Pacific Coast drive to Moonstone Beach

Photos

Saturday, December 7, 2013

I was up so late last night that I slept past 7am today. Clay was snoring when I got up and got in the shower, so I don’t know what his excuse was. Breakfast was thus later and it was lightly attended. Perhaps because it was a rainy morning. Good for us, but sad for all those weekenders on their way to the parks! Today’s breakfast was biscuits and gravy and scrambled eggs with sausage bits mixed in. So, they must alternate. The silverware problem was solved today.

We packed up and checked out of the Desert Palms Hotel and were on the road north by 9am. It took us almost 2 hours to get across LA. We mostly crawled and it was a Saturday morning between 9 and 11am, but it was raining. It wound up taking us almost 6 hours to reach Cambria, or Moonstone Beach, our home for the next 2 nights at Moonstone Landing.

The coast drive was beautiful and the skies cleared about 100 miles north of LA. It was colder and windier though. The forecast is to be below freezing here for the next 2 nights and that was not in any extended forecast we saw for Cambria before we left home. I am wearing almost all of my layers! We more or less followed the El Camino Real by changing highways several times per Clay's GPS instructions. We drove through Los Padres National Forest and by Lake Cachuma.

It is about 245 miles from LA to Cambria evidently and for some reason neither of us thought that. We both thought it was less than 200. Oh, well. We did stop at a few vista points and for lunch at Dickey’s BBQ in Santa Maria. It was good, quick and inexpensive. It came with free vanilla soft serve, self serve ice cream cones as a bonus. The problem was that Clay had seen a handmade wooden sign propped up by the road out in the country about an hour before that said BBQ Today. He should have just slammed on the brakes and turned down the side road or made a U-turn and gone back instead of thinking he could find another or something similar. But, now Clay had a hankering for local BBQ. Our being at this Dickey's chain restaurant was a result of an incorrect photo of a non-chain sign attached to this place in Santa Maria according to Yelp on Clay's phone app. It was fine with me. I seem to be off my feed these days and just not hungry or judgmental about food.  Anyway, we thought it would take about 4 hours and we did not lollygag or stop for real sightseeing and it took it 6 hours. Something to remember. Wildlife spotted: 1 roadrunner, 2 deer and 1 wild turkey.

We found and checked into Moonstone Landing. It is right across from a wooden boardwalk along the beach on a short road on a bluff called Moonstone Landing. The beach is Moonstone Beach. We are about 10 miles from Hearst Castle, San Simeon. That was our goal for this weekend.

Bonus was the breeding colony of elephant seals at Piedras Blancas that is just north of there. We headed right out to find them before sunset since it is about 4:45pm these days. We found them just north of San Simeon and just south of Piedras Blancas lighthouse. It was so cold and windy and Clay did not wear or bring his layers since we had unloaded the luggage from the car when we checked in. Mind you I didn't have all mine either, but I did at least have the outer wear, while he just had a rain jacket. I still insisted that we stay out there looking at and for elephant seals until we lost the light, since we won’t see anything like that again. It was a lot more and a lot more active elephant seals than we saw in Antarctica. It was about the same wind chill though! All in all, it was very impressive and I wish we'd been better prepared for the cold wind and long walk. The other thing I was kicking myself about is not bringing my little binoculars. I have such a tough time over such a small thing. I never have them when I want or need them. I haul them everywhere and it seems I never need them, but the minute I am traveling without them, I really wish I had them. Anyway, I had decided to lighten the load and couldn't imagine I'd need them. I was wrong, again! They would have been most welcome on this portion of the trip. But, of course if I'd packed them, they'd have probably been in the room or in the trunk and not on me when I wanted to use them anyway. Oh, well.

We headed back to the hotel with the thought of eating at the Sea Chest restaurant next door but it was closed until after Christmas. There was only one other restaurant on our street and it did not appear in walking distance in the dark. We went up and asked the hotel receptionist and she gave us a book of menus to look at with our complimentary snacks from 4 to 6pm. We picked 2 and she liked one more than the other for dinner, but the other one, down the street from us, had a good Sunday brunch in her opinion. We went to Linn’s in Cambria on Main Street for dinner. It was very good. As Clay said, this is the kind of thing I expected in Vegas. Exactly. Anyway, Clay had a beer and the pork special which was a chargrilled pork tenderloin with Olallieberry sauce on apple gastrique. It sounded awful, but he really liked it. The portion was double what I would serve him at home, but he proudly finished it. I had a Hearst Ranch sirloin steak pot pie. It was a large serving too and the vegetables served with both were very good. Linn's is one of only a few place where you can be served Hearst Ranch beef, so this was special. They had a baseball cut sirloin steak from Hearst Ranch that Clay was and is obsessed with and though he really enjoyed his meal, he regrets not ordering the baseball cut sirloin steak since he probably won't get another chance. I offered to order it so he could have some; yes, I'll have the baseball cut sirloin and I'd like that well done, you can just butterfly fillet it. We both had a good laugh over that, but Clay is still full of regret. I was too full for dessert and the table next to us had come and gone after ordering just desserts. They both had the Olallieberry pie and the portions were enormous. I knew I was too full to eat any dessert. Clay was full too but ordered a slice of the pie to go.

That brings us back to our room, 101 on the ground corner of the oceanfront of the hotel. We are paying about $200 per night here so our expectations were pretty high. The carpet is stained and needs to be cleaned as well as the drapes, otherwise it is a WOW room. Mostly because of the view. It is a large room with 3 small chairs and a table, a large arm chair positioned perfectly by the window with a floor lamp. A king bed, TV and DVR in a cabinet with drawers. A small fridge and microwave as well as a coffee maker. It has a gas log fireplace with a wall thermostat as the heater. There is a single sink in a large bathroom, a whirlpool tub and a separate shower. It is quite nice. The view is spectacular from all the windows and patio doors. They have complimentary evening snacks from 4-6pm, tonight with sparkling cider. In the morning from 8 to 10am they serve a complimentary continental breakfast. We are looking forward to a restful stay here after the sensory overload of Disney.

Photos