Located right next to the ceremony location (Monastery Beach), this is one of our favorite state parks! You will find turquoise waters and easy walking/hiking. Bring your binoculars to spot sea otters swimming in the water, seals napping on the sand, and many different birds. :) You may need to bring some cash (around $10-$15) for the park entrance fee.

Santa Cruz is our favorite place to be! The boardwalk is fun to walk around, but if you want to go surfing, Cowell's Beach is the best place we can recommend for beginners and where we mostly surf as well (spot Josh surfing the wave in the picture above)! The waves are friendly, and the ocean floor is completely sand, so it is one of the safest spots to try surfing. Walking along the cliffs over the ocean is great too, and this spot is super close to Natural Bridges State Park, so there's plenty to do to spend a little time in this area!

Beautiful rock formations out in the water! This is a picture from one of our favorite sunsets here :)

Super cool walk-through caves with little streams running through them, great mountain views, and interesting rock formations (pinnacles!). The park is also known for its Condors, lizards, and even Tarantulas (we have seen all in the park before!). It can be very hot here, so check the weather before you go.

Huge sand dunes up against the ocean you can climb around on. Usually, lots of parasailers jumping off the dunes here to watch also!

Point Lobos - Bird Island Trail

Santa Cruz - Sometimes they will pop their heads out of the water and look around.

You know it is a harbor seal and not a sea lion by its grey color and cute little spots! Also, they are a bit smaller.

Erin snagged this photo of some snoozy seal pups through her binoculars

They will almost guaranteed be napping under the pier of the Santa Cruz Boardwalk as we saw here. They are also very loud, you can hear them from miles away.

These bright boys like the cool, damp forest floor. This is the only one we have spotted since we moved here, so keep your eyes peeled when hiking!! The banana slug is also the UC Santa Cruz mascot because it has no known predators :)

Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee whale sightings :( That being said, our wedding will be around whale season when they migrate through our waters! There are vendors who do offer whale tours, but we definitely know people who have gone on those expeditions and have not seen any whales. So we recommend only doing that if you know you will be content with just a nice boat ride and view of the coastal mountains from the viewpoint of the sea (which can still be worth it!)

We happened to see this Humpback whale on a ferry ride as we headed to Channel Islands National Park.

Up and down the Big Sur coastline keep your eyes peeled for elephant seals! These seals are very large, hangout in large packs, and are distinguishable by their large trunk like nose.

Josh captured this big elephant seal yawning on a recent camping trip.

A rare animal to see in the wild, but if you are at our home in Milpitas you might spot this invasive creature. Known to be cute and cuddly, but also a close relative to the rodent family, Zinc can be a real catch with new visitors.

Josh captured this photo of Zinc post nap and in the middle of a big yawn.