We left Lake Casitas on 14th August and took the coast road (101) passed Santa Barbara before heading inland and north to Santa Maria. This was our base for 10 days and our chance to see the central coast region. The Santa Maria valley is rich in market gardens and we passed fields of cabbages and other greens, onions and the sweetest smelling strawberries as well as fields of coriander (cilantro). This is also wine country, so we saw hillsides covered in vines and the opportunity to do some wine tasting - always good in my book!
We also spent a lot of time at the coast. The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes complex boasts that it has the highest dunes in the western US with some over 500 feet. The complex spans 22,000 acres and 18 miles and is a national wildlife refuge. The 1923 silent movie "The Ten Commandments" was filmed here.
Another day we visited Avila beach on our way back from seeing San Luis Obispo and the mission built by the Spanish in 1772.
Pismo beach was lovely and we spent a very relaxing day there on part of the 23 mile stretch. Well, the area is known for its beaches so it would have been rude not to make the most of them
Further up the coast is Morro Bay and Morro Rock. We had some excellent locally caught halibut for lunch and saw a couple of noisy locals barking for food too.
Many people had told us about Paso Robles so we went for a look. Not much to the town but it is now famous for its wine. The number of wineries has grown from 20 to over 200 in the last 20 years. We picked up a few bottles on our way 
In the afternoon, we headed back to the coast along highway 46, and the views were magnificent. Through San Simeon to Hearst Castle, we saw zebra grazing with the cattle. We later found out that they used to reside in the zoo that William Randolph Hearst had established to entertain his guests. The 'castle ' took 28 years to build, from its inception in 1919 to its finish in 1947. Works of art, sculptures, tapestries, wood carvings and ceilings collected from all around the world, can be found here and it is now a state park open to all not just celebrities. It was certainly an interesting place to visit.
Leaving Santa Maria, we took the 101, then Pacific Coast Highway (highway 1) to Plaskett Creek campground in Big Sur. It was certainly an interesting drive with 20mph hairpin bends and views of the sea beyond the cliffs. At one point Mark asked me if I wanted to drive. HELL NO! My fingers were numb from holding my seat belt so tight!
It was also quite refreshing to be out of cell phone range and no TV or radio signals either. We just watched the sunset over the ocean and waited for the stars to come out - nice.
The following day, we took a drive up to Monterey and explored the town as well as looking into whale watching cruises. Little did we know that we were soon to see humpbacks up close further down the coast in a few days time (see my earlier blog).
Time to head off again, this time to a small town called Watsonville which was our base for Santa Cruz and all places south of San Francisco. The Salinas Valley is also known as the 'Salad Bowl' of California as its the most productive agricultural region in the state. The smell of strawberries and other soft fruit was incredible. The town of Salinas was also the home of author and Nobel and Pulitzer prize winner, John Steinbeck.
Back to Monterey for a whale watching tour and we weren't disappointed. The count on the day was over 60 humpback whales, more than 1,000 dolphins, lots of California Sea-lions and seals and numerous birds. Not bad for a morning in the bay!
On the way back we stopped in at Carmel-by-the-sea, a very upmarket little town on the outskirts of Monterey, and home of Clint Eastwood. He was the mayor here in 1986 - 88 and still lives here.
We spent another afternoon in Santa Cruz, walked along the seafront and watched the surfers having fun.
On the Saturday of the Labour Day (bank holiday) weekend, we decided to drive up Highway 1 to south of San Francisco as we wouldn't be going that way with Badger. Unfortunately, our car decided to throw a wobbly and the fan belt when we were on our way through a suburb trying to find our way back to the coast. A call to the insurance company resulted in a breakdown truck coming out and towing us to the nearest garage (only a few minutes away) for repair. The guy in the office took Mark's word for it that it was the fan belt, which they had in stock, so the breakdown truck left us there and off he went. When the mechanic finally got around to looking at it, he said there were other things that needed replacing (tensioner and idler pulleys), which they didn't have in stock and it would be some time the following week that they could get the parts from their suppliers. By this time its 7pm and we're stranded without a car, 90 miles from our RV. As far as the insurance company were concerned, they had fulfilled their part of the deal, so no way were they going to send another breakdown truck to get us back to Watsonville. The only option was to get a taxi to one of the hire car dealers at San Francisco International airport as they were the only ones still open at that time on a bank holiday weekend. Not happy bunnies at all! After doing a bit of research, Mark wasn't convinced that all the work needed to be done, so we left Watsonville a day early (Mark driving Badger and me the hire car), took the hire car back to the airport, collected our broken Toad from the garage and headed for our RV park in San Francisco, which was the other side of the bay in Marin county so we crossed a very foggy Golden Gate Bridge.
After talking to a local mechanic (next door to the RV park) he advised that the parts were still functional so Mark used the same ones and just put in a new fan belt. So far, the car has been running fine. Not knowing anything about cars, I would have paid the garage upward of $800 for the repair and more money to the hire car company!
We had a great week in San Francisco and were only 15 minutes walk to the ferry terminal and 30 minutes on the boat to the port
We went to Chinatown five times for breakfast as we both love dimsum. Mark has already said that we've had the best BBQ pork buns EVER! We did visit a very high-end dim sum restaurant in the financial district which was a mistake. The food was excellent but it was the most expensive meal we had while we were there! On the other mornings, we went to little cafes that had the steamers on trolleys, and just pointed to what we wanted as most of the staff spoke very little English. Sharing tables with locals was also part of the fun.
Most evenings we ate down at Fisherman's wharf and had some lovely meals and local specialties
We did the tourist Hop on-Hop off bus and that took us all around the city, walked across the Golden Gate Bridge (in the fog)
toured Sausalito which is famous for its brightly coloured house-boats
to the Palace of Fine Arts, originally constructed in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exposition to exhibit the artwork presented there
walked around the Haight-Ashbury district, known for being the birthplace of the hippie culture in 1967 Summer of Love, where you can still buy tie dyed anything and there is a distinct aroma in the air
walked up and down many steep streets, checked out the cable car museum and then took the Powell/Hyde cable car from near Fisherman's Wharf, up and over Russian Hill and Nob Hill to Market Street.
Another day, after our usual dimsum breakfast, we took the boat across to Alcatraz. What I didn't realise is that when it was a federal prison (1933 - 63), the guards and their families lived on the island and the children got the ferry across to the mainland (its only 1.5 miles away) everyday to go to school. I also didn't know that is was developed as a lighthouse, then a military garrison used during the Civil War and then a military prison (1868). The prison held some of the most notorious criminals in American history such as Al Capone and Mickey Cohen.
On the morning before we left San Francisco, we drove up to Muir Woods to see the giant redwoods. There was hardly anyone about and it was lovely to hear to sounds of the forest before the tour buses arrived.
Luckily, we've missed all the wildfires currently in California and we're now in Sacramento for a month. This will be our base for exploring the Napa and Sonoma wineries, Reno, Lake Tahoe and anywhere else we can think of.
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