We spent about 7 hours driving up highway one. It was just stunning. And remarkably isolated. Rarely had a phone signal and miles at a time without seeing any type of business. Lots of pullovers to enjoy the view and a fantastic lunch in Stinson Beach. I put that town at the top of my retirement list! Tomorrow we head to the avenue of Giants. We will spend 2 nights at Miranda Groves cottages. I am not sure we will have any wifi or cell reception for a couple of days. So no worries if if no update tomorrow.

PS-we had Jarrito sodas in glass bottles for lunch. Max asked if he could take his straw out and drink it like a beer. We all had a laugh over that one. We also caught him taking a selfie at GGB this morning. He was trying hard to get just the right shot. He sure is growing up fast. He has done so well on this trip. Even today on our long, leisurely drive.

Next we stopped in Muir Woods. It is so beautiful there. We got our first glimpse of redwoods. These are smaller than the ones we will see tomorrow. We ran into a ranger who told us a lot about the trees. Including that their pinecone is the size of an olive. Sure enough, we found one on the ground and it was tiny! This area was young for an oldgrowth forest, around 2000 years old.

Today we started out with a stop at the edge of Golden Gate bridge before driving over. We were lucky again that it was not shrouded in fog. There is an outdoor interactive area the gives some history. That was nice since the visitor center was not open yet.

Odds and ends, here are a few more photos from the whale watch. We saw harbor seals, risso dolphins, and a black footed albatross (not pictured). We had a long, but very fun day.

We came back to San Francisco on the Pacific Coast Highway and were treated to some specatular views.

Max tried a program to camouflage himself. Here are a few takes.

We headed to the Monterey aquarium after and it was really impressive. They had loads of jellies and a lot of diversity. A very impressive place.

We carried on to see if we could find the blue. The main reason we went with a company over 2 hours from San Francisco was because of their success in seeing the blues. It was at the top of my bucket list. This summer the water is warmer along the coast, and they haven't been spotting them as regularly. Si we were thrilled when we started seeing the spouting of a blue! You can see it from a good distance. The whale was only up a bit then went into a dive. They will usually dive for 15-20 minutes and may travel 2 miles during their dive. So usually, they spout, you race to get as close as you can, then they dive and move away from you. Well not this blue. She came up after 2 minutes and was a little closer. The pix don't do it justice. It was a thrilling experience!

Wow. What a day! We got up early and drove down to Monterey Bay. We started the day with a whale watch tour. The company, Monterey Bay Whale Watching, was really outstanding. We saw a minke whale-rare to see because they are so quick and shy. Next we came across two humpbacks. Before anyone could take pics, a spotter contacted our crew of marine biolgists and naturalists with a tip of a blue whale sighting. We headed south to big sur to check it out. Along the way we came across theee more humpbacks at the surface. We got to see them spout and saw the flukes of 2 of them.

My favorite photo of the day

We ended our sightseeing day in chinatown, where we visited a fortune cookie factory and did some souvenir shopping. We are all excited about our trip to Monterey Bay tomorrow and Whale watching!

When our city tour ended we checked out the NPS Maritime museum, which was actually a pier full of boats. When we were in the visitors center to get our NPS passport stamps, the man at the desk had a huge face tattoo and floppy lobes that had been gauged before. He was probably 70 years old. Max took it all in stride. He is such a good little traveller.