If you missed Day One Click Here
If you missed Day Two Part One Click Here
Saturday was a busy day for me and E. After Hearst Castle we were famished. Using our cell phones and respective aps (Google Places for me and Yelp for her) we located “Sebastians Store” just off the beach in San Simeon and head off for some lunch.
As it turned out, Sebastians Store was San Simeon. In fact, the town’s main drag would have passed as a circular driveway in some California neighborhoods. But man, the Hearst Beef sandwich I had was good. And fresh. As evidenced by the grazing cow just yards away. Ahem.
I’m going to take a stab and guess that I was more “happi” than the cow about my lunch. Sorry buddy!
Stuffed and happy, we took a tip from one of E’s friends on Facebook and decided to head slightly north on Highway 1 to Piedras Blancas and the Elephant Seal Rookery. We really had no idea what to expect except for maybe a few seals scattered around if we were lucky but we figured, what the heck, let’s check it out!
We arrived to this little bluff to find hundreds of people staring over the cliff. Which should have been a clue. Because when we looked over, we saw THIS
Yes, friends, these are ALL Elephant Seals – mostly mothers and newborns but a couple of randy daddies too. They not only stretched out in front of us but behind us also. They were huge (they say the males get up to 2.5 TONS!), blubbery, a little odd looking and EVERYWHERE. The sheer number of them reminded me of one of those photos of beaches in China in the summer, you know, where they’re packed shoulder-to-shoulder for as far as the eye can see?
These folks were fighting. There were probably 50 females to each male and yet the males fought one another periodically for breeding rights. Which was just bizarre because these females had JUST given birth. Sheesh. No respect! (My friend has a hilarious account of our seal adventure. Click here to read it.)
We had not anticipated spending so long staring at Elephant Seals and we were tired, so we got in the car to head back to our rental. But E and I are suckers for a pier, a beach and a sunset. So we pulled off onto San Simeon State Beach to end the day’s adventures, cameras-in-hand.
We ended our day as mirror images of one another on the couch – editing our photos and Facebooking in front of the fire. I guess you can see why we’re friends!
Next up: Day Three – a mission, a parrot and some frost bite…
[...] Day Two – Part Two [...]
Michelle you are a great photographer.
Hah! There are lots of pictures of me. Love them! And I like that you didn’t remove the lines on my face, I like the lines on my face. But I loved your pics of water and seals and San Simeon even more. Fantastic!