Holiday Inn Express Ste Paso Roble 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>

... and stretch your legs.<br> After a lunch, we headed up the coast, stopping frequently to take pictures and walk. There are plenty of pull outs along this stretch of road. We skipped stopping in Harmony, originally a hippie commune, as it is now way too commercial. We did stop at San Simeon, below the Hearst Castle. We did not take the tour, as we have both been there several times. But the little town below is quaint with an old ...

... is at the southern end of the bay, and usually I have stayed at the northern end.<br> The hotel is three stories tall with the ground floor being covered parking. We had our choice of parking places. There is a small standing balcony with a nice view of the bay and rock. The room is nice size, with a refrigerator and microwave. Across the hall is the breakfast room which we will sample in the morning. Nice for us, they have an ...

... morning, we drove 15 miles down the coast to Morro Bay, famous for its 'rock' a few hundred metres from the beach. We had a drink at the harbour and watched the seals and surfers in the water for a while. Morro is very pretty, but it has a massive powerplant next to the harbour that really spoils the area. You can't help but look at it and say 'What were they thinking?'.<br><br>We headed back to the house and got ready to go out for dinner - the property ...

... we went through Monterey and the 17 mile drive and stopped in at carmel for lunch. when we come back we will have a week just to really see these places. so onto san Lius Obispo but the road was so windy(but spectacular) we didn't quite make it. hence our stop in Cayucos. it is just about 1/2 way between San Fran and LA and very beautiful. the weather is really warm, high 20's with very low humidity. so ...

... and I took lots of photos. The views are magnificent, well, really everything was. You just have to see it to believe it. The National Geographic movie on the building of the Castle is worth seeing and maybe even buying to show the folks back home. After the tour, I took a ride north and stopped at an elephant seal viewing area. The fog was rolling in and out, the seals were laid out on the beach doing what any well fed seal would do, occasionally barking out or flapping sand on ...

After<br>a terrible night of fearful driving, we made it to the hotel and were<br>lucky to be alive, so we went for a visit of the Hearst Castle. This is<br>a mansion/castle built by W.R.Hearst and it just amazing. It sits on<br>900 acres of land, on top of a hill with stunning vies of the ocean.<br>The tour is very informational and the castle is beautiful inside.<br>Driving on to Solvang, we passed through rolling hills of ...

... it up and took it back with us to our room. I enjoyed a relaxing bath in our jacuzzi tub, a glass of wine and then went for a great night of sleep in a very comfortable bed. We had travelled a long road with amazing views today. It could not have been any better! PS: I could imagine spending the night in Morro Bay, I would love to see the sun set over this magnificent rock!

... the whole...sorry for the simplification, especially for those who live there, but we both had misconceptions and were happy to have them destroyed. Thanks to all our friends in the LA area for making time to see us!! Shout out to Jason and Ingo! Upon leaving Malibu, we headed to Santa Barbara. If there, visit Montecito coffee for amazing pastries. The wine country was beckoning us from the beaches and we answered the call most happily. Napa and Sonoma get the press, but the vineyards ...

We left San Francisco and started the long drive home. We decided to stop and stay the night along the way so we drove into Paso Robles. We went to a couple wineries. One had about five German Shepards running around. There were lots of sticks on the ground, so we had fun playing "chase the stick" with them. Paso Robles is very cool, very "old California" like. We drove home the next day, on New Year's Day.