Surfin' Safari

Yesterday we went to the beach on San Simeon Bay. It's a nice sandy beach and Nadia had a lot of fun doing the usual beach things. Brenda and I took walks and enjoyed views of the Pacific and the hills behind us. Hearst Castle looks huge even from where we were. The dinghy landing involved riding a gentle surf but it was straight forward. The exit was little more exciting when a wave hit then me slipping and bonking my eyebrow against the end of the oar while Brenda tried to paddle us of shore. Not
being ones that learn easily we decided to go to Hearst Castle this morning. The surf didn't look that bad until we were surfing along with it. Just as we were about to hit shore Brenda stepped off and was knocked over. We got things under control, Brenda standing there soaking wet, covered with sand, looking not that happy. It was difficult to continue on to Hearst Castle. The idea that we had to now re-launch the dinghy back to the boat was very unappealing. Waves go through cycles, first you
get some little ones then you get some big ones. The big ones were much too big to consider launching in while the smaller ones would have been OK. It was very difficult trying to figure out when the right time to go would be. We stayed there for 4 hours watching the waves. Finally I figured out that by watching the water on the edge of the bay where the waves came around you could predict when a lull would occur. We got away unscathed and happy to be back at the boat. While we were waiting and watching
the waves an elephant seal swam by. They don't call them elephant seals for nothing.
We may be here for several days. The winds are howling out on the open water right now.

A word from Nadia,

I saw 8 or 9 lizards on the beach. Not to say the ones I saw at Point Lobos. I saw a bunch of Monarchs, I saw a pretty yellow butterfly with little white spots on all four of it's wings.