Big Sur

Although I don’t have the words to adequately convey the beauty of this part of California, hopefully the images I captured while we were out there for Nick & Alexis’s wedding will help.

The last thing we expected when we departed on an early flight out of Orlando International Airport was that 20 minutes after the plane left the ground the pilot informing us that we were turning around due to a cabin pressure problem. It wasn’t reassuring to see a fleet of emergency vehicles escort us back to the terminal but I imagine that was just a precaution because of all the unused fuel we were still carrying when we landed. That problem couldn’t be corrected, but while we we’re waiting to find that out Alexis was wise enough to book all of us on a 6 PM flight later that day. Good thing…Nikki & I had the last seats.

We had a chance to do some exploring in the days leading up to the wedding & several more after. The Pacific Coast Highway had numerous places to pull our car off to the side of the road & it was all Nikki could do to keep me from stopping at every one of them. Most of the time she is pretty patient with me when my Nikon & I get lost in the landscape. It’s from those vantage points & from several of the state parks ( in hind site I would have liked to have visited more of them)  that the following images were taken. Needless to say, we don’t have beaches like this in Florida so we were in awe of what we were witnessing at this off the beaten path beach. Of particular interest was seeing the waves forcing their way through the “keyholes” found in several of the rock formations (Nikki thought it was better than watching a fireworks show). For several days during the winter solstice the sun is actually positioned to appear in the keyhole as it’s setting which is dream shot for photographers. As it is, it’s a good thing I had a large memory stick in my camera. Just to make this an official driftwood related blog here’s a couple of pieces that Nikki wouldn’t let me bring back. The California coast is home to the rare & very large condor. We were able to observe 3 of them using a multimillion dollar  home as their personal perch. Look closely & you can see the large white ID tag on their wing. Also nearby were islands of loud seals catching some sun on the rocks.One of the famous landmarks often used in car commercials is the iconic Bixby Bridge.The other state park we had a chance to visit was the Julie Pfeiffer Burns. There was a fog that didn’t want to leave but even that was interesting to photograph. Nikki & I came home with a lot of great memories, an appreciation for the beauty of the Pacific coast & a new daughter (in law) who along with my son has done such a great job of building & maintaining my Driftwood Decor website.