Letter 8

Letter 8: Santa Barbara to
From the Traveling Harrington’s.


Sunday morning we left Lake Cachuma on the Ynez River and visited the

1st UMC in Santa Maria. It was a larger church than any other we have visited to date. The service was very nice, the congregation reminded us of ours in age and dress but the young preacher wore jeans and a sweater. He delivered a good sermon. Fred was late ….he shaved in the trailer in the church lot! We came in a few minutes after the service started, so didn’t get to visit like we have at other churches. Since the church was within two miles of a Home Depot and Wal-Mart we just had to stop and shop.


Then we drove down the Santa Maria valley covered with fields


of Grapes



grapes,





more grapes, strawberries, squash and cabbage and others we couldn’t identify. We parked in San Simeon State Park after a long day battling with the wind.

We don’t know who will buy all of this wine. Drink more wine!!! California needs your help! It seems a new vineyard is planted each day of the week! The hills are alive with grapes. This isn’t one of California’s most noted wine areas. It is emerging. Most wineries don’t yet have the production volume for wide distribution. Most of the wines are sold and consumed locally. The quality is very good. This area will someday be recognized as a significant region of California wine production.


We drove through scenic Morro Rock Bay

and stopped for the night at San Simeon State Park and watched the quails.We saw beach after beach after beach and theywere beautiful.
We are discovering California has many “old-time” filling stations (built in fifties and sixties) without the food marts (they still have service bays along with an office) that our have back home. Fred misses the cappuccino. It is a good thing we brought some mix from home.

Monday was castle day.

We drove to Hearst Castle headquarters where we boarded our bus




for the trip up the hairpin curves to the sumptuous castle built by William Randolph Hearst during the depression. The castle is now owned by the state. At one time his father owned 50 miles of the coast line and 300,000 acres. Their ranch in Mexico was bigger. We were not allowed to take flash pictures inside so all our pictures are outside.

Neptune Pool
Formal entrance
Main Entrance

Guest cottage


Main Castle

The whole tour (including a movie about Hearst and the construction of the castle) was very enjoyable. Next, we drove down the coast into the charming town of Cambria (paid $4.19 gal for gas) and



Moonstone Beach. Both are quaint (like Cabot cove in Murder She Wrote) little villages with lots of little individually owned motels and cottages that we never heard about. There was no billboard or highway advertising for these little inns. If you need a room on this road look for this area. We ate supper at the Sea Chest on Moonstone Beach - recommended by Rod & Rebecca. If they hadn’t told us about it, we would have driven right by. Others knew about it because there was a line at 5:15 waiting for them to open at 5:30. Fred ate sword fish and Olivia scampi. It was delicious!

We have driven over 4500 miles.

Tuesday, Fred had white knuckles all during the 110 miles we drove from San Simeon to Monterrey. Not really a dangerous drive, but one filled with steep cliffs elevated above the coastline.

It was up one mountain and then down the other side along a two lane road following the “ins and outs” of the mountain terrain high above the Pacific. Then before you could finish with one mountain, there was another.




Over and over! Olivia strained her neck looking at the views. Fred watched the white line at the side of the road.


At the first pull out we saw seals sunning on the beach,

then more seals

Most were lazy.

Some were contesting for turf. They are huge!


Fred guessed we saw over 1000 on that beach. Then the road and the coast grew closer and higher. Lots of twists and turns, ins and outs. We left the campground about 8:45 and arrived in Monterrey about 2ish. Comments coming from Fred, “No I don’t want to stop, I want to finish this!”, and on the right turns with rocks sticking out from the wall, “I’m afraid the trailer will scrape on the rocks” and “The best way to see this coast is from a cruise ship!”



At one stop another couple pointed out whales and the pictures Olivia took shows one blowing. We challenge you to spot it.


Arriving in Monterrey, we drove to the chosen campground and


found a 16% grade roadway leading in. The campground is built on top of the hill and the spots are crazy! All the good ones were reserved for Fri and Sat by a large group, so we know we will have to move


from our “good” spot by the weekend. We thought about Patti when we had Olivia’s left over scampi (from the Sea Chest) made into a salad using the left over broccoli, carrots, zucchini, tartar sauce, onions and served over avocado half. Quite a treat, both nights.

Wednesday we arranged for camping through the weekend. We will have to move spots on Friday because a huge party of Elks are coming in.


We like the spot we are in, but it is reserved. We left the campground to scout out the area. We drove to Monterey bay,



Cannery Row (now a tourist attraction – shops and restaurants)


Then we hugged the bay and saw Harbor seals with new pups.





and a scenic drive past the birthing area for some Harbor Seals. Several had pups already. This drive led to

“17 mile drive” with is a toll of $9.50. It was well worth the price. This road took us all around the Monterey peninsula and in to Carmel. There were many stops including


Bird Rock with about 2-300 Sea lions around the bottom of a huge rock about 300 feet off shore. The sea lions were squawking loudly over position. Fred asked who is winning the argument, since they were constantly barking. A woman next to him said, “I believe the females are.” There is a 10,000 deep Monterey Sea Canyon just off shore.
This area has 4 golf courses, but we turned down the inviting links because we left our clubs at home! HA! All along the road mixed in between the greens with beautiful houses. Fred enjoyed the views including

“Surfing” we couldn't believe it with the temperature so low.

“The Lone Cypress” , logo for Pebble Beach Golf Course

“Ghost trees” and

the view of Monterey Bay,

“Pebble Beach lodge and golf course.”

Fred wanted more seafood so we asked in a convenience store where the locals eat? A police officer heard the conversation and escorted (Fred was disappointed he didn’t use flashing lights) us to the next town in his squad car. The café was “Turtle Bay Fish Wives”. It was nice of him to lead us even out of his city! The food was good and increased Fred’s desire for more seafood.