When you really really need a nap: the personification of pooped

For Spring Break, we drove down Route 1 from San Francisco to LA, excited to see Big Sur – both of us thinking it was one specific thing, like a giant rock in the shape of a horse just off the coast or something like that – some pinnable dot on a map.  Apparently, according to the park ranger who was very nice when I asked where exactly “the Big Sur” was, it is the whole stretch of coastline from Monterey Bay all the way to Hearst Castle.  And it’s gorgeous.

Toward the bottom, there is a stretch of coastline where sea lions beach themselves for the winter to mate, and now that it’s spring, they must be pretty tired of it.  We drove for several miles of sea lion littered sand, and the whole herd (apparently a group of sea lions can also be called a raft) was pretty much passed out.  Every now and then a flipper would flip some sand up over a rotundity or a snout would puff a protesting puff, but most of the lions were so beached it almost looked like hard work to stay that procumbent.

Here were some of my favorite poses (I feel like they should have names):

This last one looks like she washed up on shore nose first.

I thought they were so funny, I did some gesture sketches in an attempt to capture the feeling of utter lethargy, though perhaps throwing a wad of wet clay on the floor would have been more appropriate.

Here’s to sleeping like a sea lion!