California Road Trip Day 4

We spent our fourth day driving through Big Sur. I'll let the pictures speak for this area. : )

Bixby Bridge, one of the tallest single-span concrete bridges in the world.

We stopped at the Big Sur Inn & Restaurant and walked down the river, where Reed refused to leave without walking through the freezing water to the bench in the middle.

He made it!

Cool tunnel on the PCH. Carson discovered a new found love of tunnels on this trip. It might be because we instituted the screaming when we go through tunnels rule.

A male elephant seal

Lots of elephant seals.

Random zebra farm on the side of the road!

We made our way to Pismo Beach and the kids loved running on the beach in the frigid water.

Chris and the kiddos even got into the pool at our hotel. Chris said the "heated" pool had gotten the ice knocked off of it. Carson was shaking shortly after this pic and had to get out to warm up.

California Road Trip Day 3

Our third day began with breakfast at the Quail Lodge, our home for a mere two nights, followed by a quick 9 hole round of putt-putt. It was a little chilly but still such a fun morning. This was most definitely our favorite place that we stayed. 

After breakfast and putt-putt, we made our way to the Monterey Aquarium. We had a fun morning there. It was a really good aquarium, although it didn't really hold a candle to the Georgia Aquarium.

This stingray was trying to reach up and give Cars a kiss. ; )

The view from the viewing deck of the aquarium. They definitely have the Georgia Aquarium beat with this view.

After a quick bite to eat, we made our way to the start of the 17 mile drive that would take us by a lot of cool stops including Pebble Beach golf course.

Bird Rock, named for the white top due to all the birds that call this rock home.

The Lone Cypress. This tree has lived on this point for 250 years. It now has many ropes attached to it in hopes that it never comes down.

Pebble Beach golf course. Chris was pretty bummed that he wasn't here to play. Next time. Next time!

We ended our day with a long walk on the golf course.

Totally random, but this was the walkway from the parking lot to our room. So pretty!

California Road Trip Day 2

We started our second day with a giant coffee before beginning our drive down the Pacific Coast Highway. ; )

Our first pullover stop on the PCH was Gray Whale Cove State Beach. We spotted a few whales hanging out in the sea.

You can see a whale coming up to the surface here! So fun!

We continued meandering down the coast until we came to Cowell Ranch Beach. I only knew about this stop because a designer that I follow had posted about "working" here for the day. After seeing her picture, I knew we had to stop. Below is the walk out to the beach.

A pic of the fan before we walked down the steps to the beach.

The kiddos with the cliffs behind them.

Toes in the Pacific!! It was cold!

Reed and I both got caught by this wave. Oops! Wet jeans were no fun, ha!

The hills on the walk back from the beach. So beautiful!

Our next stop was the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. The redwoods are majestic. I wasn't aware of just how amazing they would be in person. Some of the tallest old-growth coast redwoods are located in this park. The tallest can reach up to 285 feet tall and be 1,500 years old!

Cross section of a fallen redwood that was just a baby when Jesus was born (see below)!

Standing inside a burned out redwood. This trees can burn from the inside and still live for thousands of years.

Photography courtesy of Reed. The only full length picture of the two of us together. ; )

"The Giant" was 17 feet across.

This picture doesn't even do the enormity of this tree justice.

Also know as Endor to Reed. The Endor scenes were filmed in a redwood forest. He was excited about that!

Amazed!

After a pretty long and eventful day, we made our way to Monterey where we located the Dennis the Menace playground. The kids were excited to run wild for a bit!