Travels with rarecat: Driving up the Pacific Coast

A friend in L.A asked us how much time we are allowing to drive back to the Bay Area. Four days, I said. His eyes widened in shock, "What?! It's only 6 hrs and a bit to drive from L.A. to San Francisco!" (He forgot about the two hours it takes to drive out of L.A. alone.) Still, he was incredulous we are taking such a long time. Clearly, he is one of those engineers who only goes in a straight line from point A to point B.

Yes, we were taking our time, always keeping an eye on the weather which had rain forecasted every day that week. As it turned out though, we were lucky. There may be the odd shower when we were driving, but nothing that would stop us from our enjoying the scenery.

We woke up in Port Hueneme to a sunny day and we found out there is a lot more to the town than what we encountered at the waterfront the night before. Oxnard State Beach Park has a long beach and sand dunes and it was just around the corner. Since it was not on our itinerary and we had to make it to our next stop before sunset, we did not stop to explore. This is just a snapshot from the parking lot of the State Park. Something to be saved for another trip.

Oxnard Beach State Park

As we wanted to revisit Solvang and have lunch there, we took a detour off the PCH from Santa Barbara taking Hwy 154 inland through the San Marcos pass crossing the Santa Ynez mountains. The scenic stops along the way gave us panoramic views of Lake Cachuma and the surrounding mountains. There were occasional showers as we drove through but the sun came out quickly before the rain had a chance to puddle.

View of Lake Cachuma from San Marcos Pass Road

We were right on time for lunch when we got to Solvang. I still remember the windmill from my visit decades ago when we stopped on our way to Yosemite. As we parked right in front of the bakery, we popped in to soak in the sugar. There were lots of "Danish" pastries but possibly Americanized, as evidenced by their size and the thick layer of icing sugar all round. They look too big to tempt me so I didn't buy anything, keeping in mind the Aebleskiver we're going to try after lunch.

The bakery on main street

It took us a while to find the Solvang Restaurant we were looking for but it gave us a chance to walk through the town. Of course, the restaurant offered the required fried chicken on waffle and Aebleskiver for dessert.

The famous Aebleskiver, basically a glorified donut

There were some very nice buildings in Solvang but this is one I especially liked. It houses Solvang Fine Art with beautiful detail on the walls. But I can't find anything on the building itself online.

Then there is this one copper-topped turret that I liked

Our next stop was the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove for which we had timed our visit in February. The monarchs are here in coastal California only from November to February migrating from as far north as Canada. The ones east of the Rockies could migrate up to 2000 miles to Mexico. We were disappointed that the Grove was closed because of high winds. Fortunately we were able to see the monarch clusters from outside the fence. What a phenomenon to behold! Hundreds of monarchs one on top of another clinging to the leaves of the eucalyptus and cypress trees, which provided thermal stability.

Monarch butterflies at the Monarch Grove

We made it to Morro Bay for the golden hour. The concierge at the inn warned us that rain is forecasted for the next few days, basically telling us to make the most of the still dry evening, which we did. We drove around to Morro Bay State Park but didn't have enough time to really look around although I have been there before. But sunset was early this time of year and we didn't want to miss it at the waterfront. We did see a bank of eucalyptus trees hit by golden light and a row of parked boats hit by gold on the water. We were lucky to get another spectacular sunset before we headed to the new restaurant for dinner. And just before it got really dark, a local told us about where the sea otters hang out near the shore, within shooting distance of my 200mm lens!