Coastal Paradise: Big Sur

After a long blog hiatus, we're back! We've been spending a lot of time in mountains and national parks, and it's been good to unplug for a while. We'd like to begin where we left off, which is California.

After our lovely visit with Brooks in San Francisco, we hit the road again on the famous coastal highway 101 headed south. We were ready for some sunshine and warmth, so south seemed like the right direction. Our destination was Big Sur, which is the furthest south we will make it on this trip.

For us, Big Sur is the standard for all other coastline--we can't help but compare everything else to Big Sur from here on out. We saw beautiful blue whales meandering along the coast, got our first taste of surf culture, and watched Germany win the world cup with a bunch of Germans. We were thrilled to find free camping spots on a road that winds up a cliff overlooking the ocean. At this makeshift campground we met other travelers from Canada, the U.K., and Australia. We shared the awe ("Brilliant!", exclaimed our British friend, Tim, upon seeing whales) and whatever drinks we could all scrape together over talk of our travels. We could really get used to this minivan life. Things began to feel a little bit magical, especially at sunset when hundreds of whales danced along the coastline. We felt like we were at the edge of the world, placed like royalty at the top of the mountain. Words can't even describe the majesty of Big Sur, so we'll just let the photos do the talking. Just a note, none of these photos are edited--the colors are all credit to mother nature!