What, another post so soon? Yes, actually it's true. I thought I would try to post again before I had too much to cover again.
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| Dusk at Rancho Oso |
We are still in central California, just north of Santa Barbara. Until today the weather has been spectacular. Today... not so much. Cloudy with an occasional sprinkle and temps in the lower 60s. But we honestly can't complain. I can't remember the last rain we had.
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| Santa Barbara Limo |
In this post, I will cover three happenings over the past 10 or so days.
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| Pismo Butterfly Grove |
First, I alluded to this in my last post but thought it deserved a bit more coverage. One of the main reasons for being here was to meet up with Cindy's son Jeremy. He has been traveling the world, backpacking most of it, for over three years now. His focus has been Europe and Asia, and left today for Central and South America. Wow!
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| Our picnic spot |
We spent a week with him where he toured us around his favorite places in the central coastal area. It really is a cool area and having an experienced guide made for an incredible week. He took us on a hike along the southern coast, a road trip across the mountains to Santa Barbara and a wine tasting tour to Los Olivos. It was all very cool and great to catch up with him. He has some amazing stories from his travels.
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| View of Santa Barbara from the pass |
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| Memorial to those who died on the Conception dive boat |
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| Santa Barbara Pier |
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| Hiking with Jeremy at Montana de Oro |
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| One of the fastest sail boats in the world at Santa Barbara marina |
Last Saturday we took the opportunity to volunteer for a local event. We are about 20 minutes outside of Solvang California which is a very cute Danish themed town.
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| Solvang California |
We read about their annual fall festival and that they needed volunteers. It sounded like fun so we stepped up and had a memorable day. Our work was focused on helping vendors get unloaded and set up for the event. It was pretty easy work honestly, and they paid us in beer and wine! Yup, one of the major parts of the event was a beer and wine garden.
There were 15 local breweries and 7 wineries. We were given unlimited drink passes, and you can bet we made extremely good use of them. Each of the vendors brought out their finest and we made sure to try each and every one. Cindy's favorite was a blood orange IPA and mine was a peanut butter, chocolate and coffee stout that was amazing.
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| Solvang Fall Fest - 10 minutes before opening |
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| One of the 2 Stages at Fall Fest |
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| Carnival at Fall Fest |
During the event set up, it was our job to follow the vehicles into the vendor area and help them unload. During this time a white van pulled in and a gentleman started unloading cases of wine. Not realizing the difference, we offered to help thinking he was an event vendor. We quickly learned he owned a tasting room on one of the streets bordering the event.
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| Lions Peak tasting room |
This was just a normal restock for him, but since we had offered we stayed and helped. He was a little surprised, but it really wasn't hard work. When it was all over he presented us with two $20 wine tastings and told us to pick our favorite and we could take a bottle home. We ended up with some generous pours during the tastings and a $45 bottle to take home. Nice!
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This week we made a return trip to Santa Barbara and some of the local state recreation areas. I probably should mention that Cindy spent some of her youth here while her dad was stationed at Vandenberg AFB. She had fond memories of beach time and camping in the area.
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| Santa Barbara Pier |
So we started out walking the Santa Barbara pier where we had a picnic lunch. Then we went to one of the parks where Cindy used to camp. El Capitan State Beach and Campground. Kind of a typical state campground, but it was perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Wow.
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| El Capitan Beach |
We have already planned to spend a few nights there when we come back to the area in a few years.
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| Our picnic spot at El Capitan State Beach |
From there we visited Refugio State Beach, and while it was also ocean side, it wasn't nearly as spectacular as El Capitan. It was more of a day use and tent camping area, closer to the water but down at beach level.
😁
Next, we visited Gavitoa State Beach which was another ocean side campground, but with sites that are much closer together and while the views were nice, it was very windy and just didn't have the campground feel of El Capitan. Of the three, El Capitan was by far the most inviting.
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| Nojoqui Falls |
The next stop was quite by accident. As we were heading home, we passed a sign for Nojoqui Falls and quickly detoured. We had seen it mentioned in some of the local brochures. We parked and followed a half-mile trail to a small, but incredibly high waterfall. While the water flow was limited due to the drought, it was quite dramatic!
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| Trail to the falls |
Finally, we drove through Lake Cachuma county park which was another place Cindy and her family camped when she was young. This is a man-made lake, set in the mountains, and we were blown away when we went in. Not only is it a huge campground, but they also have a museum, a general store with a gas station, a full-service marina and a restaurant on the lake. They even have full hookup sites with oversized concrete pads. What a shock. Cindy said most of that was either not there or not as well developed 50 years ago. LOL. But it's a cool place now!
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| Covered Wagon campers |
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| Western Town cottages |
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| Horseback riding (not us) |
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| The Pig!! |
Here at Rancho Oso we have found it to be sort of cool. This is a working ranch in addition to an RV park. So there are about 30 horses here (riding is offered), the biggest pig I have ever seen, and one of the smallest horses (a miniature). At times there are flocks of turkeys roaming the property, and the ever-present California fuzzy tailed rats (actually they are cute ground squirrels) which seem to be everywhere in the north and central mountains.
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| California Ground Squirrel |
There are covered wagons and teepees that are available to rent as sleeping quarters, and they have an old west town that is actually a group of rental cottages that look like village merchants. In general, this place has a cool vibe.
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| Miniature Horse |
OK, that's it for this installment. Next Tuesday we leave here and move to a park east of LA in the front range of the mountains. We'll spend Thanksgiving there and are really looking forward to our first (eating) holiday in the RV.
Thanks for reading!
