Places Visited:
California: San Simion & Hearst Castle, Morro Bay, Cayucos, Big Sur, Ragged Point & Cambria

Thursday, May 26: Cypress Bay RV Park Morro Bay, California: $31 FHU-30amp. Paved interior roads & sites. N35° 72.165' W120° 51.044'

We joined locals for breakfast at Carla's Country Kitchen located just down the street from the motorhome. I am always looking for something different on the menu. Today was no different. The menu had "linguica" eggs, hash browns and toast as one of the items. Linguica is an item I had never heard of much less tried so I ordered it. It turned out to be a rather spicy, tightly packed, sausage. Linguica was also on the lunch menu being served with grilled onions and cheese. Back in the motorhome I looked linguica up in several Spanish as well and English dictionaries and didn't find any mention of it. I am sure that some of you are familiar with linguica. Friends have now informed me that linguica is a spicy Portuguese sausage heavy on the garlic. Several have even reported that they liked it for breakfast. I can tell you that it was to "spicy" for me to enjoy with eggs. Now it would go good on pizza or spaghetti or in a bowl of beans.

After breakfast we drove around the harbor then meandered around to Bayshore Bluffs City Park where we spent some time trying to take quality pictures of boats on Morrow Bay reflecting on the quiet water. A dull gray fog bank shrouds the boats and bay in a misty beauty that just begs to be photographed. While there we can hear the faint dissonance of birds in the distance. It took us a while but we realized a heron and sea bird rookery was located in a grove of trees a half-mile or so along the shoreline.

We couldn't walk there because the path was blocked by an apartment complex, so it was back into the Saturn as we tried to find a way around that complex. That is when we stumbled onto the Morrow Bay Inn and Morro Bay State Park. As it turned out the rookery is the largest breeding colony of great blue herons on the California coast between Mexico and San Francisco. The noise was mostly being generated by the nesting cormorants. If not for their disquietning chatter we possibly never would have found this place.

In addition to the rookery that was on State Park property we enjoyed the ancient eucalyptus trees. Morro Bay seems to be home to a large number of these enormous eucalyptus trees. The rookery was located in a mature eucalyptus forest. Ironically, when too many of the nesting birds congregate in one tree they can actually kill the tree over time. With that many birds in the tree over a 4 to 6 month period each year they expel a lot of guano. So much guano is expelled that the ground around the tree becomes white. While a little nitrogen is a good thing too much is deadly. Many of the old rookery trees are dead.

After tiring of the rookery and eucalyptus forest we drove to the nearby Morro Bay Natural History Museum where we spent several hours learning about Morro Bay and the estuary.

No where in Morro Bay are you far from the water and scenic views of the bay. This one was taken from the Natural History Museum.

Mid afternoon found us at the Morro Bay weekly farmers Market. As we have come to expect --- local farmers show up to sell a variety of products. The Rainier cherries tended to get the major share of my interest along with avacados. I was intrigued by anis. I was intrigued because I don't know anything about it. The vendor only spoke Spanish so I couldn't get any information from him. I asked around on the RV-Newsgroup and found that Anis is the source for licorice. It is used in soups and such or it can be used in salads much like celery------------- if you want to impart that licorice taste. Anise looks a lot like celery except the bottom flares a lot more into what looks similar to an onion bulb.

Friday, May 27: Cypress Bay RV Park Morro Bay, California: $31 FHU-30amp. Paved interior roads & sites. N35° 72.165' W120° 51.044'

We set out to explore the southern reaches of the Big Sur including Hearst Castle at San Simeon. It has been extremely foggy since we have been here. That prevents an early start for sightseeing since we can't see any of the beautiful scenery until the fog lifts.

With the fog in mind we didn't start up the Big Sur from Morro Bay until mid-morning. Even then sightseeing wasn't optimum but we head north on CA-1 anyway, leaving Morro Rock in our rear view mirror.

Morro Rock at the mouth of Morro Bay is a volcanic plug

I was finally able to locate the Roadside Geology book that we had been looking for since arriving in California. Roadside Geology indicates that Morrow Rock is the rhyolite plug from a volcano active some 24-million years ago. Rhyolite is the granite like mass of once molten magma that cooled before reaching the surface creating what geologist refer to as a volcanic plug. It is much harder than either volcanic ash or surrounding sedimentary rocks. Thus the other materials have eroded away leaving this 576' high monument as a sentinel marking the entrance to Morro Bay.

We have reservations for the 12-noon Hearst Castle tour and the Castle is located 29-miles north of Morro Bay. They request that everyone be there 20-minutes early for some reason. We have several hours to make that 29-mile scenic drive so we are spending time exploring every nook & cranny along the way. Cayucos is a charming little California Beach Community about 5-miles north of Morro Bay that seems to be even more laid back than Morrow Bay. Cayucos features sandy beaches, a public fishing pier, shops and restaurants with an extremely wide street running through the middle of town. Many of the historic buildings are now housing restaurants shops and juke joints. These buildings are from the late 1800's.

Cambria is a quaint little town about 20-miles north of Morro Bay. It appears to be another laid back community of individuals that made their money elsewhere and move here to enjoy life. Cambria is heavily forested in Cambria Pine one of the few native California trees we see.

One sign in town caught our fancy. The sign was directing passers by to "Nit Wits Ridge". This wasn't some hand painted sign it was a for real official California historical marker. We followed the sign to see what "Nit Wits Ridge" was all about.

A few blocks up a steep mountain road we came to a strange rather eclectic home. I say eclectic because the construction was certainly "different". The name on the mailbox said "Nit Wits" indicating we had found what the historical marker had been directing us to. Much of the structure consisted of rounded river rocks held together with mortar however, old car parts and other items were also utilized. You will just have to see the picture. Structures like this are hard for me to describe. I can only surmise the story behind the structure and individual that created it.

While Cambria is located in a small forest that is not the typical landscape along the southern portion of the Big Sur. The remainder consists of rolling hills like one might see in the mid-west that receive little rain. I read something in the natural history museum yesterday that this area only receives about 10" of rain per-year plus moisture derived from dew and fog. Cattle are grazing on these brown grass hills. Every once in a while chaparral covers the area west of CA-1 between the highway and the cliff leading to the ocean below.

The further north we travel the steeper the cliff face leading to the ocean below. Occasionally, there will be a parking area next to the road where individuals can cross the fence and reach the beach. In one spot we stopped in a para-surfer was enjoying the stiff breeze. Rocks protrude from the water and beach areas providing different vistas. Kelp beds follow the coast. Elephant seals stick their heads and half their bodies out of the water from openings in the kelp. We have yet to spot a single sea otter but the elephant seals were easy to spot all along the coast.

We finally reached San Simeon and Hurst Castle. According to literature the Hurst Castle is the 3rd largest attraction in California behind Disney Land and Universal Studios. The parking lot indicated as much. The State Park system owns and operates the tours of Hurst Castle while the Hurst Corporation still owns the land surrounding the castle. It would be difficult to describe the castle but needless to say it was large, opulent, impressive and what a view.

It is hard to comprehend that one individual could amass enough wealth to build something like this.

With the "castle" tour behind us we headed across highway 1 to the old community of San Simeon where we stop to enjoy the old country store and marvel at the old structures.

Several miles north of Hurst Castle is a "birthing-beach" for a colony of California Sea Lions. We have been seeing these creatures in the water but here they are laying in mass on the exposed beach below the fenced viewing area. Sea lions have made a remarkable recovery from earlier this century when they were a threatened species. Marine Mammal protection laws and other things have helped bring about this recovery. One informational sign said that sea lions could dive as deep as 5,000'. That is so hard for me to comprehend, 5,000 feet is a long way down. After breeding the bulls leave in search of food as far away as the northwestern reaches of Alaska before returning here to breed again next winter. During time away from the breeding colony sea lions are generally solitary mammals.

If you are looking for this concentration of elephant seals they are located at the vista points south of Piedras Blancas Lighthouse. Available literature says the Piedras Blancas colony has grown to around 11,000 animals, ranging in size and age from tiny 60-pound newborn pups to giant 5,000-pound bulls. An estimated 3,000 pups were born on the beach in 2004. The literature didn't say how many pups were born in 2005. The beach is full of seals shedding their winter coats.

In one pullout we spent a few minutes watching para-boarders being pulled along on their small boards at breakneck speeds.

Continuing north along the coast the terrain slowly changes from grass lands. The hills become steeper, the cliffs become more pronounced. Trees began to appear, mostly conifers. We stopped in a grove of ancient cypress trees clinging to the side of a cliff not far south of Ragged Point. The view from the cliff accented with these huge cypress trees was so picturesque, something out of a fairy tale book.

We stopped at Ragged Point and walked around the facilities. They have a "pricy" cloth napkin restaurant, several gift shops, a burger joint and motel along with flower gardens and walkway along "Ragged Point". We enjoyed the flower garden and walk along Ragged Point. This was as far as we ventured north today, about 50-miles north of Morro Rock.

Joyce wanted to eat and spend the evening in a juke joint back in Cayucos. The Cayucos Tavern was supposed to have live music and food. It was advertised as the "old-west" meeting the "beach-boys" or some such. True to the hype it was an old west tavern right out of the Wild West days complete with memorabilia and atmosphere. We walked through the place before realizing that they didn't serve food ----- and we were hungry.

I managed to get these pics in the tavern before we headed out the door in search of food.

When that didn't work out Joyce's mind went into high gear, the way it does when she is thinking about live music and cotton napkins. We ended up at Otter Rock on the waterfront in Morro Bay complete with live music and outlandish prices. I guess the sunset over Morro Bay accented by Morro Rock was what we were paying for. At least the sunset and music was good. VBG

From our motorhome we can plainly hear the blast made by the Morro Bay sea buoy. In the quietness of the night it is a sound that reminds us we are near the ocean.

Until next week just remember how good life is.

Mike & Joyce Hendrix