Monterey - Day 2

This was probably my favorite day of the whole trip.  Because of that, I have tons of pictures, so I'll try to keep my words to a minimum.  Before we left for the trip, everyone told us that we needed to take the drive out to Big Sur.  So we did (poor Carrie and Burke -- I think they have to do this with everyone who comes to visit!)

We started off the day with a pretty intense drive along winding coastal-mountain roads up to this adorable restaurant in Big Sur called Neptenthe.  We ended up getting a great table outside on the patio -- right on the cliff looking down 800 something feet to the sea (correct me if I'm wrong ... not quite sure about the elevation).  Anyway, the food was amazing.  Not to pick favorites, but this was one of my favorite meals of the entire trip.  I wish I had a food picture, but I had the BEST heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad that I've ever had in. my. life.

After lunch, we did hang around to take a few pictures at Nepenthe before heading back down the coastline to do a few scenic stops before wine tasting in Carmel Valley.

I made Ben pose for this one! 

The drive was once again, intense, and this picture kinda gives you perspective -- a section of road literally crumbled into the ocean a few weeks ago so now that part of the highway is one-lane.  Scary!

The drive drove one passenger to drinking ... (i'm probably going to get in trouble for posting this but since he doesn't read my blog he'll never know.  unless his wife tells him, which she probably will)

We stopped to take some scenic pictures.  Is the view not breathtaking?

We then stopped at this little beach and decided to hike down to take photos down there.  We all laughed at this sign on the way down (foreshadowing).

I forced Ben to take this picture too.  We did like 375 takes, and it still didn't turn out like I wanted.  I blame the soft sand, and the fact that white (wo)men can't jump.

I'm seriously trying not to bore you with pictures, but please indulge me ....

A few minutes after posing for a picture on these particular rocks, they became our refuge.

We were all just standing on the beach enjoying the waves when we started to notice them getting pretty big.  One wave in particular we were kinda like "oh wow ... that is big"

then: "oh ... shoot.  its really big."  and we all take off running

Burke, Carrie, and Becky, escaped to higher ground quickly enough.  Wes, Ben and I did not.  We all ended up on these rocks spider-man style!  It was hilarious and I'd give just about anything to have that on video.  Basically, we all realized we were about to get totally soaked and at that point it was every man for himself!  One of the funnier moments of the trip.  We were all pretty winded by that point and headed back to the car.

After all the excitement, we headed back down to Carmel Valley for a little wine tasting.  We had the best time and Carmel Valley is gorge!

Burke was good about reading us the tasting notes before each wine we tried.

I  made my own tasting notes.

After all the wine, we figured what could a little more indulgence hurt and got dressed for dinner.

We went to Mission Ranch which was UH-MAZE-ING.  Best meal of the whole trip!  Seriously. 

After dinner, we decided we were all dunzo, and headed back to Carrie and Burke's house to get some rest before another exciting day!  It was a long, but very fun day. 

Also, big HUUUUGE thanks to my parents for keeping Wyatt for us the whole time we were gone!  They were so good to keep sending us pictures and updates each day.  I don't think he missed us one bit, and Ellie sure did keep him well-entertained!