(Gabi) Today was filled with highlights: whale watching and the drive down the pacific coast – something I’ve been planning to do for a good ten years or so.

The hotel in Monterey was the first one to include breakfast. I remember that even some years ago, breakfast was almost always included in the regular room rate. Doesn’t matter much to us, however, as we eat very little for breakfast anyway. But this little fruit plate with blueberry muffins really hit the spot. Particularly because we knew we’d be spending the whole morning out on open water. And the weather looked dire.

After some back and forth, we finally made it on the whale watching boat. Not a big deal, but the tour operator had not informed me about how hard it would be for me to get onboard. Despite me letting them know about the wheelchair months before the trip. Let’s just say I had to navigate a set of stairs on my butt which wasn’t very pleasant. Once we had found a lovely spot on the boat we installed our GoPro and off we went.

We drove out into the bay for a good hour, past sea otters and sea lions, before we spotted our first whales.

It was a female humpback whale with her baby and we kept driving alongside them for most of the trip. They came up for air every five minutes or so and resurfaced quite often. It was really wonderful to be in the presence of such huge, gentle creatures. We had a marine biologist on the boat who explained a lot about whales and their habits.

Unsurprisingly, it was quite windy and cold out there but we were wearing layers and had brought a blanket. An amazing experience overall!

The drive down Highway 1 along the central coast is as spectacular as you’d expect. 4 hours of winding roads between steep green hills and cliffs and the deep blue sea. There aren’t many signs of civilization out there apart from the occasional luxury resort and some cute cabins. As you can see, the weather had cleared up by this point which made the whole drive even more incredible. I can recommend this experience to anyone who loves nature and enjoys driving. It’s easy to see, why this is one of the most beautiful drives in the world.

We got out for a little walk around Point Lobos, a nature reserve on the way down the coast. The views are absolutely breath taking and the weather was really spoiling us.

We stayed at a Best Western in San Simeon (who knew those were still a thing?) and even that had amazing ocean views.

We were able to experience this beautiful sunset just steps away from our hotel room. The hotel even lit fire pits on the beach, so people could keep warm while watching the sunset. A nice little touch.

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, which felt like a blast from the past. The menu felt like something straight out of the late 1980s, as did the decor of the place. I had a caesar salad with chicken which was almost comically big. Thomie had an interesting medley of shrimp, sausage and chicken in a caper sauce. He polished it off, so it must have been good!