Central Coast Wine Tour-Day 4-Freelance

This is a day we set aside for everyone to do whatever they wanted to do. That's we called it a freelance day.

Joe & Phyllis have relatives in the area that they planned to visit, and Joe hoped to rest to get over his cold. Allen & Shari, and Ron & Dona decided to visit Hearst San Simeon Castle. Linda thought that was a good idea, but dense John didn't pickup on it as he thought it would be fun to explore the coast looking for wildlife. John paid for that mistake all day.

If you have never visited Hearst Castle, it's a must see. It is just amazing. It's huge, ornate, loaded with antiques, and everything money can buy. In fact, when William Hearst died, the family couldn't afford to keep it so they gave it to the state. There's four different tours ranging from the general overview, to expanded tours that visit seldom scene areas, to a garden tour. If you're going to visit during the summer, make sure you get your tickets early so you won't be disappointed. But if you're within 200 miles of San Simeon, go to the castle.

Linda & John visited the beach city of Cambria. It's an artist colony with lots of good restaurants, shops, and galleries. We had a great lunch at a little deli, bought a new candle for the motorhome, and a new flag to display on our camp site.

After we left Cambria, we proceeded North along Hwy. 1. John had heard of an area North of the castle that supported a large colony of sea lions. The views up the coast were outstanding, like this one of the lighthouse.

At last we found the sea lions. They were stretched out along about 2 miles of coves among the rocks and on the sand. There were some docents in the area to answer questions. The sea lions stop in this area to rest up before they continue up to the Alaskan waters for the summer. The strange fact is that they don't eat during this time. Some of the sea lions were year old pups on their first trip North. In the fall they return to this area and further South to have their new pups. Click here to find out more about the sea lions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Sea_Lion
To see more pictures of the coast, click here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jchuber1/CentralCoastWineTourDay4

After everyone got back to the motorhomes John & Linda treated everyone to grilled hamburgers. Everyone brought some delicious sides and we feasted again. We all decided to go on a diet when this tour is over!