guest Services and asked if there was such a place in Monterey. There was!

So we headed to Cannery Row and the Fish Hopper and our table on the glass-enclosed pier with the surf hitting the rocks below. The food was excellent; I ordered the halibut (we shared the crème brûlée). And we even saw a sea otter swim from one side of the pier to the other.

To finish our evening, I planned to take A & J on the 17 Mile Drive, a private scenic drive along the coast, fancy seaside mansions, the Lone Cypress and the Pebble Beach golf course. Little did I know that we were in for more than just a scenic drive.

First we stopped at the public park at Lovers Point and climbed on the rocks. My legs started to feel like jelly so I retreated the safety of a bench while I watched the waves splash around Anne said one of her favorite things is climbing on rocks and she and Jordan really enjoyed themselves.

Then we paid our $8.50, got our map and numbered guide brochure and started off on the 17 Mile Drive. I had read about three sections worth before we noticed a truck pulled over on the side of the road with its flashers flashing. As we drove by we could see it was a Marine Mammal Center truck and it had a rescue cage in the back. So we pulled over in the next pullout and walked back along the path to see what was going on.

A small group of people from the MMC were hovering over something at the water's edge. Anne asked another bystander what was going on and she said it was a sea lion in distress. The rescuers brought out some herding boards (they looked like shields) and a really big net on a really long pole. They pushed and pushed with their boards trying to get the sea lion in to the net. It was rather non-responsive but we never found out what was wrong with it.

Several bystanders had gone over to see if they could help including Jordan who was very interested in what was going on. Eventually they got the poor thing in the net and left one woman making sure it would stay in it while the rest ran up to the truck to get the big solid-sided metal cage. It took four on each side to carry the big thing.

There was more herding with the boards and more hefting of the cage until they got the sea lion safe in the back of the truck. Anne and Jordan (and others) helped carry the boards and net back up to the truck. I was safely staying out of the way. I was content to let the experts take care of things. Anne told me later that the people who were doing the rescue were at the Center taking a class on sea otters when the call came in to help the sea lion and they'd never participated in a rescue either! It was quite exciting watching it anyway.

After the sea lion rescue the rest of the scenic drive was a bit of a let-down but we persevered, got a little turned around in the dark and eventually found our way back to the hotel where we settled into our spacious suite and had a snack of tuna salad on triscuits, baby carrots and grapes. Yum, yum. I caught up on some hockey and baseball scores and headed for bed. We had to be up scandalously early the next day for our date with the whales.