California - Moss Landing Sea Otters

Just like most people, we enjoy watching animals and sea creatures.  Not so much in zoos or aquariums, though.  That's always kinda sad, ya know?  We prefer to see them in their natural habitat whenever possible.  From a safe distance, of course :)

I had heard about a "secret sea otter hangout" not too far from here and we just had to go.  It was so much fun watching the one sea otter do its thing the day we drove to Big Sur, we were excited for the chance to see more of them. 

We drove north on hwy 1 until we came to a sign for Moss Landing State Beach.  Took a left at the sign and drove all the way down to the last parking area facing the harbor.  Oh my goodness!  There they were!  We counted over twenty of them, swimming, playing, and mostly just floating together in a big group.  Sleeping, maybe?  I dunno.

They were so cute!  Two of them were chasing each other through the water and they kept bumping into the sleeping ones.  It really didn't seem to faze them, they kept on snoozing :).

We stayed and watched them for a while hoping more of them would wake up, but they never did.  It was mid to late afternoon when we went...does anyone know if there is a better time to see them being active?  It was also low tide, don't know if that matters or not either.

They really were adorable :)

At the same place, just across the channel and closer to hwy 1, we saw a large group of sea lions all piled up on a small jetty.  Actually, we heard them barking and then saw them.  They are pretty loud :).

Also, from where we were standing watching the otters, over to our left was a little sandy beach lined with resting seals!  Wow!  This place was a sea critter jackpot :).  We think we saw at least one baby seal in the bunch, but can't be positive.

With the otters sleeping, the kids soon tired of being there.  We decided to go to our favorite sea glass hunting beach and go for a walk until sunset.  The beach was gorgeous, as always, and the treasure hunting was pretty good, too.  We found several handfuls of nice sea glass :).

We had such a fun afternoon...watching the otters and other sea creatures, taking a walk on the beach at sunset, and collecting a bag of pretty sea glass to take home.  What makes it even better?  It was all completely free!  In a world where everything seems so high priced, that in itself is just awesome :)!