The [Moving Away from San Diego and Beautiful Big Sur] Adventure

Unlike most people who seem to settle back into a normal routine after returning from their honeymoon--like setting up their home together and going back to their jobs--we decided to do things a little differently.  Upon our return from Kaua'i, we spent three days packing (with a little help from the Navy's movers) and preparing to travel for the upcoming five and a half months.

And on the fourth day, we left San Diego, the beautiful city where we met, fell in love and got married...

Our beginning in San Diego

Our end in San Diego

...and began our cross-country road trip by driving up the gorgeous Hwy 101 through Big Sur along the California coast.  Because we had driven the southernmost portion of the road many times before, we started our journey just north of L.A. this time.

If you ever have an opportunity to do this drive, we highly, highly recommend it.  California has some of the most majestically beautiful scenery in the United States and it is well worth the winding road.

And one of the fascinating parts of the trip is the presence of elephant seals, which are not found anywhere else.  They are the biggest, stinkiest, strangest and laziest animals you will see outside of a zoo, and if the wind is blowing away from you, they are definitely worth stopping to watch.  There is a designated "Elephant Seal Viewing Area" but we stopped just before that area to see them in the open, without fences.  It's much more adventurous that way...

After a day and a half of the beautiful drive, we reached San Francisco and had the joy of visiting Alex, Paige, Xavier and Evelyn for a week.  But we were not finished with the 101, which we would return to after a few lovely family visits...