This brought back childhood memories for Harris
Rain shower in the morning, then a gorgeous blue sky day. Sunny California indeed. The ocean is blue, immense, and just crashes on the beaches and rocks like there is a storm somewhere, but looking out on the horizon all you see is blue ocean, blue sky, yellow sun. We love the sound of the crashing waves. On our walk this morning we saw some houses on the beach for sale. Judy was excited…let’s live here! Hmmm, Harris said. Think of the taxes. Taxes, smaxes…Judy wants sunshine and ocean waves .We walked through a small area of houses, doing a few geocaches as an excuse/incentive to be there.
The lnadmark rock at Morro Bay
Geocaching along the beach
Then we took off for San Simeon and Hearst Castle. We haven’t been there since our honeymoon almost 35 years ago. When we arrived, we were surprised to see such crowds on a Monday. Oh, of course, it’s spring break for a lot of people. By the time we reached the ticket counter, everything for the day was sold out. But we caught a real break. The woman at the counter asked us to wait just a minute, then explained there might be tickets on a waiting list, as people who reserve tickets don’t always show up. We had expected to wait an hour or two for tickets, but instead got right on the bus! Ten minutes waiting time, max. The house and grounds were just as ostentatiously beautiful as we remembered. Huge house, huge ranch. Art work, statues, panels, etc from Europe…truly a museum now, and that’s the way the state of California runs it. We enjoyed our tour and the movie afterwards, but didn’t realize how late it was getting.
The "Little Ranch"
One of the 3 pools (redone three times)
Heart's gathering room
We should have stayed in Morro Bay for the night again, but instead, thought, oh well, a couple of hours up the coast, we’ll find something. Wrong! Highway 1 along the coast is narrow, twisty, slow, gorgeous and virtually uninhabited. There were large ranches. There was the occasional restaurant. Sometimes an art gallery. Sometimes a house or two. But nowhere to stop, even for groceries. The late afternoon and evening sun shone on the water and made the trip worth the drive. (even more so, because for once, Judy had the land mass on her side of the car and not the drop off).Looking at the map, we thought Big Sur would have a grocery store, or something. Nope. Onwards. When we reached the outskirt of Carmel by the Sea, we pulled into the first store we saw. Then, driving on, discovered it was a much bigger town, with lots of shopping. And Santa Cruz was huge. We saw no signs for private parks, and some state parks were closed. But we finally pulled into an RV park in Felton, in the complete dark, about 10 PM. Too long of a day!
One of a multitude of vista spots
This morning we woke to more sunshine, but it is filtered through huge redwood trees. Much like camping in western Washington. The sun is up there, somewhere. The trees make the park somewhat dark, fooling us into thinking it’s earlier than it really is. We’re planning to head to San Francisco today.
One of several stop signs on Hwy 1 due to storms
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