Our Day Trip, part 1

Today seemed like a good day for an outing.  As I wrote yesterday, I’m working on a photo album for Zoey and I needed a break.  I know actual photo albums are a thing of the past for many.  Most people create their web albums and such.  However, I began creating photo albums for Mackenzie when she was born and she now has 5.  I cannot stop this creative endeavor for Zoey until she, also, has a total of 5.  I like things even-Steven.  So, outdated or old-fashioned, I still have to get to a total of 5.  Then I will retire from that hobby.

We decided to take a trip North of Pismo Beach and go up California Coastal Highway 1.  As you travel about 10 miles from here, in the center of San Luis Obispo, you will find the exit for Hwy. 1.  It is well-marked and it would be difficult to miss.  It will take you past the Cal Poly campus and into Morro Bay.  We did not stop in Morro Bay but kept traveling. 

We found Morro Bay fairly well socked in with fog.  Hwy. 1 is a 2-lane road in most places and a bit winding, but not a bad road.  We drove in and out of the pockets of fog for several miles until we reached the William Hearst State Park in San Simeon.  This is a small park with land donated by W.H. Hearst to the State of California.  Above the park and across the highway, high up on a hill, sits the famous Hearst Castle.

                                 There are beautiful ocean views from the grounds of Hearst Castle.

We have been to Hearst Castle and didn’t plan to go back today.  We did pull into the state park to set out our picnic lunch.  We were lucky and there was no fog present.  We found a table overlooking the ocean and enjoyed our tuna sandwiches.

                                            An ocean view is always a treat.

Annie enjoyed a picnic, too.  I brought some Cheerios along for her.  After eating we wanted to walk out on the pier, so we had to put Annie in the car.  No dogs allowed.  We parked the car in the shade of a tree and put in the 2 window guards for her protection.  This way we can keep the windows down for good ventilation, but nobody can stick their fingers or hands inside the car.

                                  I got these from the Drs. Foster and Smith catalog a long time ago. 

This gull was standing sentry at the pier entrance.  He was standing on a sign warning of Danger.  I think the only danger might have been if that gull flew over us and pooped on our heads.  It’s happened before.

There were people fishing out on the pier and others, like us, just walking and taking photos.  It isn’t a long pier.  There is swimming allowed on the North side of the pier and a group of kids were there today.  The pier juts out into San Simeon Bay. 

                                           School field trip?  I have no idea but they were having fun.

                                            San Simeon Bay

                                            Sailboat anchored off the pier in San Simeon Bay.

                                          From the pier Bruce looks back toward the little state park.

                                     California Coastal Hwy. 1 will provide you with a beautiful journey.

The coast of California provides many scenic vistas in so many places from border to border.  I can’t say we’ve seen them all, but over the past 45 years of travel and touring, we’ve seen a lot of them.  We still like making a repeat visit to some of our favorites.  I hope everyone reading this blog will someday get to see this area in California.  Try it, you’ll like it.

Tomorrow’s post will finish our day trip with Part 2.  Have a great day everyone.

Until next time…..so long for now!

No Clever Title Today

I like clever post titles, but I really don’t have one most of the time and that goes especially for today.  I could call this one “Hanging With My Buds” (meaning Bruce and Annie) or “See What I See In Pismo”….nothing much of interest with those, however.

After breakfast we drove up into the hills above the town to get a view of the beach front community.  We found a nice little park at the top of one street so we parked and walked to the rocky overview.

                    Even though there was ocean haze, we could look toward the North and Avila Beach. 

                                            Way out in the distance is the Pismo Beach pier.

I spent some time on that continuing photo album project for our youngest Grand (will it ever be completed?).  I’m caught up to last Christmas, so heck, I’ve only got 10 more months to go.  I think my behind is growing to the chair at the table since it seems I never get up much during the day.  Ah, well.  This too shall pass and the albums will be finished someday.

I also wrote a couple of notes to some of my older lady friends back in Tumwater.  One is going out to Dorothy, who is 94 years old.  I’ve written about Dorothy before and she is my favorite older friend.  I like to make my own note cards to send to people.  When I take a photo that is a nice one, I print it out and then stick it on a blank note card I buy at Michael’s or Walmart.  It’s like my own version of a postcard except it has one of my own photos on it and there is a lot more room to write content. 

                                            I just stuck on one of my beach photos for Dorothy.

I have a lot of beach photos and photos of the little beach community here in Pismo.  So, I’ll stick a few on here with the end of this post. 

                                            Boardwalk area down by the pier.

                                    Something we’ve never seen before…a large ship right off shore

                                            Now these are really big dogs.

                            Thought about getting a “tat” or a piercing for a minute, but decided not to.

Well, there you have it….our fun-filled day of adventure.  We are going to pack up a picnic tomorrow and drive somewhere.  We haven’t where decided yet.  We asked Annie which way she wanted to go and she just didn’t say a word.  So, ya’ll come back now.

Until next time…..so long for now!

Hot, Hot, Hot and Costco

WooHoo….2 new “Followers” today.  I appreciate that you give my Blog about RV living your time and attention.  So a big THANK YOU today to:

       Cathouse Adventures

       Cruizin2some

It was cooler here today along the Central Coast of California.  A little bit at least.  We stay right at the beach here in Pismo Beach in a part of the town that is lower than other places in town.  We have some hills to the East and North of us and, actually, some to the South of us too.  It gets much hotter up there.  By the same token, in January when we are here, it can be cold and foggy at the beach and when we drive a short distance up to the Walmart or to Albertson’s, it will be sunny and bright and about 10 degrees warmer.  It goes both ways.

I was interested in a comment left by “Anonymous” who apparently lives nearby.  They were commenting on my remarks from yesterday’s post about the intense heat in this area and also down in Los Angeles.  They wrote:  “Two miles away from you, it was 110, regardless of what the newspaper reported.  IT was darned hot.  Stay cool by the beach today.  Go to Costco early ‘cuz it’s going to be hotter there than where you are.” 

I figure this Anonymous probably lived up in one of the hilly areas around here in Pismo or Arroyo Grande, and it was really, really hot where they lived.  They probably felt a change in the weather today, but it was still pretty warm up there today. 

                   Could be that these homes felt the heat a whole LOT more than we did by the sea.

 

After breakfast at McDonald’s we did drive right up to the Costco in San Luis Obispo.  We had our usual breakfast of English muffins and coffee.  When we got here a couple of weeks ago, the manager here at McD’s remembered us from last winter and welcomed us back.  How nice they are here!

          This is our favorite booth at this McDonald’s in Pismo Beach.  Lots of light to read the paper.

After we ate and read the paper, we were on our way to Costco.  In comments left yesterday Rick and Wayne and Roberta wrote that we would not get out of Costco for under $100.  Were they correct?  We had several items on our list and found everything except Green Tea Bags.

                                            Yep!  Correct assumption as we spent $106.00 today.

We would have been under except I remembered while we were there that I needed a bottle of vanilla.  That was priced at $6.79 so it put us over the $100 mark.  I bought 6 lbs. of fresh salmon, which was the main thing I wanted to get on this trip.  I can cut it into serving sized portions and freeze it.  So, Rick along with Wayne and Roberta win the prize for guessing correctly.  Oops!  I don’t have a prize to give you except to say…thanks for reading my blog and leaving fun comments.

We took an early walk on the beach a couple of days ago and we saw a young woman who seemed to be practicing her surfing techniques.  Maybe she is a newbie, I couldn’t say for certain.  She kept going back out to catch another wave or two.  She wasn’t quick to give up.

                                            There goes the Little Surfer Girl.    

 

                                            It was a beautiful day here at the beach!

If you are reading this blog and you live in some of the super-hot weather areas, I truly hope the high temperatures will break for you soon.  Until then, try to stay out of the direct sun and drink a lot of water!

Until next time…..so long for now!

Hot Or Not, And Some Scrubbing

When we took our walk this morning at 6:45 it was so warm we just wore T-shirt and shorts and left the jackets at home.  Fortunately, the heat here at the beach didn’t build much higher.  Up by the outlet mall and McDonald’s it gets a lot hotter since they are up the hill and further from the water.  At least it wasn’t as hot as down in Los Angeles today, though.  Did you all see the news?

Today at noon it was the hottest temperature ever recorded in downtown L.A.  It was 113F which is amazing.  That’s Palm Springs summer type heat and not Los Angeles September heat.  We never saw heat like that when we lived down in that area, thank goodness.  Oh, it was soooooo much cooler up here today!

                                            Cool ocean breezes for us today. 

                                       Oh! That water was cold but there were still people swimming. 

Today was Annie’s bath day, except she really has to have a shower since we don’t have a bathtub.  She used to try to run and escape when we said it was bath time.  Now after we remove her “necklace” as Zoey called it, she goes right into the bathroom and stands there waiting for Bruce to come in. 

                                             Maybe like people, she feels refreshed after a scrubbing.

While I worked on my photo album project, I could see the man behind us doing some repairs.  It seemed he had some issues with his large awning since he had the thing taken apart for a while.  He had tools spread out on a table.  It was nice just watching from inside our RV.  He seemed to do a good job of the repair work.

                                            I zoomed in on him with my camera to catch the action.

After he finished the awning work he gave his 5er and the awning a really good scrubbing.  He scrubbed the outside and the underside of his awning.  It looked good when he was done.

                                            We didn’t see anybody else working so hard today.

It was just another laid-back day for us in Pismo Beach.  We were expecting some new friends to check-in yesterday and we saw their MH parked a couple of rows from us this afternoon.  We met Ted and Claire last January here in Pismo Coast Village at the shareholder’s cocktail party before the annual meeting.  We’ve kept in touch the past few months by e-mail.  As we walked Annie by their MH today, Claire came out to greet us and we talked for quite a while.  We’ll probably see them again while we are both here enjoying some good times!

Tomorrow we’ll be off to San Luis Obispo on a shopping trip to Costco.  I need to get a few groceries and some fresh salmon.   Sometimes these things just have to be done.  That’s it for today.

Until next time…..so long for now!

Things We See Around The Beach And RV Park

Somehow I missed a new “Follower” in recent weeks.  I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome Shabana Shaheen and say THANK YOU for looking in on my blog about our RV lifestyle.  I appreciate it.

We had a relaxing afternoon after going up to San Luis Obispo to church this morning.  I’ve been working on Zoey’s 4th photo album so I spent a few hours with that.  Bruce watched several NFL games all at the same time by bouncing from channel to channel.  That gives me a headache.  We were glad to see the Seattle Seahawks won their game.  Our son-in-law, Darin, has season tickets and was at the game today. 

We’ve been out and about through the RV park and down to the beach several times and I always take my camera.  We thought this first photo was pretty funny.  We have never seen anything like this at any park or campground we’ve ever been to.  The one camper didn’t want to look at his next-door neighbor’s utility hook-ups so he had a unique way to block his view.

                                        A little tole painted screen hides the view.  Classy! (I guess) 

We sometimes see interesting opportunities for photos on our early morning walks.  No woodsy paths or tree lined park because we’re in town.  So you look for opportunities where you can find them.  We don’t usually get a good sunrise here in Pismo.  The sun just pops up over the hills to the east of us in a big bright ball.  I did see a good shadowy outline of some trees by a house.

                                            Typical trees here in California….the palm tree.

             Sometimes if there are clouds we get a better sunset view.  Could be better with this one.

We took a long walk on the beach later this afternoon and there were a lot of people swimming.  It was a bit breezy but very sunny.  As we walked back up to the gate for the RV park, we saw this couple enjoying the beach today…maybe.

                                            They are covered up from head to toe!

Here’s one I know you will all jump on.  We saw a house for sale.  It is a large home with potential for 2 separate living areas.  It has 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, office and den.  It is right near the steps that lead to the beach.  It has a roof deck with views of the ocean.  The price was recently reduced.  Go for it!

                           Price was:  $2,590,000.00 and now is bargain priced at only $1,950,000.00.

Our fulltime RV journey doesn’t always take us to exciting places. I know we don’t always see exciting things where we “live,” but this lifestyle is exciting to us just because we enjoy it.  We travel around so that we can experience living in different towns.  Sometimes we act as tourists and sometimes we just live.

                                       We got this moon view early Friday morning on our beach walk. 

We enjoyed our weekend just living our RV life.  I hope all of you enjoyed your weekends doing whatever it was you wanted to do.  Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Until next time……so long for now!

Port San Luis and Harford Pier

I installed a new header photo a couple of days ago and then I noticed it was a bit crooked.  You could see that the horizon line was askew.  I remembered reading on the Bayfield Bunch Blog a while ago that Al said he could spot those crooked horizon shots a mile away and was wishing he could tweak them just a bit to make them straight.  So, I attempted several times to get it the way I wanted and then back again to the size I wanted.  Finally made it right today (at least more right). 

Friday we drove over to the Port San Luis area, which is just a few short miles north of Pismo Beach.  We packed up our lunch to take with us.  When we got there we pulled our chairs and table out of the car and set out our lunch.  It was great to be out in the warm sunshine and be able to watch the boats and the folks on the beach.

                             Dog friendly, off-leash beach with some playful dogs enjoying the water.

                                 Riggs would enjoy being here in the water with these guys!

There are several dry camping spots right along the road by the beach.  You are fairly well crammed in together, but this is beach property in California….you’ll always be crammed in.

                These RVer’s are probably fishing people and have boats bobbing in the water out there.

We walked over to Harford Pier after we finished our lunch and got tired of watching the dogs romp in the waves.  Along with some fishing boats there were some nice looking sailboats to see.  Any type of water view is appealing to me.  I love the smell of the ocean and that probably goes back to my childhood when we’d visit my grandparents in Santa Barbara.  My Dad would always go down to the pier and harbor and let me tag along.  We’d walk around the pier watching the fishing boats go out.  The sounds and the smells of those times at the harbor will never leave me.

                                            This sailboat was a dandy!

As we continued our walk toward the end of the pier, we could see many Pelicans out in the water.  Looking closer we saw some adults and many young with them.  It looked like the adult Pelican would have each of the younger ones take a turn flying up over the water with them.  I think it was a fishing lesson.  The Mom or Dad (don’t know which) would fly around with the baby for a while and then dive-bomb to the surface of the water as if to see a fish to grab.  The baby did the same thing and then the adult would do it again with a different baby.

                  The adult Pelican just after it landed back in the water and the young swim up close.

                                                      Getting ready to fly again.

                                            Lesson was over and they just swam around for a while.

Throughout the whole area you could hear the barking of the sea lions.  These must be great fishing grounds in the bay because whenever we come here, the sea lions are all over the place.  Under the pier’s main level is a fishing deck and on this day you could see it was covered with many of the sea lions sunning themselves. 

                                                  Hey, who’s got the sunscreen?

                                            Hey, cutie.  How about a date tonight?

We saw several people fishing and then we saw this woman who appeared to catch something.  We waited for a minute to see if she reeled anything in, but it appeared to be a false alarm for her.

                                            Two poles for her.  Is that one for each hand?

We saw a sea lion in the water surrounded by some gulls.  I think they were all fishing together.  Every once in a while you could look out and see a sea lion’s head break the surface of the water.  There were several of them out in their own fishing grounds.  They were barking like they were happy about the situation.  We also saw a man launch himself in a kayak.  Hope he doesn’t fall in because that water might be cold!

 

There are a couple of restaurants on the pier and then a couple more out in the parking area.  They were all busy with folks enjoying their lunches at the harbor.  Cars can drive out on Harford Pier, but there is also a large parking lot before getting to the pier.  Take your pick.

                                            Harford Pier at Port San Luis.

Hope you enjoyed your trip to the pier today.  It was just a simple day, but most of them are for us when we are around Pismo Beach. 

Until next time…..so long for now!