Two Snugglers and a Big Bull!

Sea Lions--just about the cutest thing EVER!!

On our way down the coast we happened upon a sea lion rookery! It was amazing because we were just about 3-4 feet away from them and they were just hanging out on the beach--scratching, cuddling, waddling, sunning and sneezing . They are so so cute! And snotty! We were surprised at how much they really could use a tissue! There must have been about 100 females and young ones and one great big male!

Jade Cove

So we went cruising along the coast, which was just stunning the whole way! We even saw some whales spraying! Being the rockhounders that we are, we just had to check out this spot called Jade Cove. You never know if things are called their name because that is really what is there or if it is more of a trick--like Greenland. Well, Jade Cove does have it's rightful name. The green rocks were beautiful, like none we had seen before. Before long our backpacks were loaded and weighed about 50 lbs! The boys even found a spot where they tried chipping chunks of Jade off the side of the cliff.

Redwood Forest

WOW those trees are HUMONGOUS!!! It is difficult to tell in the photo but Chris, Eli and Finn are standing IN that tree with their bikes! The tree had been hollowed out in the bottom from a

fire but is still living.

Julia Pfeiffer Big State Beach

We had decided to go to Julia Pfeiffer Big State Beach which is right in the Big Sur Area. It is a bit difficult to find because the road is unmarked and also very narrow. We found it easily enough, though, and were going down this narrow road when this yellow vintage Mercedes comes blasting up the road from the other direction! The driver had on over sized sunglasses and a black hooded sweatshirt--we are pretty certain that we sighted the Uni-bomber! I am confident that he didn't even see us nor our minivan as he never slowed and careened our side mirror.

We did make it to the beach which was different than what we had expected. It was beautiful and the waves were pretty strong and so it wasn't a swimming beach. There was a huge rocky cliff that we walked out on to to get sprayed by the waves. Eli made another rock sculpture and the boys spent quite a bit of time constructing a dam. Another thing that was unique about this beach was that the sand had a purple-ish tint which is from garnet in the sand--pretty cool!

Big Sur California

After making all our stops along the way, what could have taken about 3 hours, took us about 12! We finally got to the campground at Big Sur State Park around 7:00pm. What a huge disappointment! No exagerating necessary, the place was completely covered in poison oak from one end to the other!! Then Stephanie went to wash up for bed and the bathrooms were the most disgusting we saw on the whole trip!! The combination of gross bathrooms and rampid poison oak is very dangerous, so we packed up the next morning and went across the street to another campground, which turned out to be the most beautiful, peaceful spot ever! We were right on the river and in redwood forest!

Pebble Beach

We had been told that the road to Pebble Beach was something not to miss but when we got there we found out that there was a $20 charge just to drive on that road. But we wanted to see it so we parked the car and scamp and rode our bikes (for free) to the beach. The ride there was great since it was all downhill--the ride back got a bit long for some of us though.

We wondered why they call it Pebble Beach--wouldn't something like Small Stone Beach be more appropraite?

Santa Cruz

The pier and bike park at Santa Cruz were pretty cool. Since we were there during the off season, there weren't many people there, which was nice. The bummer was that the boardwalk was closed! That's ok because it saved us some $$!

Down the California Coast

So from San Fransisco we went down the coast on our way to Big Sur. The scenery was spectacular--the cliffs and rocky beaches meet the ocean. We could not resist stopping about every 10 minutes to get out and explore! We also learned about sleeper waves. You ask what is a sleeper wave? About every 15th wave or so comes one HUGE wave which just may soak you or carry you out to sea if you are really caught off guard.