MOSS LANDING.
Thanks to Moss Landing Marine Lab and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 386-acre Moss Landing is a global destination for marine research. Phil’s Fish Market is also internationally famous, for its cioppino, with the pushpin world map of guests’ origins to prove it. The estuary that Moss Landing is at the heart of, meanwhile, is California’s second biggest, after San Francisco Bay, with more species and clearer waters than any comparable body of water. That attentiongrabbing stuff aside, there are nearly infinite ways to enjoy such a finite amount of territory, including these.
MORNING
There aren’t many options for lodging in Moss Landing, but the nautical bed-and-breakfast Captain’s Inn offers enough heart and character for the entire harbor community and then some. Maritime props integrate with the decor at every turn. Each room is different, including those in the main “Historic House” and the newer waterside rooms to the west, where big storybook windows look out over weather-worn picket fences and blowing grasses to groupings of birds on Old Salinas River. Every morning from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. the cute and clean sunroom kitchen hosts guests with juice, coffee and tea and down-home dishes like eggs Benedict casserole with garlic skillet potatoes. From there, it’s wise to make a beeline for Kayak Connection. The harbor seals and sea otters are ubiquitous at most hours along Elkhorn Slough — especially with otters repopulating in record amounts — and, to a lesser extent, so are the snowy egrets, great blue herons, red-tailed hawks and American kestrels. (Which is why Kayak Connection safely guarantees wildlife sighting on every outing.) But winds tend to pick up in the afternoon, making morning the time to go so the paddle into and out of the slough’s channels from the harbor isn’t that much more tiring.