California, Part 2 (of 3, apparently)

(Go back a couple entries for Part 1, if you missed it.)

Friday began as a lazy day. Steve and Eden had to wait for not one, but two, sets of movers/packers to stop by. The first ones were merely stopping in to evaluate what they had to pack, and would be back at the beginning of the following week to actually pack it up. The second set were there to take some of Steve's stuff on ahead of him. After they were all done (and after several round of Guitar Hero 3 on the XBox, at which I royally sucked but could see how I could easily get hooked on), we headed out. At first, we were just going to head to Carmel Beach, but then Eden suggested we do the 17-Mile Drive, and I agreed, eager to see more beautiful scenery. At this point, the sun was teasing us and peeking out just a little bit. But you won't see much proof of that in my pictures.

Our first stop was Pescadero Point, which is the northern-most point of Carmel Bay and Stillwater Cove. (Yeh, don't be impressed--I totally copied that from the guide/map they gave us.) Lyvi loved running around.



I think Steve took nearly as many pictures as I did.



But he also took a couple of me. (Because I know how scenery-only pics can get boring after a while. See--I'm always thinking of you guys.)



I didn't change spots--just changed the angle I was sitting at.



I had to get a picture of this tree, because it was one of several that had these brick-like things inside of it. I'm sure there's some purpose or meaning behind that, but I have no clue what it is.



I have no idea whose house this is--I just had to get a picture of one of the gazillions of mansions that lined the road. Seriously, these houses were so big, they each had a name. And most had big old security gates like this.



Another stop--The Lone Cypress. (No kidding--that's really the name.) The brochure says, "As one of California's most enduring landmarks, The Lone Cypress has prevailed on its rocky perch for over 250 years."



I took this picture as we were driving. I'm surprised that it didn't come out blurry.



This was one of my favorite spots--Bird Rock. If you look closely, you can see this rock is covered with birds and sea lions and seals. It was so noisy! Also, off to the side were a couple smaller rocks with birds and seals on them--I told my brother the smallest one was called Loser-Bird Rock, because it's where all the uncool birds have to hang out. (Ha ha ha.)



There were several of these little spotted squirrels running around--they would boldly approach anyone in search of food, but once they saw we didn't have food, they moved on. I caught this guy while he was still scoping out Steve.



Eden handed Steve some of Lyvi's Cheerios to feed the little guy.



And then as we got back in the car, we saw this sign.



Oops.

I wish this picture had come out better. This was our last stop, Shepherd's Knoll, but I wasn't quite tall enough to get a good picture over the trees. But if you look closely, you can see Monterey Bay in the background. It was much more beautiful in person than it is in this picture.



To be concluded...

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