CALIFORNIA COAST, BIG SUR Road Trip | from Monterey to LA.

We started our family road trip in San Francisco: here is the link San Francisco

Sun. March 9 -  Wow, what a Sunday Drive!

We had beautiful weather and enjoyed the fabulous views. The road hugged the cliff and usually did not have guard rails.  A great day!  Here are some photos.

Carmel by the Sea beach. -  Carmel is beautiful.  It reminded us of a hilly Niagara on the Lake.

Surfers

Carmel - las Lobos Nature Reserve

Meghan on the Rocks

Next Stop, the historic Bixby Bridge.  Highest/ longest cement bridge in world.  Built in 1932 and is seen on numerous car commercials.

The California Coast continued....

The views were great but the driving was crazy sometimes.  - twists and turns, no guardrails sometimes, cliffs straight down from the edge of the road.  Lots of fun!

Looking down from inside the car. (The following 6 Photos were taken from car window)

The road on the left of the photo is in front of the car and the road on the right is behind the car

No guardrails

A few twists and turns

Julia Pheiffer Burns State Park

A few very tall redwoods at the park

Hurst Castle

Hurst Ranch

We stopped at the Elephant Seal Rookery in San Simeon (near Santa Barbara).  It was great fun to watch the seals.  A real highlight of the drive.

Elephant Seal

In Los Angeles by sunset

The trip continues in Los Angeles. Link for the ending of our road trip is HERE

San Francisco. March 6-8, 2014

This was the start of our family road trip from San Francisco to LA to Las Vegas.  It was a great March Break trip.

We had great weather !  Sunny and about 18- 20 degrees during the day, cooler at night.  Went to Fisherman' s wharf, drove and WALKED to the top of Lombard street.  We took the Alcatraz tour which was fascinating- we all highly recommend it, climbed twin peaks, went across golden gate and Bay Bridges, and drove all over the city.  Here are some of the photos we took.  

The Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz

Brad in " the Hole"  - solitary comfimenmet with a cement door that seals out all light.

The hilly streets of San Fransisco - yes, we climbed some!

On top of Twin Peaks. ( well, one of the peaks, but we did climb up both)

Bay Bridge to Oakland.  

The Golden Gate Bridge

The next part of our family road trip was along the Pacific Coast Highway to LA (seen HERE