Apr 19, 2013 - Day 3

4/19 – I woke to doves tap dancing on my roof. The birds on this trip, falling as it does during breeding season, have been crazy vociferous and critters everywhere are running around with mouths full of nest makings. I learned more about all those critters at the best nature museum I’ve ever seen, very hands-on and up-to-date, at Morro Bay State Park. Bring your kids here! It was a great way to start day 3 of my trip. I decided this is a nature and history trip exclusively rather than a shopping and dining experience because it’s not easy...

Apr 3, 2013 - San Luis Obispo, CA

Day 28 - April 1 Our driving days are just as beautiful and interesting as our sightseeing days. Leaving Thousand Trails near Santa Barbara, we drove through some mountains and then through miles and miles of vineyards. We finally got back to the coast at Pismo Beach. Our destination was San Luis Obispo, where we parked at an Army facility campground. Day 29 - April 2 In all of our years of travel, we had never visited Hearst Castle. We had made reservations, on line, and off we went to see this special place. We had been warned that there...

Oct 19, 2012 - San Luis Obispo

Last night we went to a lovely restaurant called Apple Farm. I have said it before but meals here are HUGE! Food was lovely but far too much. This restaurant grows much of it's own fresh fruit and veg and Mark had an Apple Farm Beer. There was a large gift shop attached to the restaurant and this is where the photos on this page were taken. Mark and Mac have headed off to the local beach for a few hours while Cait and I have some downtime at the hotel today. After lunch we may go to the Children's Museum down the road.

Oct 18, 2012 - Santa Monica to San Luis Obispo

We left Santa Monica today after spending a quiet day yesterday driving up Rodeo Dr and admiring the huge houses on Sunset Boulevard. We didn't see any one famous but Mark and Mackenzie photographed a Bugatti Veyron sitting on Rodeo Dr. Mark later found out that is owned by Bijan, a deceased fashion designer and is always parked on Rodeo Dr as a kind of a memorial to him. It is now owned by his son. Today we drove from Santa Monica to Ventura for lunch and then on to Santa Barbara for a look around. Santa Barbara is a beautiful place with...

Oct 8, 2012 - San Luis Obispo

We headed southbound along the east edge of the Bay Area until we picked up Highway 101 again which is the El Camino Real (the King’s Highway). This area is filled with farmland, especially vineyards (as was the area above the Bay – Napa, Sonoma, etc). Lots of produce growing and lots of hills. We passed by Atascadero Elks lodge and could see their RV parking from the highway. We’ll have to stop there some other time. We arrived at San Luis Obispo Elks in time for lunch in the lodge, we love these short drive days. While Larry rested up, I...

May 9, 2012 - A SLO Farmers Market

Here in San Luis Obispo, the locals refer to it as "SLO". Many businesses use the letters SLO in their signage. An example of this is, "SLO Satellite", or "SLO Insurance Services". There is much pride here with the SLO logo. It is on hats, T-shirts, storefronts and billboards. SLO is a beautiful city! We took a short ride from Atascadero to downtown San Luis Obispo for the Thursday night Farmers Market. If you are ever in the area, this Farmers Market attracts many people and is very much worth the effort. For the guys there are the girls...

Apr 10, 2012 - San Luis Obispo

Destination # 84: San Luis Obispo, California Mileage: 280 miles (from San Diego, CA) Arrive: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 Depart: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 • Tuesday, April 10  Goodbye San Diego. We know there is a lot more to see here and we definitely plan to be back in future years given your proximity to the Palm Springs area.  The trip to San Luis Obispo is very pleasant albeit a bit longer than we have been use to in recent months. We are staying in the San Luis Obispo County Park campground. By the time we get here the predicted rain...

Sep 19, 2011 - Driving the Pacific highway up the coast of California

Today we said goodbye to LA and began the drive up the coast heading towards San Francisco, staying tonight at San Luis Obispo, at a hotel called Quality Suites, nice choice. We took around 5 hours as we stopped at Malibu, disappointing, not how l imagined at all. Next stop Santa Barbara, beautiful, palm trees mountains on one side beach on the other. Stopped for lunch on the Sterns Wharf and then had a drive through neighborhood. Next stop was danish town called Solvang. It was a village in which all building were danish looking and the...

Jun 22, 2011 - Hearst Castle, CA

June 22-Wed.- Had a little breakfast & off to Hearst Castle, Ca. Wow what a HUGE Beautiful Mansion. The Hearst Castle Museum. This place has 130 rooms 85 bathrooms, 82 bedrooms, 4 swimming pools with statues, theater, bowling alley game rooms, you name it he has it. he has 3 guest houses. l faces the west-Casa Del Sol, 2-Casa Del Monte-facing the mountain, 3 Casa Del Mar-House of the Sea, & then the main Hearst Castle Mansion Museum. He had a dream as a boy, when his father became rich by accidentally finding Lots of Silver, while trying to...

Jun 16, 2010 - San Simeon, CA

Today, Tue. Jun 16 we have been on the road 2 months and one day and we are still lovin' it. This country is so beautiful. We toured part of the Hearst Castle today. There are 4 tours to chose from. We took tour 1 which is the recommended one for those who have never been there. It took 1 hr, 45 min and was great. They took you up to the castle which was 5 mi from the visitor center on a bus on very steep,winding road with no guard rails. They had some great bus drivers. The caastle reminded us of the ones we saw in Europe. We saw the...

Jun 15, 2010 - San Luis Obispo, CA

Mon. Jun 14, we drove from Point Magu to Vandenberg Air Force Base with a stop at Solvang, which is a Danish Town. Just like we were informed, it was like we were actually in Europe. The buildings in most of the town look Danish with the decorations and windmills. It seemed like a very friendly area. They even had free parking for rv's which was very nice. We had a brunch there and I had wonderful Danish pancakes which were almost like large crepes. We did a little browsing and then drove to Vandenberg AFB to spend the night. It was the...

Jun 8, 2010 - Last Full Day

After all the road tripping we have done so far we decided to stay close to the hotel today. We got up and had a nice breakfast at the Local Yolk and then headed to the Hollywood area. Our first stop was at the Pierce Brothers Memorial Cemetery. It is this TINY cemetery right in the middle of business area. It was easy to find since we found good directions online, but without them, you never would have known it was there. There are alll kinds of famous people buried here. Some we seen was Marilyn Monroe, Rodney Dangerfield, Farah Fawcett,...