Caliornia, Day 6 - Point Lobos Part 2

Here is part two of our day at Point Lobos!

Great family photo on the beach

Those are sea lions out there!  Too far away to really see but we could definitely hear them.

At least one of them turned around and smiled when I asked!

Much better - what cuties.

There were so many cute little crabs

Both Cameron and Leah were very interested in the kelp.  They were fighting over who got to hold it for a picture.

The compromise was that they each got a picture taken with the kelp.  Whatever makes you happy, I guess!

Cool shells in the tide pool.

Cameron pretending to be a baby seal

Checking out another tide pool.  I was amazed that no one fell into any of the tide pools, I was sure we'd have a soaking wet kid by the end of the day!

Pretty flower

Another really cool cove.  The ranger told us that sea otters hang out in this cove quite often, but we didn't see any.

Kelp art

This is what happens when you have to go potty in the middle of a hike!  We had climbed way up to the highest point in the park and there was no one else there, so Leah got to water the flowers.

What a beautiful view

Handsome boy, quite proud of himself for climbing up to the top all by himself

Daddy and Leah

Silly Cameron

Silly Leah and Daddy

More of Point Lobos - we didn't make it over to that part of the park.  Next time!

Mama with the kiddos

Checking out the view and looking for otters

Heading back towards the car

Everywhere we turned in this park, it was so beautiful!  And we only explored a small part of it.

Leah likes to make silly faces.

We got back in the car and headed for another parking area.  The kids wanted to explore more tide pools and look for more animals.

The climbing was a bit more tricky at this part of the park, so Leah and I stayed back on the easy beach/rocky part.  Cameron and Daddy went and explored on their own.

Cameron did a great job, he is quite surefooted.

The orange sweatshirt makes it easy to find him in any picture!

Looking back and the girls (and Aaron)

Looking for something cool in a tide pool.  Unfortunately we didn't find anything that we hadn't already seen.

Jump!

Tim let Cam explore on his own and took pictures of him while he was doing it.

More Point Lobos

Drift wood or a jungle gym?  I think both!  Took Tim a while to get the kids to stop and look at him for a picture!

Our sweet boy, Cameron the rock climber and explorer

We were pretty tired out after all of that climbing and walking around, so we headed back to the hotel.  It was a pretty warm day and this hotel was one of the only ones we were staying at that had a pool, so we decided to go for a swim.

The pool was pretty chilly and it took Cameron a long time to get in.  Leah, in true form, just jumped right in.

Yay for underwater pictures!

Daddy and Leah

Diving to touch the bottom

I love her!

Super close up!

What a great day we had!  Point Lobos is such a cool park, we are definitely putting it on the list to go back to someday.

California, Day 6 - Point Lobos Part 1

On our first of two days in the Big Sur area, our plan was to head over to Point Lobos State Reserve.  This was a place that Uncle Jim and Aunt Jill told us about, one of their favorite places from their trip to California the year before.   We were very excited to check it out!

We went into downtown Carmel to find a place to eat breakfast.  We ended up at a cute little bakery which was apparently very popular because we had to wait in quite a line to get our food.  It was a yummy breakfast and we walked a little bit around town.  It is a very cute place but we didn't spend too much time in town because the kids were ready to go check out the park.

When we got to Point Lobos there was a line of cars to get in.  Some cars were parking out on the road but we decided to drive in to look for parking.  We were very glad we ended up doing that because it would have been a long walk in!  We waited for a bit to get into the park and then found a parking spot pretty quickly.

Before we started to explore, we went to the most important place anyone can visit when they have little kids - the bathroom!  On the way back from the bathroom was a huge stump that made a good place for a photo op.

Aaron hiked the whole way in Mama's pack.  It made for an interesting hike for me, having an extra 13 pounds strapped to the front of me.  Aaron did great though, slept most of the time and peeked out the rest of the time.

Rather than going to the hiking trails, we decided to climb around on the rocks and explore the tide pools.  It was a great choice, we saw so many cool things and loved the rock climbing.  We didn't see too much in the tide pools, but we did find quite a few little crabs.

Ready to explore (with our pants rolled up so we don't get too wet)

 It was so beautiful there

Tide pools!

Mama and her boys

Daddy with Leah and Cam

Both Cameron and Leah did a great job climbing around.  Leah, being so small, sometimes needed a bit of a boost but she was pretty fearless when it came to scaling rocks, sliding down to a lower part or walking along an edge.  Cam did well, but that was no surprise since he is a little monkey!

Close up of the picture above

Hello Mr. Crab

The tide was coming in when we were there

Hello down there

Mama and Aaron

After an hour of scrambling around on the rocks and checking out the tide pools, we headed down the path to check out more of the park.  Leah's favorite part of the path was the benches; she insisted on taking a rest at every one.  That was fine with Tim because it meant he could stop and take more pictures!

From the bench in the picture above, we had a great vantage point down to a rock with a bunch of seals.  They were relaxing and sunning themselves.

All except this little guy (can you see him in the middle of the picture) - he was swimming around and playing.  He was so cute to watch so we kept our eye on him for a while.  Eventually he got tired and went to get back up on the rock with the rest of his friends.  With the tide coming in and out, he would get up on the rock... and then get knocked back off into the water again.  He tried again and again, getting knocked back into the water time after time.  After a while, a whole crowd of people (well, maybe 10 of us) had gathered and were watching and cheering for the little guy. He would roll his body up on to the rock and we'd all hold our breath, just for him to get knocked down again.  Eventually, he made it up there and the whole group let out a collective cheer.  It was a great experience and one of the kids' favorite stories to tell from the trip.

Looking back towards the rocks we were climbing.  What an amazingly beautiful place.

More seals

More gorgeous views

The place that the little seal was trying to get up on the rock was in the cove at the bottom of the picture.

So beautiful (and the sun was coming out!)

More seals hanging out on rocks

There was a park range with a telescope set up on the path.  She had it trained down on the seals in the picture above.  It was very neat to be able to watch them close up.  Tim figured he would try and take a picture through the scope - it came out pretty well.

The path followed the top of a high cliff for a while, then steps lead us back down towards a beach.

Almost to the beach

Here come Mama, Leah and Aaron... a bit slower than Cameron, who ran at full tilt to get there.

Checking out the ocean and more seals

He was very excited to find some cool rocks that changed color when he got them wet.

I think they could have stayed and played with rocks on the beach all day.

Little boy, big beach

Life is great when your entire beach is made up of perfect throwing rocks.

Time for a picture of the kiddos on this beautiful beach!!

What cuties we have

Mr. Aaron was very excited to be out of the pack for a while (okay, he doesn't look so excited here, but he was definitely happy).  The not-very-crowded beach was also the perfect place for a lunch break for him!

Smiling at his silly sister

Yep, she's a goof!

There were so many Point Lobos pictures I decided to break them up into two posts.  More of this amazing place later!