Taking advantage of the sunny weather, we got away to Solvang, California this holiday weekend. Instead of driving directly to our destination using Highway 101, we decided to take the more scenic Highway 1 and stop at Hearst Castle in San Simeon along the way before completing our journey.

We left home just before eight on Saturday morning. The sun was out, but hadn't been out long enough to warm anything up. According to the car's temperature gauge, it was in the low to mid-twenties outside.

Traffic was light and grew lighter the further south we went. Once we passed Carmel, we hardly saw anyone else on the road. We saw a few early bird photographers at Carmel River State Beach seeking the perfect shot...

We also saw a few seagulls, but I suspect they were the late risers in the flock. The rest had already flown to the next feeding spot...

Unlike 101, where the point is to get to wherever one needs to be going as fast as possible, the point of Highway 1 is to stop frequently and take plenty of photos, which is what we did.

Every time we saw a uniquely breathtaking view and a turnout, we stopped and took a picture. I now have dozens of nearly identical "uniquely breathtaking" shots of California's central coast and the Pacific Ocean.

Here are a few of the photos I snapped. I wasn't particularly good about noting where I was when I took them, so these may be photos of Point Sur, Salmon Creek, and Ragged Point or they may not...

As we got closer to San Simeon, the traffic grew heavier. Just beyond Piedras Blancas Lighthouse, we pulled over to view the elephant seals. We weren't alone. There was a whole crowd of onlookers, but the number of people didn't compare to the number of elephant seals laying on the beach.

According to one of the nice docents from Friends of the Elephant Seal, the rookery (the term for a group of seals) at our end of the bluff was made up mostly of females and pups.

There were some males present, but most wouldn't be arriving until next week. That's when the beaches would become noisy with activity. In the meantime, the seals were quietly spending their time trying to stay cool (by waving their fins and throwing sand on themselves) in this hot (30 to 40-degree) weather.

Here are two shots of the rookery...

The wind and the cold finally chased us from the beach and we continued on to Hearst Castle, which is only five minutes down the road. We arrived at the visitor center a few minutes after eleven and I will expand on that bit of the trip in the next entry.