Picked up the new rental car early in the morning. Ended up with a Mazda 6 this time, which was a little tighter with the luggage (although not too bad), but was still better to drive than the Chevy Malibu in my opinion. At least it felt like it’d go somewhere when you stepped on the gas, although it was a little noisier.
Headed off down the coast, driving along CA 1. Nice drive, although we were getting off and on rain, which was really quite disappointing. Drove through the 17 mile drive in Monterrey, which was a fairly nice scenic place. Saw several places along here with seals 
and sea lions, and at one point where the sea lions gathered at an island slightly off shore you could really hear them making noise.
Stopped at a beach near San Simeon to look at the elephant seals. Bunch of them along the beach, and at one point saw a couple of the males battling for dominance.
Of course, between this stop and the stop shortly before for lunch/dinner, that pretty much put us getting in too late at Hearst Castle to make the last tour. So Cathy didn’t manage to get to take that tour. Since we were staying about an hour further down the road and the early tours the next morning were sold out also, wasn’t real practical to come back the next morning.