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
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
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.
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