Day Three: Carmel-Big Sur-Cambria

Another beautiful day in Paradise.

Day started off perfectly: Wife woke up and ran, then I went for a run. One of the great things about running is that it's a terrific way to experience a new locale. I got lucky and picked up an amazing trail -- The Monterey Historic Trail -- and it was incredible all the things I was able to see during a five mile run.

After that it was back to Carmel, where we took the kids to the beach. The beach was magnificent and in certain respects reminded me of Stinson Beach. It's a shame Northern California waters are so cold, because the beaches really are amazing. After that we drove through Carmel again, and then headed up to Cambria, which is where we are now. I can't tell you what kind of town this is as we pulled in late, but the downtown is very charming. We are literally across the street -- as in about fifteen feet -- from the Ocean and evidently it's a popular surf break, called "Beatles."

Surf breaks have the coolest names; the other day we passed by the infamous "Ghost Trees" break in Monterey, where a big wave dude died two weeks ago. Evidently they were breaking about forty feet and he got pinned.

Without question, the highlight of today's trip was the drive through Big Sur. Big Sur is hard to define; it's not really a town per se, it's more like a region or County. It goes for about 50 miles or so and has a very, very small population. That all said, it might be the most beautiful region I have ever seen; it is virtually untouched. I could not get enough of the views. We stopped to check out the Ventana Inn, which is very popular and on the way to Cambria, we stopped to see the Elephant Seals at Point Lomitas, which was quite a site.

All in all a solid day. The kids were actually pretty well behaved for the most part, until they started flicking boogers at each other earlier this evening.

The Boy is reading over my shoulder and proofreading.

He wants everyone to know his favorite part of the day was watching High School Musical II for the eleven millionth time. He says that he also really enjoyed going to the aquarium and tomorrow he looks foward to seeing Hearst Castle.

I"ll post a lot more pictures tomorrow. We are in no man's land and I am barely getting a cell signal, thus pictures are very slow in downloading.