Mandy's plan had been to try and get to see Hurst Castle and then follow the coast road up to Monterey, but the kids had suffered enough time in the car the previous day, so we compromised on a 3 hour drive along Interstate 5 and then down to Monterey.
We arrived in Monterey at lunchtime and, after a quick paddle in the Pacific, we walked to Cannery Row and ate an excellent meal in Monterey Jack's (711 Cannery Row, Monterey 655-4947) . We chatted with some people in a shop who were much taken with Ryan and he's seriously expecting them to appear for his Birthday next March, having told them how big his new bedroom is and that there's plenty of room for them to stay!
We drove down to the Aquarium, "world famous" (and featured in the Star Trek film where they rescue the whales…) it rightfully claims. It was quite expensive for the 4 of us to get in, but having only a couple of hours on the meter, we were a bit shocked to find an hour had passed before we'd seen a quarter of the exhibits. The huge tanks are very impressive and, whilst we were there, one of the marine biologists was giving a running commentary whilst diving inside one of them!
We toyed with the idea of staying at a hotel overlooking the ocean, but, even though they offered a reduced price it was still more than we could really afford, so we drove up to the motel we stayed in in 1998, when Mandy and I had been here for the Sportscar race at Laguna Seca.
We ended up staying in the Comfort Inn again. The room here wasn't quite as nice as the one in Delano, but it was comfortable enough.
We all fancied Mexican and Mandy and I had had a great one in Pacific Grove on our previous visit (Peppers Mexicali Cafe 170 Forest Ave, Pacific Grove 373-6892). It was just our luck that we found the restaurant with relative ease, only for it to be, exceptionally, closed that evening. We still found a busy but pleasant, informal restaurant (Chili Great Chili 620 Lighthouse Ave 831-646-0447) here and enjoyed a great pasta meal.
After our hectic and dusty days in the vastness of the Arizona and Nevada deserts, Monterey was like waking up and finding yourself in paradise. The air was comfortably cool and everything was lush green and affluent looking.
Monterey impressed on my first visit and, seeing more of it this time, I'm even more enamoured of the place on a second.
When we awoke on our last day in America, I was pleased I'd saved the cost of the ocean front hotel, as thick fog covered the Monterey peninsula.
A few miles driving, however, saw us back in the California sunshine as we headed for our final stop before returning our hire car and boarding our plane for the journey home.
This last stop was the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, less than a mile from Fort Point, which we'd left a week before to start our journey.
All of us, except Ryan (whose first visit to the States this was) had been to the gardens before, but Lauren was keen and it's a lovely, peaceful place to pass an hour or so. With nearly all our US Dollars gone, it was a pleasant surprise to find that the day we chose to visit was the one half price day a month!
The park was quite busy (Mandy and I had visited in October before and it was much quieter then), but we enjoyed the surroundings, with the shade being appreciated on a warm day and the water and bridges (especially the very steep one!) being of great interest to the kids.
The time, came though, when we had to leave and we returned our car to Alamo. The assistant recorded details and returned the receipt to me.
Total mileage over the two weeks…2,503…quite a journey…and one great experience.