These are the Voyages...

It's fitting in a way that we begin the driving element of our journey by setting a course to Monterey.

Those of you that have an interest in American literature may recall John Steinbeck’s 'Cannery Row' which is an account of life in the town which has helped make Cannery row one of the most famous streets in America.

Fewer of you will be aware of its real claim to fame.

Which is, that the Monterey Aquarium built in 1984, was used as the location shoot for the 'Cetacean Institute' in the fourth Star Trek movie – 'The Voyage Home' set in the 23^rd and 20^th century.

More of this later. To begin though it's important to describe the nature of our 21^st century transport, navigation techniques and journey.

The Alamo car rental station was but a short walk from the hotel, nestled at the foot of a 10 storey garage along with other car hire providers and also the Go Car drive yourself three wheeler auto tour guide company.

On arrival and after introducing ourselves it was clear that Complete North America had arranged everything and other than accepting some additional roadside assistance insurance ($58) it was only necessary to select which midsize vehicle we wanted.

David tutted as I turned down a 'Dodge caliber', this 5 door pseudo SUV style hatchback is neither truly american, attractive, frugal or practical. 

The next vehicle offered was a Dark blue Honda Civic , The next … well actually that was the choice.

Clutching the keys of the Honda we were directed around the corner of the garage past the Hertz entrance and up to the eighth floor, Alamo suggested pressing the panic button on the key to find the car as they couldn't remember where it was parked.

We did, it didn't (panic that is) so we tried again this time with the unlock button, the car obliging flashed its indicators.

The civic is a neat midsize car with a 23^rd century display nestling at the back of the dash just above the steering wheel, holding a large digital speedo with temperature bar chat to the right and fuel to the left, immediately in front of the driver a large analogue rev counter also includes a trip meter, whilst the integrated radio offers a small clock with CD and FM/AM radio.

The bags fit snuggly in the boot, which can be opened only with a key or using a dual purpose lever in the drivers footwell, which is discovered after releasing the fuel door.

I affix the US Tom Tom 140 sat nav (handily loaned by Andy Cox, thanks for that) to the windscreen and set it to the first pre programmed address, as it can't lock onto satellites in the garage no route is found.

I finish familiarising myself with the Hondas controls and manoeuvre the vehicle down the spiral ramp to the ground floor.

We drive to the Nikko hotel to collect our bags while the Sat Nav gains a lock and begins to guide us. As we pull off from the hotel I find an appropriate space to pull over to check the navigation route.

It is not the one I prefer, which would take us down highway 1, the coast road and via Santa Cruz which I understand has an attractive board walk, so I spend some time attempting to persuade the device to use my preferred route by setting locations on the map, several new routes are calculated and appear to be as I desire.

Attempting to commit them though generates a prompt which advises us that the route includes HOV roads and asks us if we wish to use them. Not understanding what HOV means we decline and the Navigation computer insists we use its original route. (Have we ever considered all the benefits that down has to offer?)

It turns out that HOV simply means High Occupancy Vehicle, i.e. anything with more than one person in it!

The actual journey is fairly uneventful once we get use to high speed traffic passing on both sides, or not appearing to modify speed at merge lanes to let other traffic in and lasts a mere two hours, the lanes we use mostly are the left hand lane or the central lane, rarely moving fast enough to move into the outer lane, although as I said vehicles pass on either side or indeed weave to make a progress advantage.

The posted speeds on the highways are generally 65 mph although local reductions occur near merge points or narrower roads. The interstate speed is 75 mph.

The Civic seems inclined to adjust its selected gear at the slightest incline, the rev counter is a little redundant as the auto gear change is quite apparent.

Driving in extremely bright light requires the use of sunglasses, at one point in the Journey a signed request to 'Turn on Headlights, Next 4 Miles' reduced the utility of the 23 century digital display of speed to useless as it dimmed, thinking it must be dark out as the lights where on. Happily our onboard Navigator in addition to its stoic personality also reports road speed and speed limit so we continue to be able to protect our sensitive eyes from the harsh noon glare.

We arrive at the Portola Plaza Hotel and Spa shortly after 13:30 and after passing the entry and being blocked from turning by a one way system eventually pull onto the forecourt.

A smiling valet greets us, enquires if we are checking in and advises us that the car park is fairly distant with an $18 charge, it will be $20 for valet parking so we elect this option reject the offer to have the bags carried and unpack the car leaving the keys in the ignition.

As we enter the hotel I have a gnawing concern that that will be the last we see of it.

Checking in is simply done, all is arranged, the only down side being that Internet access is a chargeable extra ($9 for 24hours) and is a blistering 768K

The room is smartly appointed, although it does not have air conditioning, but the fan will suffice as this near the coast we know the night time temperature can be cool. A 42” LCD TV adorns the wall opposite the two double beds.

We tarry not in the room having placed our tech and stuff in the safe, but immediately head out to investigate Monterey.

The local Fisherman's wharf is lively and situated but a short stroll from the hotel, it's a little more quaint than that of San Francisco's and has an active trade in fishing trips, whale watching trips, glass bottomed boat trips et al.

A multiplicity of seafood vendors tempt you with their wares by offering free samples of their clam chowder in little paper cups and entreaties to visit with free appetizers or low cost drinks.

Eventually we settle on a restaurant that has views of the Marina and average prices and clutching our free appetizer voucher head inside.

We are sat at a table that overlooks other diners, but can see one of the fishing wharfs with a floating pontoon attached full of sea lions. The waiter delivers sparkling water bread and herb butter along with menus.

He points out that the appetizer we can have is either deep fried calamari or local sardines. Not being partial to boney filaments we select the calamari which is duly delivered along with further selected beverages.

David has selected beer battered cod and fries as his meal, I opt for grilled swordfish, cockles and olives in a house sauce.

The meal is delicious although David is unable to manage all the cod and fries.

Sustained we head for the part of Town that makes Monterey so special to fans of Star Trek, past Cannery row and its shopping opportunities towards the Aquarium.

Of itself the Aquarium offers marvellous living exhibits and a variety of lecture presentations given by marine biologists regarding its work and the potential offered by the sea and the life therein.

In the latest movie by Nick frost and Simon Pegg, 'Paul', the two lead characters visit 'Vasquez Rocks' outside Los Angeles to re-enact Kirks famous battle with the Gorn leader.

Had they visited Monterey Aquarium they would have stood on the veranda opposite the tidal pool, which was changed with CGI to be the whale pool as Kirk and Spock discussed the pair of Humpback whales, 'George' and 'Gracie' they needed to save a future Earth, while Marine Biologist Dr. Gillian Taylor looks on askance at Spock’s statement that 'Gracie is pregnant'

The 'Cetacean institute' was stated in the movie as being at 'Sausilito' and Kirk and Spock are seen crossing the 'Golden gate bridge' to reach it. In reality the San Franciscan skyline was another element of CGI added to the external shots of the aquarium to complete the illusion.

So here then is the real reason that Monterey is famous, not for some dusty nobel winning author, but rather for a comedic, environmental outing for the cast and crew of a Television concept that overcame its cancellation by Paramount to become the much loved behemoth and oft parodied format of Star Trek.

Having observed our own pilgrimage we head back to the hotel and a well deserved rest.

Tomorrow we will Journey on, first down the coastal road to Big Sur, if we can persuade Simon the Sat Nav, then on to Yosemite. I hold out less hope of in room internet there, so a reprieve may be granted you of these lengthy (if informative) posts.

One closing comment, It seems there is a wedding party at the hotel tonight. The down side of their celebration is the impact the noise has on our location.

The room is high quality, the noise, which is in part apparently 'Karoke' based is not! May have to drag David to the pub for a cordial if this continues.

Posted in: Plan,Route,Star Trek