Letters From The Loft
Stuff From The Desk Of Chuck Thornton
DAY TWO:
The next morning, as we left the room, I noticed the "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging from the doorknob of the room next door. Somehow it seemed an unfair request, but I didn't want to dwell on it... sorting out the difference between irony, sardonic wit, and your basic double standard always gives me a headache.
We took advantage of the hotel's continental breakfast, which was conveniently located (for us, anyway) a few doors down on the same floor. While there, we struck up a conversation with a couple from Arizona who had wisely left that state for the summer to avoid the shrapnel from exploding thermometers that happens every year about this time. They had children living in central California, so they were familiar with the area, and they suggested we take a drive up toward San Simeon, where elephant seals hang out at the beach.
We decided to check that out, but first we took a stroll down Embarcadero to get a closer look at the town.
We saw a lot of restaurants and souvenir shops and artsy-craftsy type places. Candy shops seemed popular also, with an emphasis on taffy, so I imagine there's plenty of dentist's offices in town, probably with the same proprietors.
There were also plenty of places offering rentals of small craft like kayaks and tiny rowboats with sails attached, or those things that look like surfboards, but you stand on the them and paddle around with an oar. I figured there was probably an outpatient mental institution nearby that generated a market for this kind of thing. I sure wasn't interested in getting into a vessel that would capsize every time I put out my arm to signal a port turn.
We saw a place offering whale-watching excursions, and that was something we'd never done, so we checked it out. There were none leaving this day (Wednesday) but there was one the next day at 9 am, and 19 out of the 24 available spots were already taken, so we booked it.
The whale-tour guy advised that it's considerably cooler on the open sea, so we should dress as if we were going skiing. I figured he didn't mean water-skiing, but since I've never done any skiing, I had no idea what was fashionable, other than to avoid wearing dark knee-high socks with your sneakers. Dressing me is Sue's department, and she decided that we needed to pick up a couple of light jackets or sweatshirts to go over the light jackets we already had. This is called "layering", because you're piling added unexpected expenses onto your vacation budget.
For those of you who've stumbled onto my Alaskan cruise journal, you'll know that we bought huge white heavy-duty industrial-grade Eskimo-approved winter coats for that trip to protect us from the Frigidaire winds. Those coats served their purpose, but we've never worn them since... we haven't been anyplace where we anticipated that kind of climate, and being as they weigh about as much as a Kevlar jump-suit, they're not the kind of coats you routinely pack. At first I slapped my forehead that we didn't bring them along for this trip, but then realized they were just too bulky to be practical for whale-watching, and with an active fishing colony close by, we wouldn't want to take the risk of being mistaken for great whites on the open sea.
After strolling through the rest of town, we got back in the car and made our way up the coast. About 5 miles past San Simeon, we saw the sign indicating the turnout for the elephant seal beach. There was plenty of space for parked cars, and plenty of parked cars there, so we were able to follow our fellow elephant seal enthusiasts to the fenced off lookout point.
At first glance I thought I was looking at a beach full of rocks...
...but that impression only lasted a few seconds, until I noticed that some of them were moving, and making noises that sounded like they were chugging two-liters of Coke.
I took a few pictures, but these two are most indicative of the non-basking variety:
They seemed to enjoy yelling at each other a lot, which made me think that maybe our hotel neighbors had made the trip a day earlier and felt inspired.