west coast road trip questions

[atomicgirl]

In the middle of planning a west coast road trip in July, and I have some questions...

We are starting in the south with our first trip to DL (woohoo!!) and are going to work our way north. On the day we leave Anaheim (Thursday), what is the best time & route to take if we want to be in Santa Barbara in the 9 o'clock hour? We're a little nervous about traffic....the kids are early risers, but....

Also, we plan on making a stop in Monterey. We'd like to visit the aquarium & maybe go on a whale-watching tour. First off, is it too ambitious to do both in one day? Seems like we should be able to go to the aquarium in the morning & on the boat in the afternoon, but is this realistic? Are there any recommendations for tour companies? I've been reading a lot on trip advisor, but it's always good to hear other perspectives.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Usually the whale watching trips are two a day. There are few places I use. It depends on how much time you want to spend on the boat. I use the two at the end of the pier. The first one is straight across from the little silver store and the other one is to the right of that one on the same side.

http://www.gowhales.com/

http://www.montereywhalewatching.com/wp-content/uploads/PrincessMonterey-1c.jpg

Doing both in one day depends on how active you are. Sometimes after whale watching I am exhausted.


Leaving Anaheim the traffic usually dies down at around 9 am.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Sorry the second link wont work. The name of it is Princess whale watching. You can look that up. If your kids get up early you could probably beat the traffic out of town. It probably starts to get backed up about 6 or so.

 

[GrandBob]

The one you see first, straight down the wharf, is Randy's:

http://www.randysfishingtrips.com/

Jaime, yes it's a bit ambitious to do both in a day. But doable. One suggestion: if anyone is at all prone to seasickness, do the whale watching first. Take the first trip in the morning. Why? Monterey Bay is famous for having the winds kick up starting around noon, or a little after. It's not uncommon at all to have the morning trip flat calm and very pleasant; while the afternoon trip may be a roller coaster with people getting ill. Trust me; I've been out in all conditions. I work here: http://www.mbari.org If you have time and you drop me an email to let me know when you're coming, I can give you a short tour.

You can then spend the afternoon and possibly evening in the aquarium. The aquarium can easily be an all-day thing if you'd like it to be. But you can get a pretty good flavor in just a few hours.

Enjoy!

-Bob

 

[atomicgirl]

Thank you for the tips. I was originally thinking to do the aquarium in the morning when it wouldn't be as busy, but it is more important to us to do the whale watching tour. While we aren't prone to sea sickness....better safe than sorry! And then we can just see how tired/active we are after that.

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

We absolutely love the Monterey Bay Aquarium! DS5 is obsessed with all ocean creatures, but especially sharks, and we can easily spend a day a the aquarium, even though we've been many, many times. We have visited other aquariums, and love MBA best.

I agree - do the whale watching when the water is calm, although be prepared to not see anything. It's unpredictable - we've had trips where we saw all kinds of animals, and others when we spent hours on the water and just saw a couple seals.