Drove 161 miles in 6-1/4 hours today. Was cold last night-about 55 at 7am. Another beautiful today. Woke up to rabbits and squirrels all around us, we kept looking out the windows at them, they came right up to the RV. Left about 8:30 and stopped at 9:30 in Santa Barbara. Walked the beach for a while and then drove to the waterfront. There was a parking place (not an entirely legal one) in front of Sambo's, a nice restaurant right on the beach so we stopped for breakfast. Best coffee I ever had.
From there drove on 101 North to Lompoc and stopped for gas, a real bargain at 4.59, then continued through the Sierra Madre Mts. on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. Lots of vineyards, strawberry pickers and, we found out broccoli and cauliflower being planted. Lots of orchid farms, too. Stopped in two wineries for tastes in Santa Maria. Met a couple who said this weather is unusual, the average here is 62. It's 90 today, but they say by the week-end it should be cooler. We love it, so do they. This part of CA is great, lush green mountains and hills, gorgeous flora, the ocean, nice and clean too.
Lots of little sea villages that remind me of a mix between Cape Cod and Maine. We decided to stop at one, Morro Bay, and as soon as we pulled in we knew we wanted to stay two nights. It's a quaint fishing village with a huge rock as it's claim to fame. It's acutally an inactive 578' volcano that's one of seven around here. You can drive right to it, from our campground we walk across the street to the dunes to the ocean with the rock in the middle. There's lots of seagulls nesting there, with the bay on one side and the ocean on the other.
We saw sea otters in the bay, it's crystal clear too. Had dinner at Dockside in the village right where the fishing boats come in. As we were eating I saw a seal swimming in the bay-walked outside and the fishermen were unloading nets and had thrown him an eel so he stuck around.
Got some ideas from the fishermen about some wineries for tomorrow and maybe a trip up the Pacific Coast Highway. We can't go all the way up because it's still closed from a collapse from the Tsunami. We can only drive up about 45 minutes to the Hearst Castle.