HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
July 4, 2012
Well, had a very rocky night. I was up multiple times with tons of gas and the feeling/need to spend time on the porcelain throne. We've got a long day in front of us, at least we believe so. Didn't know it at the time but, we'd end up driving about 100miles down PCH on this day.
Anyway, all of us were up by 0630 and started to pack the up for the day. Made a stop at the Lodge to pick up the odd souvenir and get a recommendation for breakfast. Rosie discovered while speaking with some of the folks working in the Lodge that there was a nice breakfast spot just down the PCH from the Lodge and that's where we decided to eventually have breakfast.
Left the lodge at 0730 and drove south on PCH no more than a couple of miles to the Big Sur Bakery for continental breakfast. The Bakery is located next to a General Store to it's north and adjacent to a noveau art gallery with a large variety of cacti plants and interesting art strewn about the property. Just in front of the Bakery was a tiny gas station with Shell badging that stated this was the last gas stop for 40miles... not that far. Still, they were charging over $5.00/gallon for fuel! Ahh, I was getting abit low on fuel but, not low enough to by any fuel here! My guess is that their primary customer base would be 2 to 3 wheeled. As you enter the brown wood building, you can smell the recently baked goods and coffee, delicious. We all ordered some type of coffee and pastries. I chose a natural cherry pastry and ham & cheese croissant. Quite good. After our breakfast we drove back to our cottage, packed the SUV, checked out of the Lodge and were back on PCH at 0830 heading back north to visit some of the more touristy areas to see what those places had to offer. We'd definitely be happy to return to Pheiffer Big Sur State Park!
We had passed this clustering of gift shops, places to eat and Inn, the day before while heading up to the Lodge. Had some interesting shops and we only spent about 15mins just wandering around. I picked up a fairly detailed map of the coastline from Monterey down to Vandenburg Air Force Base. Having it would definitely help us throughout the day.
Finally back on the road south by 0900 and we didn't have to travel long before we encountered, Nepenthe's! Only about 3miles from the Lodge on PCH. It has a terrific gift shop called Phoenix, a cafe, a bar and restaurant located right off of PCH on a cliff with spectacular views down to the Pacific. The restaurant was situated on the 3rd level on top of all of the other venues. We could see the water but, not very well due to the overcast and mist of the morning. In retropect, had we known of Nepenthe's existence earlier, we'd probably have waited to sit for breakfast until we got here. Oh well, maybe next time. Anyway, the cafe, on the 2nd level stacked just above the gift shop, was open for breakfast but, the restaurant was still closed and wouldn't open until 1130 (by the time we got to Nepenthe's and finished browsing the gift shop, it was 1045). So, on with our journey!
Rosie actually had an interim natural wonder she wanted us to see just about 10 miles down the road from Nepenthe's: McWay Falls in Julia Pheiffer Burns State Park. It was at this location back in the early '80s that a landslide took out a big chunk of the PCH but, obviously, was eventually repaired. Took over a year to rebuild and the landslide changed the shape of the inlet adjacent to the falls.
As you approach the falls, PCH curves to the left. Just before the curve in the road we noticed quite a few vehicles parked on the side of the road and then noticed the sign for parking on the left and turned in. Parking was free. There's a short ~1/2 walk which leads you from the parking lot along a dirt path and through a short tunnel underneath the PCH. As you emerge at the other end, signs point to the right to continue on to the observation point and the foundation remnants of Julia Pfeiffer's home that was demolished by the State Park service as mandated by her will. There are opportunites all along the cliff edge path to take fantastic shots of the cove, beach, ocean and, the actual reason for our visit: the waterfall cascading down onto the beach. It's really quite a serene location with amazing vistas of McWay Falls, the coastline and, ocean. I was a bit saddened that the home that used to stand at the observation point overlooking all of this fabulous scenery including palm trees - that felt out of place but, cool - had been taken down years back in line with the last wishes of it's former owners. It could have generated a ton of visitation revenue which could have been used for maintenance and/or repairs.
Left the Park and meandered our way much further south through all of the various parks along the way to Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery just north of San Simeon, W.R. Hearst State Park and Hearst Castle. It's a protected sanctuary for elephant seals to calf babies. The last time we visited it was much cooler and I don't recall anyone else in the parking lot to stare at the elephant seals. This time the place was packed with people and a handful of Docent's to answer questions visitors had. They also had a small table holding a small number of items for purchase, one of which was a hat that I bought for $15 to support the rookery. We spend a good deal of time photographing and filming all of the seals on the beach and in the water before needing to leave because of Conor's need for a biology break. :-) Before we left, I asked one of the Docent's if there was a good place to eat nearby and she said, yes, Sebastian's in San Simeon. So, on we continued.
It was only 3miles to San Simeon nestled on the W.R. Hearst Memorial State beach at the base of the entrance to Hearst Castle right off of PCH. We pulled off onto Slo San Simeon Road, the only road through the small village of San Simeon and pulled up and parked at Sebastian's. Very cool building. From the parking lot you can easily see Hearst Castle. As you look towards the structure that contains Sebastian's Store and Cafe, you notice that there's outside seating for diners and on this day, there were quite a few. As you enter the building, if you go left there's a wine tasting bar and a handful of tables and chairs for patrons to use. We went right and queued up to place our lunch orders. It's all cash here. While Rosie and I stood in line, Conor went outside and stood in line to use the 1 co-ed restroom in a separate structure adjacent to the outside eating area. He joined us in line shortly thereafter. Rosie and I ordered turkey clubs with avocados while Conor ordered the buffalo chicken salad. I have to say that the club sandwiches we ordered were huge and probably the best I've had. Conor's salad was ginormous and quite spicy. Conor found and squatted at a table for us while we brought the food inside to the seating area near the wine tasting bar.
Fabulous lunch - which we couldn't finish. Instead of heading up to the Hearst Castle Visitor's Center after lunch, we made the short trip to the adjacent state beach, parked and just wandered about taking in the environment and refreshing sea breeze of the day. There were quite a few families and friends having BBQs and picnics at this beach and many visitors strolling out on to the long pier. There were a handful of folks actually fishing. :-) Rosie was entralled because not only were there a handful of pteryldactls on the pier, she was actually able to pet one! Several of the pelicans on the pier had huge fish in their gullets, at least we hoped they were fish, and apparently couldn't swallow them at the moment. We made our way back to the SUV and headed up Hearst Castle road to the Visitor's center. Got there about 1500.
Unfortunately, the next trip up to see/tour the lower levels of the Castle, a 2 1/2 hr tour, wasn't until 1630 so, we decided not to wait and burn that time waiting for the tour. Spent a little time touring the parking lot and taking photos of San Simeon before jumping back in the SUV and continuing our trek south. We agreed to find lodging someplace not too far away and, if we felt like it, could make our way back up to Hearst Castle the following morning for a visit. We drove through the actual town of San Simeon located 3 miles from the state beach passed through and, stopped for $20 worth of expensive Shell gas in the city of Cambria. Regular gas cost $4.40 a gallon!! Conor yelped for gas and found some for much more reasonable prices, $3.85/gallon, further to the south so, we continued on. That place with cheaper gas just happened to be Morro Bay.
Morro Bay, California... what a very pleasant surprise! The first thing you notice while driving south on PCH as you near the city is the enormous solitary rock that rises out of the sea fronting Morro Bay and helping to form it's harbor. Turns out Morro Bay is one of the last fishing villages, home to one of the last fishing fleets in California. Conor took one of the exits leading into Morro Bay and pulled into a Mobil gas station so that I could refill the SUV. While we were refueling, Rosie yelped places to stay, found some and called up a place very near where we had exited: the Beach Bungaloo Inn & Suites for ~$229/night - we took it! Apparently, someone had recently canceled and they had an opening. Excellent choice! Our lodging had 2 separate bedrooms for the 3 of us and, was positioned only blocks up from the fishing harbor, easy walking distance for us.
We made short work of unloading the SUV into our room, the Blue Butterfly, strapped on a few light back packs and, with cameras in hand, headed out and down to the harbor. Time was ~1630.
One of the first things Conor and I noticed when we got down to the harbor, was the cool and familiar sight of a DSRV just mounted on a mobile frame in a parking lot by a small row of shops with a power station towering above it in the background... we made our way over to it. Turns out this was the DSRV-2, 'Avalon', 1 of 2 Mystic class DSRVs developed and built by Lockheed for the U.S. Navy, specifically for Deep Sea Recovery after the USS Thresher, SSN-593, disaster. How cool was that? Finding a DSRV just sitting around the fishing village of Morro Bay! At 50' long, she was designed to be air transportable and was rated at 1500m (5,000ft) diving depth and could recover up to 24 submariners at a time should she need to. During her 29 year career, she was stationed at Naval Air Station, North Island in San Diego. Commissioned in 1971 she was decommissioned in 2000. Her sister ship, Mystic, is somewhere out East also decommissioned and awaiting life in a museum. While we were photographing the DSRV and generally just admiring her, we were approached by gentleman that claimed to have been assigned to her detail back in the day. He was a retired EOD diver and was just down to visit her and to enjoy the 4th of July festivities later that evening. Turns out that the DSRV was there waiting for a museum to house her in Morro Bay had been built. He had already volunteered his services as a Docent for the Avalon once things were ready. We had a very good and cordial conversation with him before thanking him for his service and continuing on with our tour of Morro Bay's harbor area.
It's a very picturesque village with plenty of pier space and moorings for pleasure craft. There were quite a few people just strolling about the harbor road, most heading toward the public park at the far end of the waterfront. Not uncoincidentally, most folks were headed that way because of the park's ideal location to watch the fireworks show which was scheduled to start at 2115. Patriotic flags and other decorations adorned many of the lamp posts lining the streets. The village definitely has a small town, homesy sort of welcoming feel to it, which Rosie and I liked. The harbor area was definitely the heart of the village. Plenty of shops and places to eat. We strolled all the way down and through the park, saw the barge with all of the nights pyrotechnics on it and reversed our way out of the park. The park was filling quickly. There were a couple of food vendors and a band was setting up to play during the evening. Most folks had brought along coolers, blankets and, chairs for picnicking. It was only just 1800 so, we decided to find a place for dinner as we headed back towards our hotel, leisurely enjoy our meal and ideally, watch the fireworks from wherever we chose to eat.
The Waterfront Grill & Bar looked like the perfect place for dinner. They were expecting a lot of reveller's and had limited their menu to just a handful of selections in order to maximize their turnover and ease of service. We were seated in a enclosed patio area facing off to the harbor straits and clear viewing to the fireworks area. We all ordered the fish tacos and enjoyed their beer, wine and water as we just chilled and relaxed. Having said that, there was no way we could loiter for the 3 hours until the fireworks show so, after dinner and drinks, we left and headed back to our hotel at 1945.
By the time we got back to the hotel, the management had set out 4 adirondack chairs and lighted a propane fire between them for any guests that wanted to ward off some of the chill while enjoying the fireworks show - how thoughtful and considerate! We decided to take up the offer and relax outside until the show started. I read my iPad until the appointed time and joined Rosie and Conor outside just prior to the start of the show. Right at 2115 the firework show started! It lasted a long 15mins and we got a fantastic viewing by standing out in the road fronting the hotel. Really nicely done. Over at 2130, we called it a day and retired back into our room the Blue Butterfly.
What a surprisingly awesome day!
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