Today’s Selfie.                      More about them later.              

We left our hotel this morning heading for the Carmel Mission Basilica and Shrine of Saint Junipero Serro. He was the Founding Father  of California. In 1771 he established the mission plus another 7. It has hosted world leaders and a special visit from Pope John Paul ll, and is a listed Historical site.

There are 21 Missions, comprising the Californian Mission Trail. The Spanish were responsible for them trying to both colonise the Pacific Coast, expand European territory and bring Catholicism to the Native Americans.  This one was very serene and beautiful under the blue skies with beautifully tended gardens.  This was the cemetery.

We set off for the Northern Elephant Seal Vista Point at the Hearst- San Simeon State Park on our way to San Luis Obispo but we had an important call to make first.

When we took over the new car we expected the key fob to work the same way –  simply to unlock the doors.  But no, it would only unlock the driver door and whoever was driving then had to reach across to open the other doors. Sounds easy but the way this car is designed inside we risked a hernia or worse with every stretch.  Sheila googled it and it could be reprogrammed but having been emotionally damaged by the persistent alarm a few days ago the other two wouldn’t let her. So on our route we found a Chrysler/Dodge dealer in Seaside, pulled up on their forecourt and Sheila volunteered to find a hopefully helpful person to solve the problem.  Long story short, we found a helpful chap who solved it in 2 minutes.  No one had told us that if you press unlock twice it opened all the doors………..

We travelled through the fertile Salinas Valley.  It’s known in California as The Salad Bowl of the World. 70% of the nation’s lettuce (Green Gold,) is harvested there as well as spinach,  cabbages, tomatoes, broccoli to name a few plus strawberries and raspberries. As we drove along we could see tables set up in the fields with seasonal workers picking, weighing and packaging.

There were also numerous vineyards offering wine tasting but we resisted as we had seals to find.

Boy, did we find them!!!  Seals as far as the eye could see.  It is a colony of 25,000 along nearly 7 miles of beach, not always all  there at the same time.  At this time of year it is the start of the moulting season. Growing new skin at sea would cause tremendous heat loss so they come ashore to grow new layers of skin and hair cells and they just lie in the sand and let it happen.

Not sure we’ll ever be that close to that many seals again and we left them snoozing and  flipping the occasional flipper of sand over their backs to stop them getting sunburn.   Now we’ve arrived in San Luis Obispo and forward  plans include the Botanical Gardens  and the Hearst Castle.         By the way, if you thought we were a touch thick regarding the key fob wait till you hear our adventure with the parking meter.   It’s epic.