Resolutions and Commitment : Adventures with Kristen A! Part Deux

Since this adventure ended almost a week ago I'll just sum it up quickly and post a bunch of pictures. We got a lot of other touristy stuff done and a third trip to the tide pools. I had to work on Sunday and Monday so Kristen was on her own and drove down to the Big Sur area as well as explored around Carmel. On Tuesday Kristen came into work with me and helped me out in Seahorse Land!

Wednesday we drove down south to the San Simeon area and took a tour of the Hearst Castle. This place was amazing!!! William Hearst had so much money and so much land that he actually bought animals from all over the world and brought them to his property. He had lions, zebras, polar bears amongst many, many others. It was a pretty crappy day (for Cali standards) with cold rain covering us throughout the entire tour. We got to go inside a few rooms of the castle but had to walk from place to place outside. He had two pools, one indoor and one out. He had his walls and ceilings furnished with artifacts from all over the world, all averaging at least 400 years old.

After the castle we stopped just north to check out the elephant seals. This was pretty cool stuff. When I had stopped in here on my way north the first time through the state there were no males there. This time of year there are females, males, juveniles and pups. The adults had just finished mating and most probably took off on their long migration but there were plenty of stragglers left behind. Good day!

Thursday was whale watch day and we saw way more whales this time than I did on my first whale watch. There were six grey whales and a huge pod of pacific white-sided dolphins, a new species for me so I was excited. Friday we took a trip up to Santa Cruz, stopped in a Long Marine Lab and then went zip lining (1 thing off my b430 list!) and it was so much fun!!! It was up in the redwood canopies (hugging a redwood = 2 things off my b430 list!) and one of the lines was 450 feet long. I cannot wait to do this again and if it wasn't so expensive I'd do it every week! After the zip lining adventure we went up to the "Mystery Spot" which was crazy but also fun. This can only be described by visiting the website (http://www.mysteryspot.com/). For only $5 it was a good time.

Saturday was Kristen's last day so we drove up to San Francisco and went to Alcatraz (#3 off the b430 list!). I could have spent all day on Alcatraz. There were so many stories and such history there. The audio tour was a big help and was narrated by old guards and inmates. I highly recommend taking this tour and I cannot wait to go back to do the night tour!