Trading pines for palms

For some reason I feel like I've driven up and down Highway One at least a dozen times.  But when we headed from San Luis up to our rental in Monterey I was completely caught off guard.  First of all you will literally die if you lower your eyes for one second.  Every car traveling north or south has prerogative to come to a dead stop in the middle of the road.  I think it's the unspoken rule of the area.  Not that I don't understand why.  It is a panoramic dream.  Every family, honeymooner, and group of bachelors seize the moment for a selfy against those sapphire waters.
 I guess our bumper sticker could have read: I brake for cookies and elephant seals because those were our only detours.  First we were told to stop at Red Moose cookies in Cambria and I need very little convincing when sweets are involved.  The only problem was that they took all their signs down and buried their store deep in a storage facility so people couldn't find them.
Why would they do such a crazy thing you ask?  Well because they can't bake cookies fast enough to keep any in their store.  So now it has become the secret rave of the cookie industry and only the strong survive.  But we persevered and triumphantly left with five bags of cookies.  One might say that in winning you also lose but then I would throw cookies at you.  So if you find yourself up for a scavenger hunt in the middle of California I highly recommend buying a package of root beer float cookies and sandwiching in your favorite vanilla ice cream.  Then call me and I'll be right over.

Once we all had a proper sugar high we turned our attentions to the beasts of the western wild otherwise known as elephant seals.  If the wind wasn't beating down on my less experienced children I would still be their yakin it up with the seal guide.  Every bit of it was fascinating to me and I am so glad the littles got to see them in all their honking, male bravado glory.