Day 6 - Big Sur

Today was filled with some of the most breathtaking nature I've ever seen. I almost called my boss and told her to let me work from home here or I quit. For starters, take a look at the view from my hotel:

It was so beautiful I was giddy. The hotel (a Best Western) had a path from the hotel down to a rocky area with fire pits and chairs. People had fires going last night but I wanted to save my energy for the day time, I had passed. If I ever come back , though, it is so on.

I left feeling super excited to see more and stopped at a look-out spot after about 20 minutes. I had read on some guide sites that it was a great place to view sea lions. I didn't see them at first, but when I looked straight down there were tons of them. They were all making this crazy noise - sort of a bark, sort of a groan, very weird - and some of them were wiggling around or swimming. Most, though, were just laying around.

The drive became mountainous pretty quickly. I feel like I'm gushing but I just can't explain how gorgeous it was - the ocean was huge and right next to me, the cliffs and mountain were amazing - it was just so exciting and surreal. I wish I could have taken more pictures of this leg but there were some tight turns and narrow lanes so I didn't risk it.

I stopped at another viewing spot to take it all in. The rugged coast was so pretty and the color of the water was an amazing aqua. The Pacific just looks so much bigger than the Atlantic - I couldn't get any good pictures to show this because there was nothing in the frame for scale.

 

There are two surfers on the right side of the picture. The fact that they were able to scale the cliffs with a surfboard and were out in the water that's so big, not to mention cold, was really mind boggling.

And one more view for good measure:

Then I was back on the windy mountain road for a hot second until I came to one of the many state parks along the PCH. I did a really quick walk to a historical sight - it was a great way to soak in all the views and stretch my legs for a few minutes.

But first - let me take a selfie: