Day 3 - Sat, Mar 18, 2000 Last updated: 11/5/00 5:30pm CT
We were disappointed that we hadn’t seen any sea otters up close (outside of the aquarium). We wanted to see an otter “in the wild”. We gave it one last try on Coast Guard Wharf in the early morning. Sure enough, we got lucky, one little guy was feasting and putting on a show.
Here the otter has brought up a crab and is munching on one of the crab’s legs. If you look close, on the otter’s stomach you’ll see the crab trying to get away. He did not.
One last otter shot. The otter came up with a clam and a rock, put the rock on it’s stomach and started banging the clam on the rock to crack it open.
Off to see Big Basin Redwoods State Park. After a stop in Santa Cruz for lunch at the Jack in the Box, we drove down a fairly narrow and very winding road to reach the park. The pictures don’t do it justice. These trees were HUGE! We went on a 3-4 hour hike on Sequoia Trail which is about 4 miles long. We were never more than a mile away from a road, but at times it seemed like we were the only two people on the planet. Standing in the middle of all these really huge, and really old, trees helps put life into some perspective.
The ride out of the park was on even more narrow and winding roads. I managed to get us somewhat lost. I say somewhat because there were really only two roads out, and they both lead to civilization. However, I managed to take the longer of the two routes. I have never seen such steep drop offs from the side of such narrow roads! We were too busy holding on for dear life to take any pictures. Sorry.
The next stop was San Jose and the Fairmont Hotel. We dropped off the dumpy little car at the airport and took the light rail down to the hotel. Drops you right off at the door. The Fairmont is a very posh hotel. Thanks to Mercantec for picking up the tab. Unfortunately, the Fairmont no longer has the ice cream bar they had when we stayed there in ’95. (Thanks to Frame Technology for picking up the tab in ’95). They turned the bar into another restaurant, which still serves up some fine ice cream, just not the variety they use to have (again, thanks to Mercantec for picking up the tab for the late night snack). In ’95, this room was a full blown ice cream parlor. You could order anything you wanted. Before the late night ice cream snack, diner was at Casa Catillo, across the street from the Fairmont. Very good Mexican food and good prices.
Denise flew home the next day, but I remained for the Software Developer’s Conference. You wouldn’t want to see pictures, even if I took any.