Monterey, Big Sur, and Highway One

After three full days at Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park (you can read about our day one, day two, and day three), our trip to California wouldn't be complete without heading to the coast. So Saturday that's what spent most of the day doing, driving the four hours west to the ocean.

After checking into our cabin inland a bit, we went to Monterey for dinner and sight seeing, seeing the seals, and finding a park to get some much needed energy out.

The next morning was spent exploring the beauty of Highway one and it did NOT disappoint.

Then we stopped for some time at the beach. We stopped at Keyhole Arch at Pfeiffer Beach. It even had a slight hint of purple sand in some areas!

Then we were back on the road for some more scenic driving and a short hike.

Then we headed back for dinner at home, a short scenic drive in Carmel to some dessert, and then back in for an early night.

We had one more big day of exploring to do for our last day in California. We started with the highly recommended family friendly Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Then we headed back on highway one to stop at a few spots that we had missed.

If you plan to park at McWay falls, make sure to bring $10 cash to park there. We almost stopped here the day before, but didn't have cash, the place was packed (it was a Sunday afternoon) and so we waited to come back and visit instead.

And then we headed back north up the coast to another beach spot to catch the sunset.

And that concluded our first trip ever to California. We learned a lot, and only got a taste of California. It was so hard for to focus on just two spots. Don't worry, I'll be back for more one day!