We had hoped to eat our breakfast on our patios, but it was too cool. Shame. Grey, misty day. We set off for the first of our two big stops of the day on the way to Big Sur....the Elephant Seal Rookery, about 5 miles north of San Simeon. Well, what awaited us was truly amazing. What looked like a very long beach of enormous dead fish turned out to be juvenile elephant seals just lying about undergoing what is called a "catastrophic molt". As far as the eye could sea along the beach...seals of all shades, depending on their age, in various stages of molt. The enormous males are long gone, having done their duty and mated with their harem for the following year's crop. The females left next after nursing the pups and providing them with the fat reserves to survive the molt and the trip to Alaska. The pups do not eat after the females leave. They occasionally make their way to the water's edge when it is very hot, but they are not eager to swim. There is no one to teach them. But, ultimately, they do go farther and farther in, immerse their faces and then begin to dive. Mostly, the pups just lie there, occasionally moving closer to each other, or flipping sand on their backs. A few young males were learning to "posture" and a few were playing in the water. Rangers estimate that tens of thousands of elephant seals come to this coast to mate. It was awesome in the true sense of the word.
Next stop Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. More beautiful scenery along the way.
Statue of Jonathan Livingston Seagull! LOL
Smoking ground squirrel!
McWay Falls used to fall into the ocean, but then there was a huge landslide and now they fall onto a beach. I am sure the original view was stunning, but so is the nw one. The water is turquoise. The history of this park and the "Waterfall House" is complex, so I am providing a link. Ihttp://www.pelicannetwork.net/bigsur.brown.burns.htm
It is a fascinating story of a very wealthy woman from Boston and a California pioneer woman who became close friends. Heiress Helen Hooper Brown and her husband built a house here. She left all her property to the state and named it for her friend, Julia. The house was torn down under the terms of her will because the state could not find a public use for it. The walk to the falls and the ruins is beautiful.much of the original gardens, including alien species, such as eucalyptus and palms, are still there. We tried to ID some stunning blue flowers, only to find that they are native to Maderia and had been planted!
We drove on to Big Sur, which is not a mountain, or a hill, or a monument, as I always thought. It is the name for an area south of Monterey. To the Spanish it was "El Pais del Sur Grande"....the country of the big south. Just before our motel, we stopped at a beautiful restaurant/resort up a winding road, with a magnificent view of the ocean. La Ventana. It was too chilly to eat outside and too miss to see much of the ocean. Once again, delicious food. I have been so impressed with California food...and then there are the wines!
Our motel is in an 80 year old complex...Woden buildings on both sides of the road. All rooms have porches and they are covered with roses and bedecked with other flowers. A restaurant with a huge fireplace and terrace, pool, general store, all purpose shop, gas station and a psychedelic old VW bus dispensing ice cream and such. And...Adironacks chairs dispersed in the lovely river... a great place to cool off in the summer with drinks! Too cool for us rifht now! I have not seen so many old VW campers in 30 years. This is an area that attracts wanderers. In fact, two men showed up with huge back packs, two dogs and two guitars. They were busking. Paul, ever the videographer, have them a nice banknote and asked them to play for his video and to talk about their lives. They simply said that they had tried the traditional life and that this life suited them right now.
At dinner, we had a a nice surprise...the meatloaf plug plate special was $2.60 to commemorate the 80th year of the Inn. That was the price of the meatloaf 80 years ago. Paul and I both had it. Very good and dowhome!
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