Gilroy, Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, San Simeon

We drove from the Fort Bragg area to Gilroy/Watsonville via the Golden Gate bridge

We stopped in Burlingame at the "It's It" ice cream sandwich factory.

And eventually made it down to our rental in Watsonville.  We stayed at a condo on the beach.  In my search for solitude it was absolutely perfect.  I loved going to the beach in Watsonville when we lived in Gilroy.  Always blissfully uncrowded.  We went to Gilroy Gardens, a small amusement park that was less than a mile from our house in Gilroy.

We may have outgrown most of the rides but we still had fun visiting.

At our rental condo

It was right on the beach - so lovely

One evening Emma and I saw an otter (not pictured here) come right up near the shore.  

He was completely unbothered by our presence.  Emma enjoyed playing on the shore in the dusky evening.

Having birthday pie (for Anna and John) from Gizdich Ranch nearby - a favorite local apple orchard and pie maker.

We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium

On Cannery Row

Ghirardelli on Cannery Row - a favorite stop of ours

Mission Carmel

The San Juan Bautista bench at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey.  Matthew and Anna were remembering their mission field trips to Mission San Juan Bautista when we lived in Gilroy.  Learning about the California missions is a rite of passage for elementary kids in California.  The mission I visited was San Juan Capistrano.

The beach at Fisherman's Wharf was PACKED with sea lions.  We have never seen so many there.  After we got back I saw an article in the paper about the abundance of sea lions at that beach.  Experts believe it will be a temporary visit (maybe a few months) until they find somewhere else to go.

Getting treats on the wharf

The sea lions were so loud - a cacophony of barking

The sea lions - also the little bay was literally teeming with sea lions frolicking all about.  The article we read later says these were all (probably) male sea lions.

Driving 17 mile drive south of Monterey.  We tried to recreate a picture we took from 2016

We didn't quite get it

Here's the original picture - summer 2016

A million sea lions on "bird rock" on 17 mile drive.  We wondered if the sea lions staged some kind of hostile takeover from the birds.  The sea lions are definitely living their best lives this summer near Monterey.

Pebble Beach

Birthday dinner for Anna in Carmel

At Garrapata Beach in Big Sur

Big waves to run away from

At Hearst Castle in San Simeon

At the Elephant Seal Rookery in San Simeon

There were dozens of elephant seals hanging out on this beach

We had a wonderful time and ended in San Luis Obispo where we took brief driving tour of the campus of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.  I wished we could have stayed in SLO.

Redwoods and Fort Bragg

We spent a week on the California coast - traveling north to south although we turned around at San Luis Obispo.  I had been originally planning to travel to Ventura and then turn around but we decided to cut our trip shorter so John could go to a get ready for middle school camp.  Here are some pictures from our visit to the Redwoods area.

Skywalk at Trees of Mystery

Gondola ride at Trees of Mystery

Lots of  banana slug sightings

Redwoods was beautiful and amazing!

We stopped at a roadside attraction, Confusion Hill, that is one of the inspirations for the Mystery Shack in the cartoon show Gravity Falls (one my kids like).  It was fun to see.

About to enter the crazy shack

The shack built on a slope

A Bill Cipher (the villain character from the show).  I don't know if I would recommend this place, since other people may not appreciate the kitsch, but we thought it was fun and had a great time.  There was lots to see and also a little train ride where we learned about the history of logging in the area.

One of the favorite stops on our trip was Fort Bragg, CA.  If it weren't so far away we would make it a regular vacation stop.  We looked for sea glass on Glass Beach in Fort Bragg.

The sea glass is getting more sparse it seems

On a walking bridge (former train trestle bridge) near our hotel

near the underpass trail to the beach near our hotel

At our hotel

the underpass to the beach

Sea glass

Fun Mexican restaurant for dinner in Fort Bragg.  We also stopped at a local ice cream place in Fort Bragg.

Redwoods were awesome but Fort Bragg was a favorite!!