5/23/11

Santa Cruz, California: Camped Among The Redwoods

Mary Lynn and I moved from Morris Bay to the Santa Cruz area. We are camped among the redwoods in Felten, California which is 6 mile outside of Santa Cruz, but you would never know that from our campsite.

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Santa Cruz is a sun drenched stretch of California beach about an hour south of San Francisco. Home to the more ‘free spirited’ members of California’s eclectic citizens. Beach volleyball, wind surfing, surfing, and biking are the normal pastimes from Santa Cruz’s residents.

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And yet, just a few mile north of town, the Redwood giants have unimaginably large bases and climb to impossible heights.

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Not too far from our campground is Roaring Camp Railroad, which take you thru virgins stands of California Redwoods. Up until 100 years ago or so all of the mountains in this area were covered in Redwoods. Once logging began they clear cut everything in sight. San Francisco has an unquenchable need for wood, which exploded after the 1906 earthquake and fire.

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Another day we drove down route 1 thru Big Sur. Spectacular coastal scenery although the weather did not cooperate much that day.

 

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Most of the vistas are breathtaking although always challenging to capture when overcast.

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Nevertheless MLA & I had a long relaxing drive along Big Sur.

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Beautiful!

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See Ya!

5/18/11

San Simeon, California: Hearst Castle – Over The Top

While staying in Morro Bay, Mary Lynn and I drove north on Highway 1 to San Simeon and toured Hearst Castle. Built by William Randolph Hearst starting in 1919, the mansion sits 1600 feet above and 5 miles from the Pacific. It has a commanding view over a huge section of California’s Central Coast and the Pacific Ocean.

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W.R. Hearst fell in love with this countryside as a boy while visiting the mega-ranch owned by his father. When he inherited the 250,000 acre property in 1919 (including 14 miles of coastline), he approached Julia Morgan, a highly acclaimed and classically trained architect. Supposedly the conversation started as follows:

“I would like to build ‘a little something’ upon the hill at San Simeon. I get tired of going up there and camping in tents. I'm getting a little too old for that. I'd like to get something that would be a little more comfortable.”

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“A little something’ indeed. This conversation began the collaboration between Morgan and Hearst that spanned 25+ years of design and construction. The Hearst Castle estate includes 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 127 acres of gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theater, an airfield, and what was at the time, the world's largest private zoo.

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Hearst travelled extensively and was an avid collector with wide and varied tastes. He bought entire rooms, buildings full of furniture, highly decorative ceilings, etc. His castle was really a means of getting his treasures out of his warehouses and on display.

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The Neptune pool is a perfect example. He purchased the Roman Temple in Europe, dismantled it, shipped it to California, and had it reconstructed as a focal point of the pool. He had the pool built and re-built three times before he was happy with the outcome. This was typical of Hearst throughout the design/build process. He and Morgan were constantly re-doing portions of the castle.

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The Hearst family donated the estate to the State of California in 1959. Located almost exactly 250 miles from both San Francisco and Los Angeles, Hearst Castle is not the easiest place to visit yet over one million visitors per year make the trip.

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Mary Lynn and I took the tour, which was good but not great. It did not compare to the tour we took of the Biltmore estate located just outside of Ashville, NC. That said, it’s a pretty good tour and the estate is definitely a ‘must see’. I would have liked a little more background on the life and times of WR Hearst and will read a couple of books to get that info.

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Tapestries, fireplace, ceiling, and much of the furniture in the room above were all collected by Hearst and sent to his architect to be incorporated into the Castle’s design.

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The indoor pool was incredibly ornate. And Hearst’s fortune included silver & gold mines, soooo, when you see the color gold, most likely it’s real gold/gold leaf. Amazing what a little money can do…

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The estate included an airport. Hearst owned several newspapers and had the newspapers flown in daily from LA on his personal DC-3. This plane also ferried the constant stream of visitors to & from the estate.

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Harry Potter fans might feel a sense of déjà vu from the Hearst Castle dining room pictured above. The film crew visited Hearst Castle and took numerous pictures that were used as inspiration for the large dining room at Hogwarts.

When you stayed at Hearst Castle you were expected to dine with WR Hearst and all the other guests. At first you would be seated next to/near WR Hearst however the longer you stayed the further away from him you would be seated. Subtle hint not to overstay your welcome…

That’s always good advice – so we’ll be moving North to the Santa Cruz/Monterey area.

See Ya !

5/17/11

Morro Bay, California: Ragged Point & The Bellowing at Elephant Seal Beach is a Blast

While staying in Morro Bay, Mary Lynn and I drove north to Ragged Point. Ragged Point is the beginning of the Big Sur area, which stretches 100 mile north to Monterey. Along the way we stopped at Elephant Seal Beach.

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Ragged Point provides a beautiful overlook of the Pacific Ocean. About 10 miles before you get to Ragged Point you slowly start ascending as Highway 1 (the Coastal Highway) gets really ‘twisty’. Great road for a motorcycle, fun road for a car and an unusable road for an RV. At least for our 42 foot combination of RV & motorcycle carrier. Every where you look the view is spectacular.

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Highway 1 is closed about five (5) miles past Ragged Point due to an earth slide. Repairs are underway however money is tight in California so it will be a while before you can continue all the way into the Big Sur area using Route 1.

Actually California’s current fiscal roads have reduced highway repairs to buying a sign (Road Out 5 miles ahead or Round Roads Next 20 miles) and hope for the best. No money to repair the roads so they just plant a sign.

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The good news? Not much time wasted sitting in construction back-ups! Seriously, sections of the road in California have been worse than what we experienced in Alaska.

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Elephant Seal Beach is a couple of miles of sandy beach where hundreds and hundreds of Elephant Seals can bask in the sun, protected from us. The beach is closed to us humans however there is an overlook where you can see the Elephants Seals close up without disturbing them.

Look closely at the dunes in the picture immediately above. It shows a small section of the beach where you can clearly see the beach littered with basking females and bellowing males. OK – you can’t ‘see’ the bellowing males but you can hear them load and clear when you are there…

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This time of year (late spring) is when the seals are molting and replenishing their fat deposits. They shed the outer layer of skin in preparation for the mating season. Not always pretty but necessary. Check out the look of contentment on the females above: Good friends, a warm sun and a full belly. Not to mention the “fella’s” fighting over you – life is good.

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The males, mostly juveniles, practicing for the ‘fight for females’ that occurs once mating season begins. A pretty big deal when only the winner gets to mate and pass on his genes.

Lots of bellowing, posturing, and body slams. From the scars visible on the older males it’s apparent the fighting gets much rougher when the mating season begins.

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For now, the biting seems to be held in check but the aggression is very real. Real, except at this time of year the females largely ignore all of the ruckus. Just like a female: get the males all ‘in a frenzy’ and then ignore them...

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Last rays of the day warm (mostly) sleeping elephant seals.

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Piedras Blancas Lighthouse in the far distance.

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Another view from Ragged Point looking South. Pictures hardly do justice to the beauty of the area.

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A last look at Elephant Seal Beach…

See Ya!

5/15/11

Morro Bay, California: Scenic & Quaint Morro Bay

We moved from the beautiful Central California Solvang area to the scenic Morro Bay area. We are living on a fixed budget and Mary Lynn found a relatively inexpensive RV park: Bay Pines RV Park. The key word here is ‘relatively’ because everything is expensive in California…

At first I was disappointed with the spot they gave us; basically it was a connecting driveway however once we got set up we realized we overlooked an estuary. It was full of wildlife that we enjoyed watching all week. A family of wild pigs, deer, tons of birds, etc.

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The picturesque harbor in Morro Bay connects to the large tidal estuary.

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Morro Bay is anchored by Morro Rock, which is actually the remains of a volcanic plug. After a volcano erupts the lava cools and a ‘plug’ forms in the fissure. Eventually the seas dropped and the earth around the plug was eroded leaving, in this case, Morro Rock.

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The whole area is designated a protected bird sanctuary so there are birds everywhere, including the ubiquitous seagulls. They are everywhere however we also saw large numbers of pelicans, egrets, blue herons, great white herons, sandpipers, etc. One of my favorites is the red-winged black bird which is fairly common throughout the central coast of California.

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The port is home to a small fishing fleet that unloads it catch daily at the Morro Bay Fish Company. The picture above is the view from our table in what became our favorite restaurant: Tognazzini's Dockside Restaurant & Fish Market. Great food and incredibly fresh.

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MLA is not a big seafood fan however she lets me indulge my seafood habit. She did say the fish and chips here were the best she’s ever had.

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These folks seemed to be having a great time paddling around the harbor on paddleboards.

See Ya!

2nd Trip: June 2008 through November 2008


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1st Trip -- February 2008 Through April 2008


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Maryland to Arizona to Prince Rupert, BC


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