Day 6: Big Sur

To start off today, here is a photo of the sunset view from last night that refused to load on that blog..

We left Pismo early this morning to head to our next destination. Weather was much the same today, although started off quite nice then we got misty rain as we drove through the mountains before getting clear blue sky and warm sun later on in the day. Our first stop was at a place called Morro Bay. It was a little fishing village with a HUGE rock identifiable from the sea. As we were about to leave there were seals frolicking in the bay making loud noises of which Daniel compared to Dad's snoring of recent nights.

Morro Rock

Next we stopped at an Elephant Seal rookery that I had heard about. There was a huge amount of sub-adult male seals lazing and play-fighting on the sand. It was quite a sight to see, however the stench was not pretty!! While watching we also saw our first squirrel for the trip. It was about a foot away scurrying in the bushes. Again the loud grunting of these seals was compared to Dad's recent sound effects along with being identified as Daniel's cousins.

The little Squirrel

Sleep time!!

Other end of the seal beach

A baby Seal I wanted to take home

Yawn!

Driving along the Big Sur was like nothing I have ever experienced. The road was VERY windy in parts, however the views that the road wrapping around the mountainside revealed were incredible. We got misty rain while driving up the very high parts of the road, which actually made for stunning photos, with clouds hugging the edge of the mountains, below the height that we were.

View from the front window

Low hanging clouds

Weather turned cloudy

Following a pitstop for snacks due to Daniel's ever-rumbling stomach and fetish for chips we arrived at Jennifer Pfeiffer State Park. The views were so pretty. Dad was very interested in the history behind the park whereas I was more interested making sure the stop was more than well documented. The park is famous for the Mc Way Falls, a waterfall that used to drop into the ocean. You can just see the waterfall as it is today, tumbling into the beautiful bright blue ocean below in the second pic towards the left.

Waterfall view

Selfies with Mum

We followed the Big Sur along seeing more scenery along the way, including the Bixby bridge. The road is known for its rock falls, but luckily for us we did not encounter any! We stopped at a quaint town called Carmel for lunch, which is more on the exclusive side, however it is very cute. We arrived at our destination for the night, Monterey at about 4.30pm. We decided that we all needed an early night and went next door to a Woodfired food place for dinner. Following this, we did go to a pharmacy across the road which had everything from food and drink to medication and fishing gear.

Bixby bridge

On our trip we have had more than our fair share of laughs. Mum and I have been known to laugh until we cry, mostly at the expense of the boys. It is all in good fun and makes the trip even more enjoyable, whether it be in the early hours of the morning while trying to get to sleep or while eating dinner or driving along. 

And just to note my American accent has rapidly improved! I can now fluently pronounce 'water' and mimick my order of a garlic pizza holding the cheese.

While driving today we were stopped for quite a while in a line of traffic due to road works. We noticed this sign and thought  the way it was written was quite funny, compared to how we write 'cyclists'. I'm not sure that one of us could actually say 'bicyclists'.

Bicyclists....

Over here they have different names for many things. While ordering a pizza for me one day Mum asked for herbs and was confronted with a confused look, before he said "aahhhhh you mean urrrrbs!". Often when we ask for something we have to explain what we mean as they have no idea.What we would call a 'look out' are called 'vista points' and 'speed humps' are just referred to as 'bumps'.

That is all for tonight! This time tomorrow we will be in San Francisco.