Moss Landing

Yesterday was perfect. My mom and dad are staying at a bed-and-breakfast for their anniversary and they invited me to join them for the day in Moss Landing. It was a beautiful day of much-needed time outdoors and with my family.

Their bed-and-breakfast was the cutest thing ever. There were old boats everywhere -- the deck was an old boat, the planter was an old boat, the bed was on top of an old boat!

First we kayaked in the Elkhorn Slough.

Info for Mom and Dad from Wikipedia:
In the western U.S., a slough is a secondary channel of a river delta or a narrow channel in a shallow salt-water marsh, usually flushed by the tide. While this is in essence the same application of the term as used in the eastern U.S., a singular difference is that there exist no native trees in the west that would grow out into the waterway to form a swamp, such as the Elkhorn Slough. An estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea.
So who was right?

It was amazing! Otters (who have 1 million hairs per square inch on their body) played all around us and we could hear and see them cracking open shells with rocks. An enormous sea lion swam near us. Harbor seals were everywhere (one was zooming through the water like a speedboat). I felt like I was watching a Discovery Channel special on ocean wildlife, except it was all right there!

My mom tried to convince me that our kayak would not tip over. I was enjoying watching some pelicans, and next thing I know, my kayak is upside down and I am in the water (luckily with a wetsuit on -- no such luck for my dad). He says it was his fault, but I really don't know what happened. All I know is there was a harbor seal that was definitely laughing at us.

We ate lunch in Monterey at Bubba Gump's and ate lots of shrimp. Then we drove back to Moss Landing and took a walk on the beach. I have never loved the beach so much. It was like seeing home after a long time away from it. We took a nice walk and then explored (got lost, imho) the area around Moss Landing, which I think is so strange because there is farmland right next to the ocean. It's like Bakersfield meets Morro Bay. We watched sunset on the Salinas River. We ate clam chowder at Phil's Fish Market and then watched the stars from their room.

Overall, a lovely lovely day.