Central California Coast

After leaving San Diego we drove up the coast, first stopping near Lompoc overnight. Next stop was San Luis Obispo where we enjoyed their Thursday night farmers market. Next stop was at San Simeon State Park. From there we took the evening tour at Hearst Castle. We really enjoyed our tour. This evening tour is only offered during a few months in fall/winter. The other great thing about our tour was that the castle was decorated for Christmas, plus they had people wandering around all dressed in 1930's period costumes. The first thing we saw on the tour was the outdoor pool and it is beyond beautiful. We saw the main castle including the kitchen, library, and bedrooms. We also toured one floor of one of the guest cottages (5500 square feet).

During the day we saw the elephant seals. The males were starting to come ashore after having swam down from the Aleutian Islands. Some females were also arriving - they are getting ready to give birth in late December.

After leaving San Simeon we drove up the winding coast to Monterey where we spent the night. We visited Cannery Row and had a meal on the waterfront. Sunday morning we were up bright and early for our drive north and over the Golden Gate Bridge. There was a fair amount of traffic by the time we arrived in San Francisco, but not too bad. It was a beautiful day - no fog. We continued up 101 to Santa Rosa where Brian and Toddi lived for a short time. We stopped at the Bottle Barn for some wine and then on the road again making it up to about 80 miles south of Eureka. The highway goes through some beautiful country with lots of wineries and vineyards. The leaves on the grape vines had turned to beautiful fall colors.

We're now almost to the state Redwoods park. More in the next blog.