I borrowed my grandmother's car for two days and drove up the coast. I didn't really have a definitive destination. I was vaguely and possibly heading for Jade Cove -- a little cove about 30 miles south of Big Sur along the corkscrew coastline where my dad and I went camping when I was a kid -- but it was really far away and I didn't know if I'd make it that far. Well, as it turned out, I made it that far and beyond all the way up to Monterey. It was such a gorgeous day and I was enjoying the drive so much. My line of thought was kind of, "Well, it's only 20 miles to [fill in the blank]..." over and over again. And then by the time I was that far north I decided I wanted to visit the aquarium up there. The corkscrew coastline between San Simeon (location of Hearst Castle) and Big Sur is one of my all-time favorite places. Once you start the drive, you either finish it or turn around. No intersecting roads for over 100 miles as you twist and twine up and down the cliffs. But there are plenty of pull-offs. And I stopped at nearly every one.

Just before I entered the corkscrews, I passed Hearst Castle (and stopped for about an hour to look around the guest grounds... I missed the last tour by 10 minutes). About a mile beyond the castle turnoff, there was a large turnoff that I pulled into on a whim. When I got out of the car, a squirrel rushed out to see if I had any food. Since it was a squirrel, I pulled out the camera and started taking pictures... as the silly thing got closer and closer. It wound around my feet. It climbed on the log marking parking spots. And then it tried to climb in my lap. :P It was /really/ hoping that camera was edible. That was one disappointed squirrel.

Once I finished tormenting the hungry squirrel, I wandered over to see what the turnoff's feature was -- and omigosh, it was a haulout for elephant seals. Elephant seals are the largest of the seal family; the bull males are often pictured as the classic fighting seals, noses flopping around. I had never seen them before. There were SO many of them! I only saw females, though. They were in two clusters. I took so many pictures. At one point a pair of them decided to go at it and one started pushing the other into the ocean. There were lots of other mini-fights when a head would lunge up, mutter, and then settle again. I had to take a picture of the dune patterns before I got back in the car.

And along the coast I continued, stopping constantly. Here are pullout pictures, including the one and only picture of myself from the whole week I was in California -- my hair isn't that short, it was pulled back because it was the windiest point of the whole trip, too.

I reached Jade Cove area and took a quick look, but didn't stop much at that point since I'd decided to press on to Monterey. On my way back south the next day I stopped and went for a hike. I went down to the ocean on one trail onto a beach that wasn't really a beach so much as a bunch of lovely rocks to crawl around on... the other trail took me higher and to a point jutting far out so that I got some great perspectives of looking back at the mainland.

I got to Big Sur the sun was just about to set, but I came to a screeching stop when I saw this...

Pacific Palisades
Monterey Bay Aquarium
La Jolla Cove
SDF-O
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