We began our meander up the coast from San Diego to San Franscisco on Monday, 11/3/08. We hugged the coast along Rts 1 & 101.  We stopped at the Mission de San Juan Capistrano and toured the Mission and its very beautiful gardens.  The famous swallows have not returned to the Mission for the past two years.  No one knows why (ask Al Gore).  We camped at the Bolsa Chica S.P. near Huntington Beach, along the famous “Frontage Road”.

The going was very slow along the Pacific Coast Highway, from town to town, strip mall to strip mall.  We stopped at the South Coast Botanic Garden and got some ideas for landscaping in the tropics.  This was election day…three cheers for B. Obama!  We had a picnic lunch at Redondo Beach  and camped on a cliffside at Malibu Beach.

After nine days of camping with few or no services and 5 different sites, we were ready to set up camp in one place and chill for a while.  We stayed at a large camp on Prismo Beach for four nights.  Pismo is a wide, very long beach.  We were able to do some laps in the camp pool and take some long walks along the beach.  There was a group from the Santa Barbara Airstream Club so we had some great chtas with them and saw some amazing vintage Airstream Trailers.  We took a day trip to the Hearst Castle.  Geo. Bernard Shaw is said to have remarked:  “This is the sort of place God would build, if he had the money.”

On Sunday, after church, we climbed back on Rt 1 to Monterey Bay.  We did the narrow, winding road along the coast, past Big Sur and Carmel.  We are camped a short walk from the Bay, dozing to the sound of seals barking.

Next stop:  Berkeley to visit college and DC chum Alan Buder.

Cheers:

J&A