It has been a while since I wrote in this blog. I missed a wonderful 2 week trip to Half Moon Bay and New Brighton in August, but we’ve been there a lot lately. The big thing from that trip was the 90+ miles we logged walking around. We did get a lot of donuts and fresh sourdough bread that way!!
I had forgotten how awesome Pismo Beach truly is. It is basically 1970s beach kitschy even now. We hadn’t been back in 6 years and this is the first time we have camped there. We camped across the street from where we stayed once on Pier Ave. At the end of Pier Ave is Oceano Dunes campground and Sand Dunes. You can drive right onto the beach and access the dunes from the campground. It is very strange and just basically insane. We did discover our first day there that you have to pay attention to the tides- at high tides you cannot get to the dunes because of Oceano lagoon. We camped right on the lagoon on the other side- they claim it has beavers and muskrats, but we did not see those. We did have a screech owl AND a barn owl so it was “nature noisy” some nights. And we saw many, many Night Herons which was quite cool.
We took a day to visit Lene at SLO and got to hear all about her work in the greenhouses (it is an amazing setup there) and she took us all around the campus. Surprisingly, we found her waiting by the horses. Some things never change. She looked good and we had a good visit.
We also to a morning to hike around Oso Flaco Lake to the beach. It was a pretty nice trail, a lot of it boardwalk, until the beach itself. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate walking on loose sand? Sheesh- the left knee just whines and whines. But we made it there and back. Getting to the lake was quite the adventure- huge muddy fields of greens, cauliflower and strawberries with giant trucks pulling mud out of the field onto the road. Poor Lil’ TG is coated in mud these days still. But we found a great roadside farm stand after our hike, and bought grapes, corn, green beans, blackberries, raspberries, and garlic there. They were so nice and the food amazing. We hadn’t eaten lunch yet after the hike so that probably didn’t help!
We also hiked around Avila Beach (again dry, loose sand!) and walked around their marina. So many sea birds. Now that Dave and Matt do Seek, Dave is actually slower than I am as we walk around. Trying to get a decent shot of a bird for the program is pretty crazy. We also saw a lot of sea lions and quite a bit of behaviors as they tried to either get on the floating dock, or keep another from getting on the dock. Pretty fun to watch. There were a bunch of sea otters there also- all rafted together not too far offshore. It was a pretty relaxing “hike” there that day!
So far this has been a great trip. We head to Leo Carrillo Campground next, near Malibu and the Channel Islands! Write again soon!