From Monterey to Avila Beach

This little message was way down on the beach below where we were standing!

Do you see the little lighthouse on the rocks on the left?

we could hear seals barking, but from way up high they looked like rocks on the shore

zoomed in as far as I could go with my lens

still finding flowers in December

McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer State Park

we've never seen a waterfall fall down onto sand

Eucalyptus seed pods...i'm bringing some of these home just because they are so pretty

the path was too slippery for me to go out to Salmon Falls, but Danny did...in the rain!

The Elephant Seal Rookery Piedras Blancas and wayyyy more pics of seals than anyone but me probably wants to look at

they sleep in piles!

The newest baby seal...less than a week old

battling for territory

This baby is a little older by a week or so

Jolly looking old chap

dinnertime

Avila Beach

Avila Beach

Our continental breakfast arrived this morning on a "silver" tray to our door as per the normal routine of this hotel. We were up early for a worship service at Shoreline Community Church in Monterey. The service was at 8:30 which fit in perfectly with our travel plans today. We were so glad that we went to the service. The music was wonderful and the message was inspiring. Danny is hoping that they put their messages online so we can share it. It was that good and the pastor that taught is a gifted teacher. After the service we got back on the road to drive toward our end destination for the day, Avila Beach. The weather this morning was a little overcast, but the sun peeked in and out of the clouds. We saw some of the most beautiful coastline today as we were traveling. We kept our eyes peeled for whales, but still did not see any. We stopped at Julia Pfeiffer State Park to walk out and view Mcway Falls. It's small, but it's the first falls we have ever seen that goes down onto a beach. It is located in a protected lagoon with the most beautiful turquoise colored water. Our biggest disappointment today was that we did not pack a picnic lunch. We thought that we would be able to find a place to eat along the way, but when we were actually ready for lunch, the one spot we found was closed for remodeling. We ate cheese/peanut butter crackers and energy bars for lunch! We stopped at another falls called Salmon Falls. The path to it was rather steep and the trail was wet from the rain that had started again. Ordinarily I would have walked it, but I decided to send Danny to check it out. He took the wrong path and ended up having to take off his shoes and cross the creek to get to the correct path. He brought back pics and video on his phone so that I could see. It was beautiful! My favorite thing today was a stop at Piedras Blancas which is a rookery for Elephant Seals. Its basically a long stretch of beach with a walkway built above it so that people can watch the seals. The males are here for mating and the females are on their way. There were three females there already there that had brand new pups. The newest baby is less than a week old. The seals are all piled up together on the beach. We were so close to them that we could hear and see them barking and grunting and sneezing. The males were challenging and fighting with each other and the juvenile seals were laying together in piles! When asleep, they looked dead! I could have watched them for hours I think. We had hoped to go to the Hearst Castle in San Simeon for a tour, but all of the tours were full when we got there so we missed that. We  drove on to Avila Beach and checked into the hotel right at wine and cheese hour so we participated in that before we went to dinner. We ate at a nearby restaurant called the Custom House which was within walking distance and it was a nice dinner. We both had fish dishes tonight as all of the fish served at this restaurant is locally caught. Our hotel has a DVD library we can borrow from for free so we took advantage of that and watched ELF. Tomorrow we will drive down to Santa Barbara. Until then....