Jul 04, 2015

We decided to follow Highway # 1 (the original highway) rather than Highway 101 wherever we could today to get closer to the coast and while that entailed a bit of frustration it overall led to a great day. We traveled through great California Ranch Country and Coastal areas looking more like Australia than anywhere else with all the eucalypts and had barely started out when we came across a 4th July Parade. Yay. After our experience in Cody Wyoming last year we had hoped we would find one.This year it was in Cayucos where the theme was 'Home of the free next to the sea' and we enjoyed it. We ended up today in Santa Barbara and looking at the tall palms in front of the hills all that is missing is the Hollywood sign, albeit a bit too far north for that. Had a nice dinner and enjoyed the fireworks display which was supposed to start at 9.30pm and ended up being 9.05pm. Was very pretty. Happy Birthday everyone in the USA!!!

　

The wharf in Cayucos being rebuilt with people gathering in front and left over from the sand castle efforts. Note the gum leaves on the tree above. Travelled through heaps of them today including really dense roadside plantings and it smelt great.

And the 4th of July Parade for real above and then below.

　

Morro Bay StatePark (on the old highway) and this is the Marina.

　

And the Golf Course.

　

And along the Los Osos Valley to the beach, like in the Australian high country amongst the eucalypts!

And then at the beach. There were so many cars coming back we assumed a through road (and no signs said otherwise) but not so.

　

Proof we got to Pismo Beach, just too much cloud to see a beach! ....and this was followed by over an hour in a frustratingly inch by inch traffic jam only to find the traffic jam was turning into a state park and choking up the road we were on as well. DOH!

　

We travelled through lots of California Ranch Country reminiscent of cattle country around Cooma in NSW...

　

...and then into Market Garden Central (my title) literally hundreds if not thousands of acres of intensive market garden agriculture. Interesting to see where they use plastic it is white instead of black like at home.

Guadalupe,  tired little town in the middle of the market gardens.

　

After winding through the Californian Hills / Sand dunes / folded up bedrock mountains of California and riding over awesome winding roads we came across the Vandenberg Airforce Base before we headed for Lompoc. We didn't hang around to see the penitentiary entrance further down the hill.

　

And to the coast...

 

　

Rail and old road bridge. There is apparently an exciting conservation project under the road bridge to get some sort of creature to move from one area to another. I read the board and it made no sense to me so I hope whatever is supposed to migrate has figured it out.

　

And more beautiful birds taking to flight. Truly soul restoring ... especially when our trip is about to come to an end. Boo hoo.

Bits and Bobs:

 

Stella (youngest grandchild calls Norm Haddad / Hagdad...in any case this was near enough to make us miss her and the rest of them.

Last two Night's Accommodation:

　

Cambria Landing Inn & Suites, 6530 Moonstone Beach Drive, Moonstone Beach, Cambria, CA 93428

Lovely comfortable space with included breakfast (in our room), parking and wine reception yesterday evening. Seemed expensive for what it was, but reasonable compared to others in vicinity.