New Years (Monterey)

New Years Eve and New Years Day were devoted to the exploration of Monterey and Pebble Beach. I divided my time fairly equally between coughing, eating seafood and pretending to be David Attenborough.

My study of the fascinating local fauna started with the little known Busking Beach Squirrel. This little guy was happy to do tricks for the penny Dad tossed to attract his attention, but was pretty pissed off when he realised it wasn’t edible. We all kept at least one eye open for the rest of our stay, terrified that his relatives would exact revenge by coming after our nuts.


Monterey itself reminded me somewhat of Newcastle. There’s water and sand, but it’s all a bit too cold and grey to contemplate actually swimming. Pebble Beach (below) was a lot less like Newcastle.


Pebble Beach is famous for its views, golf course and big money, it’s easy to see how the first of those attracted the other two. During our visit Pebble Beach demonstrated the added golfing advantage of approximating the original Scottish climate of incredibly strong and unpredictable winds. Entrepreneurial seals could easily make a good living recovering golf balls that are blown out to sea.

But the views are well worth the windburn and whiplash. Pebble Beach is one of those places that makes us all want to take photographs for postcards.


But the main activity of the Monterey / Pebble Beach jaunt was the hunting and shooting (with the camera, of course) of sea otters. These adorable little furry creatures frolic around the rocky coast of this region throughout the year, delighting tourists with tantalising glimpses that encourage hundreds of photographs like this one.


This is a game I like to call “Spot the Otter”, otherwise known as “Where is That Little Bastard?” Dear Santa, next year I want a telephoto lens. The relevant section of this image is enlarged below.


In the car between otter-spotting locations Marcus and I entertained Dad and Patricia with our highly individual vocal arrangements of songs from Jim Henson’s movie “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas.” Our audience didn’t say much, but I know they appreciated our efforts deep down - very, very deep down.

With a combination of determination, patience, talent and tickets to the Aquarium I finally managed to score some good shots of the otters in action. They are great fun and well worth the frostbite on my camera trigger finger.