Elephant Seals

Woke up early today and hit the ground running.

I watched an Elephant Seal colony for fifteen minutes.  That was really incredible.  Got some great shots, and took a short video of two juvenile males playing.  I should clarify that when juvenile male elephant seals "play" it means that they bite at each others neck and slam their massive upper bodies into each other.  The play fighting is a sort of instinctual training, for when adult male elephant seals compete for the favor a female, their fighting is exactly the same as their playing.  They were also noisy, grunting and squeaking and making all kinds of strange blubbery noises.  I also saw a lot of pelican flocks that were flying very close to surface of the ocean.  

After the elephant seal watching I drove back up to Big Sur and got some food at a cafe with a great view of the mountains.  After I finished eating I saw a hummingbird.  I also saw some of the same dark blue birds that were at Nepenthe.  They must be some kind of jay, because they have a similar crown of feathers, and pretty much look like really big blue jays.

So tomorrow it's back to San Francisco to pick up Dad from the airport, and then a night on the town.  Tuesday will be camping day number one, although we will not be doing any hiking on the trail because the majority of the day will be spent traveling to the trail-head.  Tomorrow will be my last post until I return from the wilderness.

- paul