Road Trip to the Sea

I have to admit that we are getting better at travelling.  I am getting really good at finding hotels for us when we take trips.  I know the websites to use and I have learned to discern what is helpful/not helpful with the hotel reviews on some websites.  It is getting easier and this time we landed at a very pleasant hotel.  We decided to take a quick trip to the east coast to drive a famous road called Big Sur.  It is a 100 mile stretch of road that goes right along the coast. We left Friday when Dan got home from work and drove to Monterey.  We stayed the night there and left early in the morning to start the drive on the coast.  All I have to say about this trip is…..road trips are awesome!  The scenery was magnificent, the company excellent and breathing fresh ocean air all day felt so healthy.  We were in the car a lot, but we made quite a few stops along the way.  We took over 200 pictures today.  We saw the coast, big waves, beaches, elephant seals, whale sightings, foothills, wine country and ate an amazing lunch at a café right on the ocean.  We sat outside to eat our lunch…in the sunshine.  California in December has its perks!   I am posting our top pictures from the trip in order of our day.  We don’t claim to be photographers in any way…we just have a really great camera. 

We stopped at a large foothill with a trail.  We took turns climbing it to see the coast from the view at the top.  These are pictures from the top.

Here is proof that we were actually there!

At one point in the drive we went inland a bit and found an adorable rest stop/campsite by a beautiful river.

And then we went back to the coast again.

These photos were taken at our lunch spot.

We tried our hand at taking some artsy shots of each other.

There is a particular beach along the coastal drive that houses elephant seals.  There were hundreds of them laying in the sand.  It was a sight that I will never forget.

And finally, our last stop, was at a beach.  We were clothed for the cooler weather and not expecting the water to be warmer. Mya got in the ocean with all of her clothes on and Sara dug in the sand with her clothes on.  Dan was wishing he had a surfboard and a bathing suit. Needless to say we went home with just a little bit of sand in the car.