Courtyard By Marriott Paso Robles

... on Friday. Drove<br>to the Hearst Castle entrance, pretty sure we had to pay to drive up to<br>it so we headed back to the motel to wash the car with Rich's boxers<br>and America's fairy liquid, didn't really make much difference! Went<br>back to Cambria for dinner then home to repack everything that had been<br>spread out through the car ready for returning it on Friday.<br><br>

Hate the refrigerator in this room. Complained about it to the manager, little good it did. It keeps things really cold, however with random cacophony of sound that managed to keep me awake. I laid there, waiting for the sound to start!<br> Up and ate breakfast which wasn't too bad. They had coffee so everything is good. We drove down to the Rock as Mom's knees won't allow her to walk too far and not up and down hills. We walked up ...

... for mom as this is the way my father and her used to travel when they took the motor home out. As usual we ran into the ever present road construction, but the slow travel only gave me opportunities to see the sights. We came up over a hill and pulled off on a scenic overlook and took the short hike to the scenic point. It overlooked the Santa Ynez river valley. You could smell the pines and we found some wildflowers still ...

... what everyone had stopped for. We got out of the car and couldn't believe what we were seeing (and smelling). The beach was covered in Elephant Seals! We could have watched them for hours, they are so funny. The way they move across the sand and then flop down all of sudden for a rest. They are really noisy as well and seem to always been arguing with each other. It was brilliant watching them in their natural environment (see video).<br><br>We arrived in ...

... i seem to be drifting in and out of days but as i write i think of things we did. so last night we were shopping for shoes at 10 at night (in San Fran). as i said last blog that the pres was in town, well we got caught up in the big protest that was outside his hotel so that was interesting!!! no pics again this time sorry but were off to bed to prepare for our next big adventure. bye all carol and kev x<br>

... excellent, the seven surfers in the waters below the cliff were even more captivating. All seven seemed extremely talented, which was good considering that they were surfing so close to visible rocks and the cliff. JT and I watched the surfers for 10-15 minutes before moving onward. Our next major stop was Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. Although the vast majority of the trails were closed (due to the recent very-damaging fire ...

... the tour and headed the 3 miles south to the Hotel Area ... which is about all San Simeone is .. 10 hotels 2 restaurants and a beach! But we had spotted that the Courtesy Inn, as well as being cheap ($49 for 2) also had a pool and a spa ... and after a week on the bike a spa is well worth it!... plenty of spare rooms and clean, kingsize bed and good facilities. In fact the pool area is stunning, after a nice dinner next door ...

... br>left and right. The town of Solvang is a Danish culture community with<br>many shops, bakeries, and art galleris. The town's buildings are built<br>in the design which is set to remind you of Denmark. We visited one of<br>the bakeries here and sampled some of their delicious pastries and did<br>some shopping. We then headed on to Santa Barbara and walked along the<br>ocean and pier, Santa Barbara is a very pretty location.

... attack, it was completely dark now and as far as we knew we were in the middle of nowhere. But one call put us back on our way, we had found our way into the "old" San Simeon - three old &amp; beautiful houses - but not hotel :) Just a mile or so further we finally arrived at The Orchid Inn. The place receives mixed reviews. It's a small hotel, the main part renovated ...

... beautiful. So then, lu continued to drive us all the way down hwy 1, oceanside coast, along the windy -portugal-reminiscent roads, through big sur, stopping at a couple pulloffs to take pics and admire the grandiose views of the cliffside drops into the ocean with tall mounds and spikes of rocks sticking out. We also stopped at the McWay waterfalls/ cove at Julia Pfieffer state park. At 7pm we made it down to ...