Nov 23 – CA
Day 114 – Butterflies, butterflies everywhere… or at least in Pacific Grove. There are a few places in California where millions of butterflies spend their winter months and this is one of them. They all rest on the ‘butterfly trees’ and look like grapes hanging from a vine. When it is warm enough they float around in the sky like leaves. It was a site worth seeing, located on Ridge Road off of Lighthouse Avenue – you’ll see signs for them.
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Butterflies in the sky _________________Those are butterflies hanging there
This was a full day of sights. We drove down Big Sur, which was really nice, though after going down all of the Oregon coast and northern California coast it wasn’t shockingly beautiful to me (maybe I am just lame). I think the most impressive part of the coast was in northern California after coming over the mountains, when highway 1 splits off of highway 101 south of the redwoods and out to the coast. Anyway, we stopped by the big tourist spot, Hearst Castle, after driving down Big Sur. You can’t miss the signs for it. From the postcards and picture books in the gift shop it looks like a really great, fancy place. I couldn’t even imagine living in a ‘castle’ like that! He was an interesting man of great wealth, who left a major magnet for the eyes. We passed on the tour since it cost $20, as it wasn’t that important to us to visit, though I could understand why people would like to view all of the splendor.
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just a little further _______________ uuff, that is hard work!
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and, let’s try again…
having a friendly chat
Do you like seals? I love seals… when I was in Alaska, during a summer job in college, I would go kayaking and they would come up near the kayak to say hi. They made me feel protected for some reason, and they are such curious and playful creatures. But the seals here might scare me some if I saw them next to me in the water. They are elephant seals, meaning very huge seals! They have a sanctuary down on the coast, north of San Simeon. There is a nice pull off area you can park and read the display signs about them and than watch them sleep and bath in the sunlight on the beach.
San Luis Obispo was our next stop. It is a great town to stop in, whether you need a coffee, lunch, or just want to mosey around a bunch of shops. This town has a great atmosphere, and how can you turn it down when there is an alley dedicated to bubble gum; yes ~ Bubble Gum Alley. Located off of Higuera St, between Garden and Broad Streets, there are two brick walls where kids have been using gum to graffiti their names or artwork (if you can say that 😉 since 1950. I think every downtown needs a wall like that!
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both walls are covered inch by inch
We left San Luis Obispo around 4.00pm, and boy was it the wrong time to get on the freeway. That sucker got jammed up! I assume it was all the holiday traffic for Thanksgiving the next day. We went a whole 12 miles in about 45 minutes. It was pretty ridiculous. We finally pulled off at Pismo Beach to camp at their state beach, only to find out that it was packed and sold out already from all the RV’ers… So, we drove down further and tried another state park; but “Full” also read their sign. We decided that we’d try the county beach, they can’t be packed…. Ah, at last they are not full, but it is highly recommended to have four wheel drive. The camping was located a mile down the beach; we decided not to put Henry to the test yet. The place had to be filling up quickly because as we sat there talking with a very helpful gentleman there was not a moment that went by where SUVs or trucks were not lined up with their trailers in tow waiting to get in. It was amazing; apparently Californians go ‘camping’, or RV’ing, for Thanksgiving. It is too cold to spend this holiday outside in Washington State or New York City… so it was a new cultural thing for us to experience. I have to say it made finding camping spots for the next few days very hard! So don’t go camping in California during Thanksgiving unless you have reservations well in advance. Who would have thought??!
car traffic at Ocean Dunes S.V.R.A.
We ended up finding a rest stop to finally sleep at – it was free and not Full, yet 😉
Tags: 07 - USA - West Coast, california
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