Catastrophic molting

On the second day of the drive, after an afternoon at Hearst Castle, we pulled off the road in San Simeon to see the elephant seals. There's a beach that they come to throughout the year to do what elephant seals do -- mate and shed. In July, they're shedding. Signs explained that they weren't sick, they were undergoing a "catastrophic molt" in which all their skin comes off at once. This does not leave the elephant seal-shaped rugs lying on the beach that the description suggests. The skin just rubs off in patches. While they wait for their skin to fall off, they mostly lie around in groups packed tight against the chilly wind, rearing up once in a while for a quick skirmish, then flopping back down with mighty thuds. (They say they can be up to 5,000 pounds.)  The viewing platform is maybe 100 yards from where the seals are. Through binoculars, they had the funniest faces. The lighter ones look like they have pretty eyeliner -- and hideous floppy, whiskered nose flaps.

We were planning to drive to a beach another hour north or so to catch the sunset and then keep going til we found a place to stay. Maybe it was the jetlag, but watching these slothful heavy beasts, I realized there was nothing I'd rather do than thud down and just lie around. So we decided to stop nearby for the night.