Our final destination was to head east, staying just outside Carmel. For the final few nights we would essentially be neighbours with Brad Pitt and Clint Eastwood (I mean they live a few miles from our hotel but who’s counting). 

We were excited to see the sea again but had done very little by way of planning these last few days, we’d even changed the hotel mid holiday. As we travel we always remind ourselves what we like / dislike and so it works to keep things open. 

The way back to the coast was lovely. We managed to avoid crazy highways and cut across a couple of mountain ranges. We watched the vegetation shift from scorched to lush and there was a definite shift in wealth as the manicured private estates popped up alongside vineyards. 

The agriculture in this area is vast. I was born in Lincolnshire and so am no stranger to a field of onions 😂. Turns out this central valley area in California accounts for half of all fruit and vegetables grown in the US. It also generates 20% of the milk consumed, although having seen the cows tolerating the heat with no fresh grass I’m wondering quite a bit about animal welfare. 

But here’s the thing – the area is bone dry. Left without irrigation the crops would definitely fail. In recent years the main reservoir (Shasta) shrunk to less than 25% of its capacity and farmland went unfarmed as a result. 

I’m sure you didn’t tune into the blog for an agriculture update (though my Dad will be delighted with this content), but as we travel we constantly get reminded that the world is changing and we like to share that reality. 

Back to Carmel. Some quick research told us that Monterey nearby was a hot spot for Whale watching. We thought we were out of season right down this coast but it turns out humpback whales love the area and the deep trenches and so we spent one of last mornings out at sea. If you’ve read a few of our blogs you’ll know we whale watch a lot!  I can honestly say I have never seen anything like it. There was an embarrassment of sea life including loads of sea lions hunting together in the deep and a large number of humpbacks across several different sights. I think we probably saw 20 humpback whales including some who chose to get unbelievably close. 

California has also got one thing particularly right, bottom trawling is not legal across the state waters except in a very small area where strict rules are placed on how it is done. There are also a number of no fish zones which has allowed sea life of all kinds to recover. This includes sea otters being abundant, although this is not from personal experience as these guys remained firmly out of site for all of our California holiday!

Being back by the sea was amazing and John was totally in his element with miles of visible kelp that he was desperate to inspect at close quarters. Sadly timing was not right for a scuba dive and John stayed on land as he wasn’t entirely sure a beach dip would be safe from rocks, strong currents…and white sharks, who also enjoy the seas around this area!!

As our time in California comes to an end we played the usual game of ‘could we live here’. The answer for sure was yes we could, but it was the coastal areas that we loved the most. Admittedly it might be quite rainy in the winter, but the bright sunshine and foggy interludes are awesome and the sea line is amazing. Americans in this part of the world seemed pretty cool too. Friendly, and sometimes spontaneously apolitically telling us ‘I didn’t vote for that a$$hole’. I can’t think what they might be referring to 😆*.

* Note this will only be published upon exiting US customs 😳