Nestled between palm-lined beaches and sloping foothills, we overnight in the prosperous resort of Santa Barbara. Its most distinctive attraction is the graceful Spanish-Moorish style Old Mission founded in 1786.
The colonial art collection of this mission is rich and varied. Most of the pieces are of the baroque or neoclassical eras, and nearly all are imported from Mexico and South America such as this lovely painting of St. Francis.
In San Luis Obispo we sneak a peek at the Madonna Inn, a remarkable example of what architecturally minded academic types like to call vernacular kitsch. Along with the uber-pink dining room it offers over 100 unique rooms, each decorated in a wild barrage of fancy motifs.
More quirkiness found in Bubble Gum Alley where kids (and adults) write their names and allegiances on the brick walls with gum rather than the more contemporary spray paint.
Few places on earth compare to Hearst Castle. The 165-room estate of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, high above the village of San Simeon, atop a hill he called La Cuesta Encantada (The Enchanted Hill), is an ego trip par excellence—an astounding, over-the-top monument to wealth and to the power that money brings.
The breathtaking outdoor Greco-Roman Neptune pool, flanked by marble colonnades that frame the distant sea, is one of the mansion’s most remarkable features.
We explore the Big Sur coastline where dozens of happy sea lions take advantage of the warm, sunny weather on the beach.
A slender waterfall drops crisply down into a nearby circular turquoise-blue cove in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.
We spend the night in the exclusive enclave of Carmel-by-the-Sea (where Clint Eastwood once served as mayor) and take the scenic 17-Mile Drive past Pebble Beach and the famous Lone Cypress, the legally trademarked subject of so many Carmel postcards.
The outstanding Monterey Bay Aquarium is home to more than 350,000 marine animals and plants. It is rated as one of the best in the world and truly a hypnotic experience.
Amazing anemone.
Cute cuttlefish are among the most intelligent invertebrates.
We thought this was a piece of floating seaweed until we read it was a leafy sea dragon, part of the seahorse family.
And oooh, the jellyfish!
In the town of Leggett grows the 315 foot high, 21 foot in diameter, 2400 year-old Drive-Thru Tree which had a hole cut through it in the 1930s.
We drive the Avenue of the Giants through the redwood country of Humbolt County, lined by pristine groves of massive trees which provide boundless opportunities to come face-to-face with one’s own insignificance in nature’s greater scheme of things. Confusion Hill is one of those places where water runs uphill and the rules of physics seem not to apply as Tim tentatively demonstrates.
Hard to miss are the massive statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox looming over the highway.
Life on the road means waking up with a different pillow hat every morning.
We’re beelining through Oregon and Washington now as Sandi is desperate to be in Vancouver by November 30th for a long overdue haircut, not to mention an appointment with the pastor of The Chapel at Stanley Park to discuss the all important upcoming nuptials.
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