“Road Trippin” ~ Wandering with Friends
Road trips are the equivalent of human wings. Ask me to go on one, anywhere. We’ll stop in every small town and learn the history and stories, feel the ground and capture the spirit. Then we’ll turn it into our own story that will live inside our history to carry with us, always. Because stories are more important than things.” – Victoria Erickson
For her 65th birthday, my friend @Ushrani wanted to take some time away from the madding crowd and spend it with friends. First it was Vegas, then it was the Rocky Mountaineer across the Canadian Rockies, but we finally settled on wine tasting in Napa Valley.
To make it more interesting and have an opportunity for some quality time we decided to take the long way to Napa by driving along the coast. While it was mostly laughter, a lot of catching up, some wonderful meals, there were a few spicy turns which is inevitable when three women don’t always see eye to eye.
What a fabulous story for our memory books as we grow young together.
Plans were made, itineraries were mapped, hotels booked and even some dinner reservations made and then twas the night before D’Day or should I call it T’Day. Where would be the fun without a few curves along the way, but finally we were all in the car, on our way armed with breakfast sandwiches and enough snacks and drinks to keep us afloat for the next four days.
Not to complain but there was no traffic, and we made our first lunch stop before the lunch menu kicked in. But even with the morning haze, sitting on the sand watching the beach yoga, and people setting up their umbrellas on the beach we indulged in a second breakfast. As the unwinding began, we commented on how this is the life, the sun (not so much), the sea (well the ocean but who’s complaining) and the sand.
Lompoc California, once the flower seed capital of the world (or at least I imagine America) had a lot more to offer than the murals we arrived in search of.
This mural is of 11 painted garage doors each door featuring a flower that the town was famous for. There were other murals that depicted life in the town a long time ago featuring horse drawn carriages and milk carts driven by horses and mules, disasters at sea and one of our favorites featuring the local wineries fitting in so well with the theme of our trip.
Might be interesting to make it back for the annual flower festival.
After a quick refreshing bio break, we parked by the centennial square and began to explore this cute town with its flower motif crosswalks and Victorian homes, art galleries and craft shops. What a delightful stop this turned out to be.
While the murals were numerous, including one very realistic one featuring dinosaurs. A gentleman stepped out of his shop and suggested a pose that made it appear as though T-Rex was going to bite of my head that I captured for my grandson.
But let us not forget the Chumash Indians who once populated this area before their way of living was disrupted by the Spanish and other settlers in California.
As the day began heating up, we wound our way towards San Luis Obispo and the quirky Madonna Inn ablaze with beautiful flowers. Along with wandering around the property clicking photos we stopped in the cafe for a refreshing drink and a snack.
I don’t know what it says for my powers of observation that I did not even notice the cow until I accidentally captured it while taking a picture of this cute fountain in the front lawn.
Then I stood by amused as my friends tried to capture that perfect picture posed next to the cow. I’d love to know how many cow pictures my friends @Malachana and @Ushrani have in their cameras.
By now evening was approaching as we got to our night stop in Cambria. The Fireside Inn is a place that we’ve stayed at before, a beautiful property located right across the street from the boardwalk and the ocean. A great place to stroll, enjoy a fabulous dinner and park ourselves for the night.
All of us have visited Hearst Castle before, but interestingly none of us could recall if it was 25 or 30 years ago. Clearly much has changed in the interim, there’s now a nice visitor’s center, gift shop and organized timed departures to the castle itself.
Since there are 160 steps, to the Grand Ballrooms and Pools tour, I had booked the ADR accessible trip that skips the steps. What a wonderful happenstance this turned out to be since they limit these tours to 4 people so it in effect became a private tour for the three of us.
Imagine being a guest here and taking a morning or an afternoon or even an evening swim. Alas, swimming was not on our to do list this morning, but it does beg the question, if we had some accidentally been beamed into Greece for a few minutes.
Listening with half an ear to our guide as he shared stories about the guests and Mr. Hearst’s requirements during the construction process, I strolled through the area, capturing pictures of the beautiful facades and gardens and the distant blue of the Pacific Ocean.
Regaled with stories of the famous parties and guests that Mr. Hearst entertained here with his mistress we walked around enjoying the beauty of the architectural marvels that have been sourced from churches and palaces in Europe. Hearst Castle definitely rivals and perhaps surpasses many a castle that I have toured during my wandering.
The beauty of the indoor pool with its Venetian glass and gold inlay that sparkles in the sunlight is breathtaking. Imagine throwing a party for your girlfriends in here as one of the Hearst heirs did recently or just simply having an opportunity to swim in here.
Highway One is still closed about 15 miles down the road from Hearst Castle, fortunately we had factored this into our plans and made our way back to Cambria for lunch in the beautiful garden like atmosphere of Robins before heading inland and crossing over towards Carmel and Monterey.
We arrived in Carmel too late to visit the Mission which had closed for the day, but we did manage to wander around and get some pictures of the exterior. I’ll have to save this one for my Mission Exploration which I still plan to complete.
Los Angeles was sweltering in the high nineties as we enjoyed the beautiful cool ocean breezes and watched the clouds flirting with the moon over cocktails and a delicious dinner in Monterey’s Cannery Row.