Central Coast Adventures

Our site at Emma Wood State Beach

After an extended stay back home in California, we needed to get this family back into its groove. We left our extended post at Prado a few days earlier than intended out of desperation to restore our purpose and motivation to regain our inspiration. We left late in the day and worried we wouldn't make it far. We weren't even sure which way to go! We now are traveling in two vehicles, opting to take the Suburban with us, as well, so there was also the matter of decided who was riding with whom. After all was settled, we pointed our noses north and headed for Santa Barbara.

Traveling in the comforts of the Mommy-mobile with the trusty
truck looking on.

It felt great to be on the road again. Once we got north of Pasadena, the familiar sights outside the window turned to roads less traveled, at least for us. We kept contact with Brent and eventually caught up to him and the trailer, pulling over to use the restroom and hand over a coffee I had grabbed for him along the route (Woo hoo for a vehicle we can take through a drive-thru!). We followed him through Oxnard and into Ventura and the ocean appeared to our left. With the sun growing heavy in the sky, we started to realize our Santa Barbara destination may need some re-thinking.


Brent pulled off the highway toward Emma Wood State Beach, just north of Ventura. We tiptoed up to the kiosk, knowing that beach camping in California after Spring has begun is hard to come by, particularly approaching a weekend, and it was a Thursday. Fortunately, we received a welcoming smile and news that plenty of sites were available on a first come, first served basis and we rolled onward to choose our spot.

The pressures and nerves of the last two months rolled off our shoulders as we parked. The sun was setting and the waves crashed up on rocks only feet from our doorstep.

We spent the next morning exploring the rocks and tide pools and marveling at sea anemones, crabs, and shells. It was foggy and chilly, but our nearest neighbors were still a comfortable distance away and just having the time together away from the pressures that had built on us at home the past months seemed far away, creating a respite and a reconnection we all needed more than we knew.

We left to spend the day in Santa Barbara, where the fog cleared and the sun beamed across the green hills and blue ocean. We found a small dog-friendly café two blocks from the Downtown area called Crushcakes, where we enjoyed vegetarian and vegan sandwiches and a cupcake with the dogs tangled around our ankles under the table. We walked our brood (three dogs, a stroller with crying baby, a nearly-5-year-old, and us) a few steps onto State St. only to cross a local shop owner out for a stroll with her dog. She happily socialized her shy dog with our three and made small talk with Evelyn. She pointed us in the direction of an amazing park only blocks away.

A stroll through the park in Santa Barbara

We bid her and her dog a good day and walked a few blocks to where we'd spend the rest of our afternoon. After a walk through a green park with towering, twisting trees overhead, we crossed the street to find "The Turtle Park". Evelyn's jaw dropped and she ran ahead of us to see the pond, pointing and giggling immediately at the countless turtles that poked their heads up to the surface. Ducks cruised by and children all around smiled and peered into the water. A couple nearby offered Evelyn three pieces of bread and Evelyn watched on with an impressed smile as a turtle stretched its head and neck above to water to grab food right out of a woman's outstretched hand.

We would have spent the entire day at the turtle pond if Evelyn hadn't eventually caught a glimpse of the wooden fortress of a park across the street. An entire small neighborhood block was dedicated to an adventure in itself of a playground for kids of all ages. From ropes to slides to suspended balance beams, this park had it all. It was here where Evelyn finally grasped the skill of pumping to swing herself back and forth on a swing-- she was so proud!-- and she spent a lot of time on the swings for that reason. She slid down ropes and swung from swings; even Kailyn got into the fun and straddled the park's whale with Daddy smiling on.

 

When we returned to Emma Wood, the weekenders had piled in. It was a Friday night afterall, and we expected to be sharing this prime real estate with others, so we welcomed in the crowds and hoped Evelyn might find someone to play with.

Holding hands with a new friend

Our hopes were answered the next morning. Evelyn ventured outside after seeing four kids playing outside the trailer that had pulled in close to ours the night before. One of the girls smiled and picked up one of their bubble wands to hand it to Evelyn. "Would you like it?" she asked. I smiled and thanked her for letting her play with it and she answered, "No, she can have it!"

This small gesture was the beginning of a beautiful weekend. This little girl, Emily, had two brothers and a sister. They all embraced Evelyn into their group and the bunch of them crawled over rocks, splashed in waves, ran across the beach, and collected rocks and shells together throughout the day. As the day wore on, another small motorhome pulled up close on the other side of their trailer and out piled three little girls-- another three new friends who would be embraced into this already expanded group of friends.

Since the kids had all become fast friends, all three sets of parents gathered around a fire and swapped stories. Emily's parents were from Bakersfield; this was their first time to Emma Wood, as well. The three little girls and their parents were from Yorba Linda; their dad employed by Virgin's space program. We all laughed together and built a small vacation of a weekend together. We couldn't have felt more fortunate to have been surrounded so snugly with other campers for the weekend.

It was hard to say goodbye to our new friends.

As Sunday morning pressed on, we hugged and bid farewell. Our new friends left and the beach cleared. We remained, always the last to get moved on Moving Day. It was bittersweet to leave Emma Wood, but the memories we'd made there were priceless.

We didn't have a clear idea of where we would head next. We initially thought we'd aim for Lompoc, but for some reason we decided that was too close to where we'd already visited and decided instead to head even farther north.

Kailyn really wasn't up for a picture

Our destination was San Luis Obispo. Brent trucked on ahead towing the trailer and Evelyn and I stopped in Santa Barbara one last time for one more chance to feed the turtles. Just one of the advantages of driving a separate vehicle and keeping my car around for this leg of the journey! Evelyn and I visited Crushcakes one last time and Evelyn got to be a kid, swinging and climbing to her heart's content at the park.

We  hit the road after a quick stop at the prettiest Taco Bell we'd ever seen (is anything ugly in Santa Barbara?) and pointed our noses north. We followed the coast and marveled at the water. Brent called to say he'd seen a whale breech in the water as he drove out of town, so we kept our eyes peeled to no avail. Still, the scenery for our commute could not have been better.

We passed through hills topped with halos of heavy light-gray clouds and peppered with cows grazing endless acres of green slope. These Happy Cows would become a cherished sight-- truly lucky cows in comparison with the cows of Chino, back home. To our left and our right, Evelyn would shout, "Happy Cows!", pointing out the windows with a smile on her face.

The city and suburbs disappeared and soon we found ourselves in rural California, where the wet winter had bejeweled the landscape in an emerald glow. Tall, rocky hillsides nested upon sprawling and rolling fields piped with lush green tress... and of course the hundreds if not thousands of Happy Cows strolling the landscape.

Even as we rounded a bend and turned inland, we gaped at the beauty of the landscape and marveled at the road signs indicating "Bear Crossing".

We passed Goleta and Lompoc, and by the time we reached Buellton, I felt we had passed right by something important. I couldn't stop smiling throughout the stretch north of Santa Barbara; why had we pushed our destination so much farther north? On que, Brent called me from his location an hour or more north of us. He shared my sentiment. It felt like a place we needed to be-- but the day was dipping into afternoon and we couldn't exactly turn our ship around at this point. We promised to return to the area and kept on our route.

Evelyn, Kailyn, and I arrived in San Luis Obispo at El Chorro Regional Park to find Brent had parked the trailer and settled in. The campsite was incredibly small and the extra vehicle fee was high, but the camp hosts were casual and friendly and we were grateful for a place to plug in for the week and we didn't plan on being home much, anyway. Even still, the park was attached to a sprawling green golf course and a botanical garden. We could hear wild turkeys gobbling from the brush in the creek and sheep calling from the ranch on the hill on the other side of the golf course.

The next day, I worked from the trailer while Brent took the girls out to explore. When he returned that afternoon, he was giddy. He asked if I had finished working because I had to see what he had found: "The Gateway to Heaven". Well, who could pass up a teaser like that? I closed up my computer and we loaded up the entire family to return to his find.

Our turn off the freeway was toward Los Osos. We followed a small road through a small, slightly rundown neighborhoods and then climbed over a slight hill to a glimpse of the ocean and Morro Bay to the north. Our car disappeared into a thick eucalyptus forest, tall and ancient trees on both sides of us as far as the eye could see, up a slope to our left and down a valley to our right. When the thickness of the forest opened to blue sky again, Brent's eager smile shot in my direction. From the corner of my eye I could see him waiting for my reaction. Laid out before us was a rocky cove-- bright blue water crashing up against dark rocks pressed up out of the water. People and dogs played on the beach only feet from dolphins splashing in the surf near the shore.

With all three dogs in tow, we walked the short distance to the rocky shore and smiled for two hours straight. Brent and Evelyn skipped rocks into the waves, the dogs made acquaintances of their own, and Kailyn slept snuggled up in her sling.

When we left the cove, we drove a less traveled road through a meadow along a ridge where we could see Morro Bay to the north.

The next day, we did what we had to do while in the area-- visit Hearst Castle. It was something I'd

The requisite visit to Hearst Castle

never seen and always wanted to and it certainly didn't disappoint. Aside from leaving with a strange mix of disgust and awe over the spectacle, the views were like no other. Evelyn added a few more squashed pennies to her collection back at the Visitor's Center, so her experience was complete.

The best part of the day was after we left Hearst Castle. We drove as far north as we could up the Pacific Coast Highway, leading us to Ragged Point. The highway from Ragged Point to Big Sur is closed due to the damage of several landslides from the storms this season, so Ragged Point was the turning point, drawing in its share of visitors. We ordered lattes and walked a green path to the coastal views. We enjoyed a little time out of the car before piling back in and heading south again.

From there, we stopped to see the elephant seals sunning on the beach. Evelyn and I strolled down the walkway to get a closer few and Evelyn asked question after question about why they throw sand on themselves, how they get so big, and why they lay around and look like they're dead. Oh, the questions! We listened to them snort and grunt at each other and finally gave in to the fact that the dogs were waiting back home in the trailer and probably needed out, reluctantly leaving the coast and heading back to El Chorro.

We ventured out exploring the area as much as we could that week. We took an afternoon trip to Avila Bay. Overcast and calm, the bay sat procured from the passage of time. Rusty and weathered small fishing boats bobbed on their tethers in the bay and the pier creaked and rocked in the swells. Even in the overcast weather, the water was clear and blue. We watched sea lions sail through the water beneath our feet and listened to them bark at each other for space on the platforms below. We could see the white sands of Oceano Dunes across the bay and stood in the calm for some time until the air grew cold with evening approaching.

We also spent an evening at Oceano Dunes in Pismo. Brent spotted a construction site in town and picked through the scrap lumber pile for fire wood. We journeyed out on the beach and parked in the sand, heading for the slow and flat rolling tide. I sat in a chair with my feet in the wet sand with Kailyn while Brent and Evelyn played with a boogie board farther out in the water. The dogs, whose

leashes were tied to my chair, panicked below me when the tide rolled in beneath us and looked up at me like I was crazy to be getting wet on purpose.

Evelyn collected sand dollars and found gigantic sand crabs and enjoyed digging in the wet sand and splashing around in the shallow tide.

We built a fire and stayed nestled around it even when the evening's forecast revealed true. Large, thick raindrops began thudding down around us in a quiet onset of an oncoming storm. Brent and Evelyn continued to frolic around the fire and in the rain, but when it was apparent the rain wouldn't be letting up, we retreated to the truck and hopped on the highway for home once again.

We stayed a week in San Luis Obispo, so we got to know the community a bit, taking care of everyday matters like grocery shopping, clothes shopping, dropping mail at the post office, and running for coffee. We loved everything about it. We felt we could stay a month or a year and felt a certain comfort in simply being there.

We took Gretchen to a veterinarian in town because we needed a refill on her allergy medicine. We were impressed with the vet office-- friendly, inviting, professional. They even gave us a Starbucks gift card to go to the Starbucks next door for coffee while they took Gretchen in the back to run a test. Sitting in the waiting room with our coffees once again, we smiled and waved at a friendly-eyed couple who walked in with their border collie puppy. Evelyn's eyes went wide: "Their dog has a rainbow leash!" Letting Evelyn be Evelyn, we encouraged her to go say "Hello."

The couple was more than receptive and in usual Evelyn fashion, she drew them in like a magnet. They laughed and made small talk while Brent and I watched from our spots on the couch. Evelyn asked where they had gotten their rainbow leash. The man's reply was, "I made it!" and without skipping a beat he said, "I could make one for you, too! I'd be happy to!"

We introduced ourselves and felt instantly warmed by this couple's energy. Their names were Tim and Kristi and they live in Morro Bay. After learning of our adventures and living situation, they encouraged us to move to the area. They sang praises of the community and extended open arms to bask in all that the central coast has to offer. Tim insisted he was serious about making Evelyn a rainbow leash and we told him where we were staying, though didn't expect follow-through.

The next morning, though, there was a knock on our trailer door and there stood Tim with not one but three rainbow leashes-- one for each dog! He went on to invite us to where he was going for the day: slack lining. As he put it all too simply: "We walk a rope really high up... over water!"

Unable to refuse an invitation like that, we got ourselves ready and journeyed back to Avila Beach to find Tim and the other slack liners. We hiked some beautiful hillsides and cliffs, breathing in the unrivaled views of the central coast and enjoying the friendly banter and inviting nature of other walkers and hikers.

Clothing Optional

We found ourselves at Pirate's Cove, hiking a short distance through cliff-side foliage and chapparal, arriving at towering rock at the pinnacle. We climbed up to the top with the dogs and with a baby strapped to my chest in her sling (crazy!) and spotted a beaming Tim waving us in his direction. Because I really couldn't get any closer to the action, Tim walked nimbly across the rock tops to assist us and wound up sitting with us where we had stopped, a bit away from the action. Even still, he was happy we'd come and narrated as we watched his friends walk the rope. The rope spanned from rock to rock over a drop of more than 100 feet down to the water along the coast. We listened intently as he described the meditation he experiences when walking the line. We even got to watch him walk it, himself.

 

 

One of the slack-liners in action.



 

Hanging out with Tim at the top of a cliff.

 The experience was an unmatched finale to our time in San Luis Obispo. We truly wanted to stay, but we knew there was a lot more out there to see.

We completed our stay at El Chorro with a peaceful and rejuvenating evening on the golf course just steps from our campsite. We watched the sunset while listening to the turkeys in the brush and the sheep in the hills, swinging at little white balls that would never actually reach the holes for which we aimed.

Our evening on the golf course was the quintessence of our existence being back on the road-- aiming for nothing, hoping for nothing more than the experience, and enjoying every moment along our course.

For pictures that didn't make the blog cut visit: Central Coast Adventures Album