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)

We left our hostel fairly early so we could get to Monterey as we could see that the weather was better up the coast. En-route we stopped by along the coast next to the surfers museum (which was closed the whole time we were there!). When we arrived in Monterey we took the 17 mile scenic drive around to Pebble beach, it’s $10 per vehicle and there are several stops to make along the way at this very beautiful coastline. The sea is wild against the rocky shores and we read about the ships that came crashing into the bay in search of Monterey. Some areas are inaccessible by foot as they are protected wildlife and conservation areas and it’s not exactly the type of place to go for a swim.

We stopped off at Pebble Beach resort to check out the golf courses and more fantastic views beyond, we looked on at people enjoying their champagne lunch on the veranda! They also house golf tournament trophies at the lodge. Moving on from Pebble beach we came to Carmel Bay, a more sandy beach to enjoy but the sea again was very rough, still it didn’t stop the surfers. After our scenic drive we checked into the motel we were staying at which at $69/night between the 3 of us wasn’t a bad find! We ate in a highly rated mexican restaurant that night, not exactly one to get dressed up for but the food is really good at a low price plus we had left overs for the next day!

We started the next morning with a trip to the Monterey Aquarium. It’s a huge place and so we set aside half a day to explore. This aquarium is the biggest in the world and houses much of what is local to the Californian sea including a juvenile great white shark. Highlights for us included the Deep Blue feeding time aswell as meandering around the sea horse exhibit. It’s a pretty spectacular place with several marine life experts dedicating their time to preserving the marine life in the Monterey Bay.

When we left Monterey we journeyed along the Big Sur with our end destination being Cambria to stay with Helen’s relatives Jill and Joe was again! We had intended originally to stay on the Big Sur and if we’d have been camping this would have been possible as campsites are fairly cheap given the location. However because there were 3 of us it was looking pricey for us to get accommodation at an affordable price so we couldn’t really resist Jill’s offer of getting into Cambria sooner and using their location as a base to explore.

Driving along the Big Sur was again fantastic, there are a lot of stops and a lot of cars wanting to stop, but we chose a few places along the way to explore and take in the views which were breathtaking. It’s tricky to get down to the ocean unless you’re hiking but the views from the road side do it justice enough. We stopped off at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to walk to a waterfall and at the beach area where a waterfall pours onto the beach and into the sea . As we left the Big Sur we found the elephant seals on San Simeon Bay herding together in their hundreds and we eventually arrived in Cambria at 7pm welcomed by Jill and Joe and some good home cooked food and wine! Home comforts!

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