Big Sur-prise

Back from a long weekend road trip to Big Sur and San Francisco. Despite the rainy weather, I think Tommie and I managed to see and experience everything we were hoping to. The next few blog entries will highlight some things we saw along the way so that you can enjoy the sights we did...and maybe make the trip yourself someday.

First stop is the Elephant Seal Rookery along Highway 1. I knew I wanted to stop to see these guys when I saw it marked on the map. We have a harbor seal rookery in San Diego, but elephant seals make those little guys look like Labrador puppies. The elephant seals are huge (the males are the size of small whales) with bulbous snouts, and they make the most disgusting noises (burping noises that reverberate across the beach) and, of course, they smell. Basically, the female seals sprawl across the beach sunbathing and nursing the babies until a fat male seal drags himself out of the water and decides to flop himself on top of her. For obvious reasons she seems annoyed and burps/growls in his face...which only seems to make him like her more...it pretty much sums up the male/female relationship for any species.

Because I love watching animals in their natural habitat and am oddly fascinated with ugly things, I enjoyed seeing (not so much smelling) this part of the California coastline.