Day 4: Monterey to Diamond Springs

Nice quiet start to the day. We only have a 4 hour drive to Stan and June's house over in the foothills of Diamond Springs. So started with a leisurely breakfast ( they even had almond milk). After which we strolled down a walkway which is the remains of the old railway line that serviced the sardine factories. This walk/cycle track runs for 18 miles, would have been great to have more time and biked it. Perhaps next time.

Our stroll ended at the Monterey aquarium. What an incredible complex. Part of it built in one of the old sardine factory's. So had very detailed explanation of how they functioned and just how hard the workers has to work - 14 hours per day (starting at 4 am) standing in cold water. Not much fun I bet.

The museum is extremely well set up for children,

First we watched the sea otters being feed, which was interesting. All were female and were used to act as surrogates to young otters who are orphaned in the wild.

After this it was off to the "open sea" display. It was just incredible, large schools of sardines, turtles, mako sharks, tuna etc, all in an environment representing what we could expect in the ocean a few hundred kilometres of the coast of Monterey. This time they feed the turtles and sardines. Both this feeding and the otters was very educational. The naturalist running the programme admitted that the tuna and sharks take the odd sardine.

From here we visited the penguins (from Africa) as well as the wharf sea environment. Here we watched a diver feeding the many and various fish species, including Leopard sharks). By now the time was around 12:30 pm, so we had to hit the road. Now the fun began!

Firstly we got lost  trying to find Rte 1 again. So we decided to fill up with gas, now that is chapter in itself. Thankfully the staff were understanding and tolerated and assisted me. Believe it or not but to completely fill "the beast" took only $40 (we are getting 10 litres/100km running on sports mode. Have since changed to eco mode.

So, after this little trial we successfully found 1 and cruised along at 65 mph. We left 1 to get across to the 101. Now we hit a traffic jam, down to 5 miles an hour. The reason, a big rig and a small truck had hit one-another just on the 101 off ramp. Once passed this and the 101 things speed up again. From the 101 we had to get to the I-5. On the 5 the traffic was down to 15 mph. Now all this led to a longer trip than Ma Google had quoted. We got to Diamond Springs in the dark around 5:30 pm.

Once we left I-5 we traveled through farm country. We passed through acres and acres of strawberries, apricots and nut farms, then into cattle country. Great vistas and interesting.

That evening we went with Stan and June to a local Mexican restaurant. It was very good and authentic. So that was the end of a very exhausting day.