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| Heading south on Pacific Coast Hwy |
We set off early Tuesday from Santa Cruz towards LA. Sally had suggested we see Julia Pfeiffer
State Park on Big Sur, so we navigated our way there. It was a nice spot, with one waterfall, in
particular, spilling into the Pacific Ocean.
It was as curvy and hilly as any road within a National Park, with
beautiful views all the time. You could
see evidence of rock slides.
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| Construction on the PCH |
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| Big Sur State park |
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| Big Sur State Park |
The ride was very, very long. Once on the PCH, Route 1, there weren’t any
places to get off and hit main highway…we rode the whole thing, down past San
Luis Obispo, making a few stops along the way.
We stopped at the Whale Watcher for lunch/breakfast – a very expensive
meal! I had the Eggs Benedict for a mere
$18. Yikes! Not sure what Bill had, but it wasn’t cheap –
but the java was good!
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| Elephant Seal |
We made another stop along the way…not a car seen for miles,
and then we approached a parking lot with hundreds of cars! We knew it had to be something really cool
just because of all of the people. We
finally saw the sign that read “the best views of the elephant seals”, and I
was sold! It was a beach of hundreds of
male elephant seals on shore, waiting to shed their skin – part of their annual
migratory deal. Each of them was 3-4000
lbs – they practiced fighting, and flip sand on their backs constantly, and
they make a gurgling sound like water down a drain…
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| Practice fighting... |
Because of all of our detours, we of course hit LA traffic
as we entered town, making for a very long day in the car. We headed towards the Hyatt in Riverside to
meet up with Humphrey & Mary for dinner.
Humphrey works for Hyatt, so he was able to get us a great deal on a
room – a really nice room - and wouldn’t even let us pay for it! Thanks again, Humphrey & Mary!
We met up for a drink at the hotel and then headed out for
dinner, and found ourselves at a beautiful old spot, the Mission Inn. What a beautiful old, cool place. We went to a wonderful Mexican restaurant
there, and Melissa and Michael joined us, which was a wonderful treat. Then we walked around the Mission Inn, to
check it out after. Of course Mary led
us to areas they didn’t want us to be, and acted as if it were her own
backyard, LOL.
It was a lovely evening, at a beautiful place, with some
wonderful family!
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| Mission Inn in Riverside |
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| Mary, Humphrey, Michael & Melissa |
We made another stop along the way…not a car seen for miles,
and then we approached a parking lot with hundreds of cars! We knew it had to be something really cool
just because of all of the people. We
finally saw the sign that read “the best views of the elephant seals”, and I
was sold! It was a beach of hundreds of
male elephant seals on shore, waiting to shed their skin – part of their annual
migratory deal. Each of them was 3-4000
lbs – they practiced fighting, and flip sand on their backs constantly, and
they make a gurgling sound like water down a drain… 
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