California, Here We Come! (rather - There We Went!)

 

 Hello from Sunny California!  Actually, we got back Monday night from San Luis Obispo in central Cali along the coast.  My nephew got married on the beach at Avila Golf Resort.  It was a beautiful place and lovely setting for a wedding!  My sister, Lisa, and her husband, my parents and Tony and I went to help celebrate this happy occasion!  The weather was perfect, and it was SO nice to get away from the Texas heatwave!  I know why people love living in California!

We got to Cali a day early and our plane flew into Santa Barbara so we took in the beautiful mission while we were passing through.  Here's me, Lisa and mom...

 

If you've never been there, the grounds are beautiful and there is a wonderful rose garden across the front of the property.  Many different kinds and colors of roses, but MY favorite is always The Yellow Rose of Texas!

 

Avila Beach Golf Resort is near San Luis Obispo so that's where we decided to stay - it's a pretty little town and has its own mission, too, which I'll show you in another post.  I just love the landscape out there with the mountains and eucalyptus trees.  It was quite dry this time of year and the grass was brown and crunchy, but it was nice to see something different...

 At the wedding, here's my nephew walking his mom, my sister Lisa, down the aisle.  It was a beautiful and informal wedding.  The bride chose lime green and black as her colors and it was gorgeous!  Isn't Lisa pretty! 

 My nephew's bride was stunning.  She's a beautiful young lady and they will make a handsome couple (and cute babies!)  And the best part is, they are moving home to Texas!  My nephew has been in the Navy and he put in for a transfer to Texas!  I'm So thrilled that he's going to be closer to his mom!

After the wedding festivities were over, we stayed a few extra days to have some R & R.  Took the family to the beach and  played...  Whatever we felt like doing!  Aren't vacations wonderful!

 

On one of our beach excursions, we spotted these lazy things laying on the beach - sea lions.  (sometimes I feel like this after a big meal, too!)  There were a couple of big males out in the water scuffling and making horrible noises with those big snouts of theirs.

 Well, so as not to make this post too picture-heavy, I'll close for now and post some more pics next time.  We visited the Hearst castle again with the family and I think the flowers were even more beautiful this visit!  Thanks to all of you who stopped by to say hi and let me know you're still my blogging buddy!  :)

California Trip - Part 4 - Napa Valley

Ok, so I thought I was going to be able to do one more post to cover Napa and San Fran, but it was not to be.  I couldn't leave out that many photos.  Hopefully, there'll be only one more part after this, but we'll see.  I wanna have my whole trip on here so I can look back and remember!

On up the coast we drove on PCH 1.  We're getting into some really beautiful ocean scenery and the mountains are climbing up from the water, it seems at times.  Which means that we are driving on the side of the mountains along the coast-line just like you see in the movies, and most places, it's just a two lane highway!  A little scary in spots!  But we made it. At least if you're going north, you're on the inside lane closest to the mountain!  We stopped several places to take pictures and we met up with these little ground squirrels/chipmunks.  They were so cute and tame, they'd come right up to you and beg for food and see if you had anything in your hands!  I'd never seen these before - they had little speckles all over them!  You can definitely feel the temperature change the further up the coast you got. WOW!  It was nice to leave Texas and its 110 temps behind for a week!

We stayed in San Francisco for the night, but decided to take in Napa Valley the next morning and we visited several of the wineries there.  The two we liked the best were Nattui (?) and Castello di Amoroso (the Castle).  It was our favorite - it looked exactly like a Castle on the side of the hill, they were even building a small moat and drawbridge while we were there.  The grapevine-laden valley and basin areas were absolutely breathtaking.  Besides grapes, there were 100 year old olive trees, avocados, and all kinds of citrus.  Must be really a fertile place there - Alot of the vineyards also had their own vegetable gardens - especially those with  restaurants and eateries. 

Below is where we had lunch.  They had a little store where you could buy breads and crackers and fruits, deli meats and imported cheeses and of course, wine, and have picnic lunches on the grounds.  It was a gorgeous day and the temps were perfect!

Above is the Castello di Amoroso - it was filled with history - old wine barrels, old antique wine presses - I'm not talking little ones - I'm talking humongous.  We got to go down into the wine cellars where it was cool and have a wine tasting - that was fun - never did that before - we are not drinkers, but since it was vacation AND it was just the two of us, we decided to go for it!  It was fun!

See the rooster under the olive tree?  At the Castle, they had a gardners cottage and gardens, and chickens and even a pair of peacocks - sure made the whole atmosphere so much more beautiful and romantic!

Lots of old, old, OLD olive trees there and other places, too.  Look at the trunk of that tree (above)!!!

I could almost have sworn that I'd been to Italy, to Tuscany.  It was almost magical and dreamy!

Above - in the little town of Napa, near the visitor center, I spotted this place - I love Tyler Florence and his cooking show and recipes.  He's amazing.  Sadly, hubby wanted to get on the Napa trip and we didn't get to stop in...  The town of Napa itself is beautiful, pristine, slick as a whistle and clean and tidy, and manicured and landscaped.  It looks like a postcard.  Of course, it's because of all the tourists, but still - I really enjoyed it - lots of ritzy stores there, too...

Well, that's the end of my Napa trip.  Of course, I took tons of pictures but I'll leave you with this last photo. 

It was a beautiful and interesting place to go.  I'm glad I went and I would visit there again if I should ever find myself in San Francisco.  Thanks for looking. 

And keep your dress down...

California Trip Part 3

Hey all you wonderful friends out there! I'm back on the California road trip again to bring you some more loveliness from the West Coast! Sit back and get comfy while I show you around! It's so hard to edit the number of photos I put on here - we took about 500 on the trip.

Next stop up the Pacific Hwy 1 -  we stopped at Morro Bay.  It's a sleepy little fishing town, and its claim to fame is this huge rock, really a small mountain, that sticks right up out in the bay area and beach area.  It's so wierd looking.  Of course, Friar Antonio, being the geologist that he is, had to examine the rock up close and determine of what it was constructed and from whence it came - probably thrust up through the earth's crust - must be near the fault line... I put my widdle footsies in the ocean there and I kid you not --- IT WAS FREEZING!!!  Made my feet hurt in just a few seconds!  There were some surfers there, but they had on wet suits - I thought they were pretty crazy, if you ask me!

The grey clouds and fog were beginning to lift as we were about to leave...

Above - I thought a black/white pic was sorta cool...

Now, on to the Hearst Castle around the Cambria area I think.  We hadn't planned on this tour, but thought what the heck!  It turned out to be one of the most interesting things we did!  If you want more info, check  out this link -    http://www.hearstcastle.org/ 

George Hearst bought 40,000 acres in this area in 1819 and it later grew to about 250,000 acres. His son, William Randolph Scott along with his architect - a woman named Miss Morgan, then built a castle here which was completed in 1947.  It was filled with famous people for fun and games and revelry back in the day.  Now it's being managed by the California State Parks.  It is magnificent, and if one should ever go to California, it's a must-see!

                                         

Hearst had all the best products, centuries-old antiques, tapestries, ceilings and beams, tiles, statues, etc. brought in from all over the world.  Intricate carvings, paintings, doors...  I FELT like I was in Hollywood.  It had its own movie theatre where Hearst would show movies and also home-movies of all his fun parties and guests. The theatre was done in heavy red velvet drapes and gold statues. They showed us some of their movies while we were there. He had his own zoo, horseback riding trails, and inside Olympic sized pool all done in blue and gold tiles and the outdoor Zeus pool.  Three cottages - well, if you could call them a cottage, for they were just as elegant as the main castle.  Hunting, and later they got into the cattle business.  Hearst also had African game animals there, too, and there are still some there today. They also grew all their own food - there are still gardens there, and lots of citrus trees, olives, and avocado trees.

Above, one of the "cottages" for his guests...

The Dining Hall

Above - the indoor pool - looks like a mirror image - there is a diving platform at the top...

The Hearst Castle was the most beautiful and elegant and ritzy and fancy-shmancy place I've ever been to in my entire life!  When you walk around the place, you can just see some of Hollywood's old stars lounging at the pool or clowning around for the camera or having drinks in the salon.

 Thanks for staying with me.  I've got one more post on California - Napa Valley and San Francisco!  Be back soon!

California Trip Part 2

Can you take some more California pics?  Well, I can. Here's some pics from LA and points north on our cruise up Hwy 1.  I'll explain as I go...

Below, a couple of pics of the La Brea Tar Pits in LA.  In these ponds of yuck, there is oil and crud bubbling up STILL, and big goopy globs of asphalt rise to the surface.  Bleh...

Now we go inside to the Page Museum there at the location to view some of the fossils that have been extracted from the tar pits.  They were absolutely amazing.  I didn't know if I was going to like this exhibit, but Tony wanted to go see it, and I wound up really enjoying it!  This first one is a giant ground sloth and believe me, it was giant. 

Above is a huge ancient bison.

Below is a saber-toothed cat attacking the giant sloth...

Then we took a spin down Rodeo Drive...  

Finally, we get to the coast of California.  It was just spectacular...  My first look at the Pacific Ocean.  There were folks there relaxing for the Labor Day weekend.  We sat on the beach for a while before continuing on our journey.  Being seaside is just intoxicating for me.  There's something about water, particularly an ocean that just mesmerizes me.  We soaked up some sunshine and decided to go on down the coast to wherever our next destination might be.  We were vagabonds on this trip and just drove wherever our whims decided.  Such a fun way to travel!

Next up the coast we made a swing through Santa Barbara to see the mission there... It was getting late in the afternoon and they were about to close.  You know, it was actually chilly there!  You can't imagine how good it felt after leaving our 100+ temps behind in Texas!!!!

Before we left we ran across this fellow - Friar Antonio.  I decided that he could come with me on my trip...

Tune back next time for the next leg of our trip!  Thanks for looking!