Big Sur and Monterey

 Can I say BEATIFUL? I can because this is my blog but Big Sur was absolutely breath taking. Good thing to because it was quite the journey to get there!

Amber flew into Monterey at 8:30ish which meant I woke up at 3am at my parents to get there on time. I think I got to get up later than Amber though. The first thing on our to-do list was find a campsite. We tried to reserve one but the reservations were all filled so we had to take our chances and try to walk in. SCARY! We have both had very bad experiences with this. So we headed out on a mission to find a campsite. We drove down scenic highway 1.

 We enjoyed the amazing views, but they were even more spectacular south of Carmel. (Pictures courtesy of Amber)

We were fortunate to get a campsite on try number 4. Yo yeah! We stayed at Pheiffer State Park in Big Sur. We were all set up by 11:30am. What a relief. Look at all that junk on my car, don't worry there was even more inside my car. It is really hard to pack for 3 weeks. But even harder when you need swimming, biking, hiking, church, work, and normal clothes. I am sure I could have packed less but I always error on the cautious side.

 After we set up camp we headed out for lunch and to explore.

Julia Burns State Park had some amazing views.

My only complaint was that you can't go on the beaches. LAME!

We attempted a little service on the way. Unfortunately this bike rider had a problem way outside of my skill set. I felt bad too because she was 100 miles away from a bike shop. Yikes! Reason 432,789 why I would not bike the coast by myself.

We ended the evening with a bike ride ourselves. We biked 17 mile drive in Monterey. It was really nice, especially along the beach. That was post 2 hour nap on the beach because I was super tired.

The next day we decided to hit up the aquarium. The aquarium was really fun and I am glad we went I just wished we would have gone on a day other than Saturday. That place was crazy.

 I love the jelly fish.

After the aquarium we enjoyed cannery row.

And this little gem was hanging in the Nestle store. A motto I would be more than happy to adopt!

We finished off the day kayaking and biking. Kayaking in the bay was amazing. The water was so calm and we were able to go a long ways. We saw sea lions, jelly fish, pelicans, and lots of kelp forests.

This picture does not show all the drama that occurred here. I wanted to get close for a picture and I wanted to be facing the camera so I started to back up towards the pier. Apparently I got too close because the sea lions all started to get up and they were barking like end of the world was coming and I couldn't get away soon enough.

 Lesson learned keep your distance. They are a little big to mess with. We finished the evening off with a nice 12 mile bike ride on a bike trail that parallels the coast.

Sunday morning after we packed up camp we went on a walk to the beach before church.

 We were along HWY 1 South of Carmel and the waves were huge. It was great weather for a walk.

 After church we headed to San Jose to stay with Sariah and Brett and explore a little different part of California. I really enjoyed this part of California and could definitely spend more time there.