Rocky Road

San Luis Obispo and Big Sur
We’ve had an amazing few days playing on the rocky coast; finding cool anemones and beautiful starfish (one more than a foot across). I never thought I’d like the jagged coast after being brought up on the smooth white shores of VA but I have to say I love it.

After leaving the LA area we continued up the coast via the Pacific Coastal Highway passing briefly through Santa Barbara which I’m sure I would have loved had I had time to be courted.  However, finding parking on one of the quaint little town streets for our Expedition with pop-up in tow apparently wasn’t in the cards.  For when, after circling several blocks, we finally found a spot, it turned out to have a 15-minute limit which barely gave us time to walk briskly around the block.  We seized the opportunity but that pretty much concluded our Santa Barbara adventure. 

We had better luck in San Luis Obispo, which immediately went to the top of my “where I’d like to live” list.  We camped in a wooded state campground nestled between the hillsides and the local botanical gardens -- a lovely college town and not far from the charming streets of “downtown” where we’d heard they host a “Farmers Market” every Thursday evening.  Coincidentally we were there on a Thursday (wink).  The market was well worth the planning.  The main street running through the town is blocked off for several blocks and vendors of every nature set up their booths while local shop proprietors move items onto the sidewalks and post signs for market specials.  Tables of fresh produce share the curbs with food vendors, realtors, political campaigners, and performing artists.  There’s something for everyone and it was apparent on this beautiful evening that nearly “everyone” was in attendance as the streets became quite crowded.

One of our favorite attractions was a narrow alley between two buildings.  The walls (and some of the windows) had been colorfully decorated with thousands upon thousands of pre-chewed wads of gum.  Joelle was the first to notice it and quickly announced “Mom, Mom, look!  It’s Bubblegum Alley!” as though she had been expecting to see that very thing.  As she and Kerby excitedly rushed down the alley she informed me that she was indeed familiar with such anomalies and had read about them in one of her National Geographic Kids Magazines.  While I’m not sure I agree with one passerby who replied to his friend’s obvious disgust, “I think it’s beautiful,” I have to admit it’s at least interesting to look at.

Continuing along the PCH the following day heading toward Big Sur, the coastal views got better and better - what an amazing shoreline!  The California coast really is breath-taking.  Like the Grand Canyon, you really can’t experience the grandeur anywhere near in pictures the way you can in person on a brilliantly sunny day.  It reminded me quite a bit of Ireland when Scott and I were there in 2000 – the rolling green hills, the jagged coastline and the crashing waves. Had I known the west coast had such beauty maybe we’d have foregone Ireland all together. We stopped briefly along the way to explore Hearst Castle at San Simeon.  While the visitor’s center offers tours for a mere $72 (for the 4 of us), we chose instead to view the massive architectural wonder, sitting on its 200+ acre hillside lot, from a distance and watched a movie explaining its origins and 90 year history.

A second more spontaneous roadside stop involved us getting reprimanded by the local park ranger and nearly getting ourselves a citation.  Driving along we spotted a large group of seals lying belly-up on the beach and couldn’t resist the opportunity to get a closer look.  Pulling over and following a path down to the seaside where some were frolicking in a tidal pool while others lounged lazily on the warm sand, we were able to walk right into the midst of them.  While we photographed them, sat only feet away on the sand from several and laughed at the funny antics and raspberry sounds they made, little did we realize that we were breaking the law.  After about 20 minutes a ranger yelled from his truck on the nearby Hwy 1 for us to “clear the area.”  Doing so immediately and walking back up the path from which we’d come, the ranger met us half way and gave us a long dissertation on the reasons why we shouldn’t be where we had just been and why he could give us a citation.  In the end we escaped ticket free but wearing the “look of shame.” 

At the end of the day, we’re settled once again in a lovely campground where we’re right next to the Big Sur River and encircled by Redwoods – more beauty – what can I say?  It just keeps getting better.