After our first night at Jill and Joe’s house in Cambria we had breakfast and headed out for a morning stroll. This took us over an old ranch that has become a preservation area and is a great route through grasslands, forest and coast. We even spotted our first scarecrow in someones front garden taking part in the local competition. San Luis Obispo was our destination for today which took around 60 minutes drive from Cambria.

We stopped along the way at Morro Bay with the plan to kayak around the bay exploring the islands that divide the mainland and the ocean. We hired a two person kayak from kayak horizons for $18 1st hour / $10 per hour afterwards. We spotted some sea otters in the bay as well as seals sunning themselves on the wooden decks. Rain arrived and we called it time on the kayak adventure and met Barbara in a coffee shop.

The Mission in San Luis Obispo is one of the main attractions here and the church was very nice with some interesting painted wall art. The Mission itself wasn’t really that great, more of a local museum which needed some TLC. A walk around the town and a beer/wine got us in the mood for the farmers market which started at 6pm. The street market was more of a food market than anything but they had a decent selection of food on offer, mainly meat based as this is America. Chewing gum alley might not go that great with your Tri-tip sandwich or vegan Thai curry, but its a sight worth seeing.

The following day we decided to stay local and explore Cambria. We first visited the Cambria farmers market which takes place Fridays 2:30pm – 5pm, which had some nice produce on sale. The scarecrow competition was in full swing and had some great entries. A few weeks back we booked our tickets online to visit Hearst Castle (Helen had previously visited but was more than happy to go back) and decided to book the sunset tour which included themed characters wandering the grounds and interacting with each other and the visitors. The castle is pretty amazing and is well worth a visit if you are on the west coast near this area. The tour lasted a couple of hours and ended at the gold leaf roman swimming pool. All three of us loved the tour and the history of the castle.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)