Second full day in Monterey.

Mom was pretty exhausted from not sleeping well the night before, so I let her sleep in and took a solo trip out to take in the sunrise near Lovers Point Park. I sat and watched a group of seals lounging on the rocks. They are hilarious animals - so awkward on land, and they choose to nap on the most uncomfortable looking spots. But I suppose they basically have a pillow built into their bodies, so who am I to judge?

I grabbed coffee and breakfast at Tidal Coffee to bring back to the hotel, and then we ventured out again down Highway 1, but this time just a short ways. Dogs are not allowed even in the car at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, so mom kindly hung out with Norman just outside the entrance while I hiked around with my camera. Then we headed down to Garrapata State Park slightly further south, where Norman was allowed on the beach. He had a grand time dodging waves and chasing birds.

We had talked about doing Yosemite on this trip, but ultimately decided against it because it wasn’t really close to our planned route, and it’s near enough to home that we could theoretically see it another time over a weekend. The problem with that idea is I’ve just never gotten around to it.

With the wrench in our original plan to take Highway 1 all the way to Morrow Bay, courtesy of a landslide, mom pitched the idea of adding Yosemite to our itinerary after all. So we went to bed super early, with alarms set for 0400 to make the drive out to arguably the most popular National Park in the world.