Pismo Beach

In El Chorro Regional Park

Labyrinth behind the Back Bay Inn in Baywood Park

Elfin Forest so named because of the pygmy oaks that grow here

Montana de Oro State Park

Montana de Oro State Park

The Cliffs Resort

Sunset at The Cliffs Resort

Pismo Beach

After a wonderful breakfast we toured the old part of the hotel where we were able to see door markers of some of the famous people who stayed here. 

Found the room of Rudolph Valentino where his ghost is supposed to knock on the door and lie down on the bed.

Then we meandered through the Santa Maria Valley and made our way to Oceano, first to the small airport that offers bi-plane rides and then to the Oceano Dunes.  We don't know of any other place where you can drive a car and camp either in a tent or an RV directly on the sand.

Then on to Dinosaur Caves Park in Pismo Beach.  This was just a field for many years.  I have a photo of Stephanie learning to walk in this field!  It's a lovely spot now.

Dinosaur Caves Park (coastline here is very similar to that in Oregon)

One of our favorite drives is along the shore in Shell Beach and we have taken the steps down to the beach and picked up sea glass (not today, however, too far to go).

Shell Beach

Then it was time to check into the Cliffs Resort and our Nifty Fifty room (special rates and discounts on various things for those over 50).  Lovely spot!

From our balcony

We obviously misjudged this whole Christmas thing!  We figured it would be a very quiet time in the hotels and restaurants. Not.  The hotel is packed and there were no more reservations for dinner in the restaurant here for tonight. Those restaurants in town that were open had the same situation. We might have been able to squeeze into the bar if we went for a preset menu at 4 pm.  Since we had lunch at 2 pm that didn't sound like a good plan.  So, Norm raided the front desk and this is our Christmas dinner 2016.  Ha ha ha.

Santa Maria

After a nice walk along the water we had lunch at the harbor then home to pack up the car and get ready for Sean and Greg to arrive.

Once we had gone through everything with Sean and Greg, we hit the road north.   We ran into a rain storm for about 20 minutes and saw 3 spectacular rainbows, in one spot there were two of them.

The dual rainbows before we hit the rain storm

So here we are at the Historic Santa Maria Inn, 100 years old and haunted apparently, with several ghosts, one of whom is supposed to be Rudolph Valentino.  We will look at the rooms where the hauntings are supposed to happen in the morning.  In the meantime, had a lovely dinner in the hotel restaurant.  It's very COLD here so glad we didn't have to go out this evening for dinner!

Many celebrities of a by-gone era stayed here.  Some are mentioned here in the hotel booklet.

Santa Barbara

Got our 3 mile walk in this morning with Art, Linda and Craig before the storm hit.

Then last minute cleanup and packing.

It's so nice to see the rain and to see the yard green instead of brown.  Supposed to get an inch so that means flash flood possibilities, maybe not so good.

Great Happy Hour with the crew at Mulligans

December 22 - Santa Barbara

Starting the season.  It feels very strange not to have any decorations or presents so I don't know if we'll do it this way again.  We'll see how it all feels by the end of the trip.

Started off the season with the 4-way Skype call.  What a hoot!

Top left are Robert and Margaret, in the center are Gerald and Zoe, top right are John and Diane and Norm and I are in the bottom screen.

Nice half hour conversation.  It's really nice to see everyone rather than just talking on the phone.