"The greatest meeting of land and water in the world..." We checked out of Casa Munras early and headed out on Highway 1 to Point Lobos State Reserve, a gorgeous oceanside state park with winding trails and lots of unspoiled terrain. We took a walk out to Sea Lion Point and breathed in the fresh morning air. The rocky coastine, coupled with overcast weather, was majestic. We later found that some visitors saw migrating whales offshore, but we didn't see any. Still at Point Lobos, we drove out to Whalers Cove, originally the site of a whale hunter operation. We peeked into the small museum they had set up there. We started to go back to the car, but I was in the mood for more hiking. Luckily, Christopher was open to the idea of trekking Granite Point Trail. The hike refeshed us, and we got to see lots of wildlife along the way: sea lions, small ducklike birds fishing for food, a white egret, migrating Canadian geese and seagulls. Definitely the highlight of our trip.

Point Lobos was so wonderful that it was hard to get back on the road, since we had a lot of driving scheduled for that day. We winded down the Pacific Coast Highway, and the views were as beautiful as people say. We passed Carmel and Big Sur on a stretch of Highway 1 between Monterey and San Simeon that is long, small and filled with hairpin turns. After a while, it was making me woozy. Before leaving the coastline, we stopped at a point where a river was running into the sea. While the afternoon sun was reflecting off the waters, seagulls and mallard ducks were sharing the same turf - odd, but pretty. After what seemed like days of motoring, I was getting restless and we stopped at the Ramada in Claremont