Seattle to Monterey

Amazingly, we made it through two days in Seattle with no rain! We finished our visit with coffee at Zeitgeist before boarding the train again for another 24 hour ride to Salinas. We went to bed (we had a sleeper again) with snow outside at Klamath Falls and woke up to palm trees in California.

This train (the Coast Starlight) is apparently the only Amtrak train with a "parlour car" (exclusively for sleeper car passengers). We spent quite a bit of our journey in here since it had good windows and comfy seats. We had another (mostly local) wine and cheese tasting. The other excitement was a couple who got drunk and disorderly and eventually "volunteered" to get off the train (rather than be arrested)

After getting off the train we had lunch at Olivia's - a little Mexican cafe near the Salinas station. Then we took the bus to Monterey - a bargain at $3.50 for the hour long ride. We could have taken another bus, but it was a warm sunny day so we decided to walk the roughly 3 kms to Pacific Grove where we were staying.

When we reached the waterfront the first thing we saw were harbour seals sunning on the rocks. They looked like they were enjoying the sun as much as we were. After leaving Saskatoon at -30c the sunny +15c here was very nice.

We followed the bike/pedestrian Monterey Bay Coastal trail past Cannery Row and the aquarium to Pacific Grove. Most of the walk is right beside the ocean. We're staying at Green Gables Inn. After arriving we sat in the front room and had tea looking at the ocean. Wine and appetizers starts soon so we better go get cleaned up.

See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip