We continued with the Elkhorn Slough Safari.
Birds on the shore.
Sea otters love to float on their backs.
An Elkhorn Slough view.
The Moss Landing Power Plant stacks are always in view.
A raft of sea otters.
My mother, me and a raft of sea otters.
View of Elkhorn Slough.
Our naturalist Melanie had us all acting as sea otters.
Sea otters floated by us during our trip.
View of Elkhorn Slough.
Harbor seals in the low tide rest on the mud.
Views of the slough.
The railroad bridge in Elkhorn Slough which I have crossed many times on the Coast Starlight.
More slough views.
Another sea otter floating by us.
The children on the tour who counted the wildlife received their prizes. We headed back to the dock where I bought a Elkhorn Slough Safari coffee mug and postcards for my mother here. Everyone who loves the sea or wildlife or birds should take the Elkhorn Slough Safari and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
We would be driving to Bakersfield but had one more stop before leaving Moss Landing.
We had lunch at Sea Harvest then took California Highway 1 north to California Highway 129, east to US Highway 101, north to California Highway 162 over Pacheco Pass to Interstate 5, then California Highway 198 east to California Highway 43 south.
A big dust devil along California Highway 43.
North of Wasco, I caught San Joaquin train 717 with the low-level train set. From here we went into Bakersfield and checked into the Clarion Inn, had dinner at the Hungry Hunter then watched some television while I wrote the story before we called it a night.
8/19/2014 We arose in at the Clarion Inn and had breakfast before we followed the railroad most of the way to Caliente, our only planned stop on the way home.
Union Pacific 8501 East at Caliente. We stopped and visited with Nadine, one of my mother's friends who lives here. After the visit, we drove up to CA Highway 58 on which we travelled east to Tehachapi and stopped at the west bridge in town for Union Pacific 7715 East which we saw climbing the grade at Cable. Of course, that plan was subject to change.
Union Pacific 7603 West came through Tehachapi.
This blocked my view of Union Pacific 7715 East. We took a break in Tehachapi before we resumed our drive east, taking the old highway to beyond Monolith then headed east on California Highway 58 to the Mojave exit where we caught up to Union Pacific 7715 East.
Union Pacific 7715 East dropping into Mojave. We took California Highway 14 south to Avenue S in Palmdale, to Sierra Highway south to Pearblossom Highway east to California Highway 138 to Cajon Pass, where we took one last break at McDonald's. From there, it was Interstate 15 to California Highway 60, to California Highway 57 to the Main Street exit in Santa Ana then local streets to home. It had been a fantastic trip with my mother on this Summer Vacation 2014 trip.
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