From Colusa we travelled on to Chowchilla and on down through the humungous flat central valley of California, passing acres and acres of orchards – almonds, walnuts, pistachios, peaches and nectarines (all growing in amazing heat – 40 degrees plus) and on down to San Luis Obispo. Having had various discussions, we had decided not to go to Lake Tahoe or Yosemite further up due to the huge queues of tourists visiting (3 hour wait just to get into Yosemite!!!) so went south instead but knew we weren’t going to get as far as San Diego (too hot and there were wildfires south of LA).
We spent a couple of days in San Luis Obispo – famous for the 1772 mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa and the Madonna Inn (a pop culture landmark – rather outlandish decor in each of its 110 themed rooms!) – oh and home to the Central Coast Brewing Co – hmm, wonder which one we visited!!!!
We spent a very hot day visiting the tourist trap known as Solvang.
It was set up as a Danish community in 1911 but has developed into a rather kitsch fake European town – however, the danish pastries were lovely. We did visit the old mission Santa Ines here, built in 1804, which had beautiful gardens and was lovely and cool.
There were about 21 missions built between 1769 and 1823 by Franciscan missionaries from San Diego up to Sonoma all about a day apart and linked by the El Camino Real (Kings Road) which runs roughly along Highway 101 and is denoted along the way by mission bells on posts.
Next day we travelled the south end of the Big Sur (you can’t do it all in one go at present as it is still blocked after a huge landslide in April this year) and visited Hearst Castle, William Randolph Hearst’s 115 room hilltop house (The Enchanted Hill)! It was a collaboration between Hearst and architect Julia Morgan which lasted from 1919 to 1947. It is somewhat over the top and filled with amazing art and antiquities that he collected during his lifetime and is now a Californian State Park. Although it took some 25 years to build, it was actually never finished and still remains that way. There are several tours you can do but we just did the Grand Rooms tour (taking in the Neptune Pool, Esplanade, The Cottages, Casa Grande, North unfinished terrace and Indoor Roman Pool), which also included a film.
There is a 20 minute bus tour to take you up a very steep windy road to get to the top. We never got to see any zebras (they were released onto the estate when his zoo animals were rehoused and apparently still roam the fields!!).
After our trip we headed on up the Big Sur and came across the Elephant Seal viewing area – we weren’t quite sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t seeing these huge creatures so close up. They are on the beach and the public can view them from a cordoned pathway. There were some year old pups who had completed their first migration – they seem so small compared the giant adult males!
We ended our day with a pint and chilli at Central Coast Brewing.