A long day ahead.

After a lovely evening in Santa Monica, we hit the road for the longest portion of the trip. We went from Santa Monica to Monterey pretty much entirely on Highway 1. On the way, we made our first winery stop. Even though we were FAR south of Napa Valley, it was some pretty good wine… and nothing to sneeze at.

Ahem… Nothing to sneeze at.

It was gorgeous and sunny… and the leaves were even still on the vines… we were walking around in our short sleeves, and it was lovely.

We progressed along up Highway 1 until we hit “Piedras Blancas”, which is where a bunch of elephant seals decide to nap daily. So, before you look at the picture, NO. The seals are not dead. They’re sleeping. Everyone who has seen the pictures has asked.

Here’s one that woke up to yawn and wave at us. In the album, there are a TON of pictures from this stop. A bunch of the seals, maybe a few of a crow… and when we got back to the car, there were some VERY friendly squirrels.

These guys were hanging out, eating some sunflower seeds that someone tossed in the parking lot… and didn’t care what you were doing. you almost had to kick them out of the way to get into the car. I was pretty sure that one was going to climb up Virginia’s leg and make a nest in her jacket.

Now, a collection of scenes from Highway 1:

So… ocean, curves, mountains, waves crashing, the MIGHTY Yaris, the clouds and skies, and the road winding along the coast.

These were all views along the way, and after many hours of curvy fun, we made it up to the Sunset Inn Hotel on Asilomar Ave. In Pacific Grove. This was an awesome little hotel, and we got upgraded to a room with a fireplace.

We went downtown and found a lovely little Korean restaurant for some dinner, and then came back to the room to relax for a bit. The next day, we had a whale watching expedition planned, so we had to be at the wharf early to hop on the boat.