Julie and Michael got married last weekend near Solano Beach, Ca.  and it was beautiful as were the bride and groom. Julie and her family lived down the street when we lived in SLC.  She became Meredith's very first friend and they continue to be good friends even though they don't see each other very often.  We were so glad that we got to share their day and it was good to get out of our cooler weather and check out some new places in California.

We flew into Santa Ana and explored the Newport Beach Area, Dana Point, and Oceanside before heading to Solano Beach and the surrounding towns.  Our hotel was a 3 min. walk to the beach which made for great beach walking and sunsets. Val and Eric joined us for a nice Italian dinner at a little place next door to the hotel the first night.   La Jolla cove was pretty and the kids found a wonderful waterside restaurant with great food (my fav - the hash was delish and the french toast was some of the best we've ever had). We had a spot outside on the balcony overlooking the water.  Arn and I were both trying to get in as many steps as possible and we walked all over that area checking out the beach and seals.  We stopped by Torrey Pines State Preserve and walked the trails overlooking the ocean for about 3 miles.  Val and Eric left Sun. eve as did Tyler so we met up with Lauren, Meredith, and Tim and went to the Ballast Brewery after Mere and Tim finished their brewery tour.  On Monday we walked the beach with Mere and Tim and then headed to Hollywood to see Aunt Oga.  She had told us she was sick  (not sure if she really was ) when we had called her when we first got to Ca. so we just went to her house and called once there.  She is 92 now and looked great.......still living on her own in her own home with her two cats. We hadn't seen her in over 10 years.  She is Mom C's younger sister.

Oceanside Pier - place at the end of the pier that we didn't try............

Great food - under the pier

View from our room Dana Point.......

Shadows on the sand cliffs while walking the beach...............houses to close to the edge if the 'big one' comes.

La Jolla

La Jolla

Very good breakfast -  great hash, carnitas benedict, french toast (soaked in whipping cream)!

The beach behind our hotel in Solano Beach.

La Jolla

Torrey Pines hiking

Torrey Pines views

From there we headed north to a wine region (central coast) .  We did stop for an In and Out Burger which did not disappoint us ( really think it is the onion and toasted but, not the meat that makes it good).  We stayed that night in Buellton and found a nice little place called Industrial Eats (sauteed mushrooms with chard and cream were the best)  The next day we headed to Paso Robles for some wine tastings........joined the Turley wine club (Meg was great and gave us lots of great info about the wines and areas to check out), drove some back roads for the scenery and went to Morro Bay (loved this little sleepy town, walked the wharf area, found a dockside place with bbq oysters, listed to a band of 3 older guys play oldies (Dean Martin, etc)  Arn knew all of the words and sang along which really impressed the guys in the band.  At our dockside table we could watch sea otters cracking abalone shells with a rock on their stomachs while swimming on their backs and seals floating near the docks. The rock was cool which is just a big rock in the cove but their were nice beaches, lots of birds, and living sand dollars everywhere.

BBQ oysters, sitting on the dock near the bay, listening to oldies.

 

Brings back memories of childhood.  The big rock in Morro Bay.

Morro Bay

Peeing on the rocks.............

We kept reading about Santa Maria style bbq and a place called Jocko's which has been around forever  so we headed a little inland to eat there.  Steaks are cooked over a wood pit (red oak).  The place was absolutely packed and no one seemed to be bothered that they were waiting for an hour even though they had reservations.  We waited for 2.5 hr.!  The steak was huge, the price was right and it was good but maybe not the best ever.  The sliced steak leftover sandwiches came in handy the next day between wine tastings.

Los Olivos was a cute little town with lots of wineries and tasting rooms and we went to about 4 of them after purchasing our wine pass.  We also joined the Alexander Wayne wine club and had a tasting with their sister winery ( done by the wife of the vintner).  The nearby little town of Solvang is very cute (Danish) and we walked all over there and had some pastries.  A little touristy for us.......but it was nice.


Heading south we wanted to get closer to the airport we went back out to Hwy 1 and walked out to another pier, had some oysters rockefeller, and happened to see on the map that we were very near the Monarch Butterfly Preserve where they winter on their migration path......Arn wasn't excited about it and it was a little bit of a dud but it was a group of interesting trees by the road where the butterflies hand out of the winter.  I thought they would be bigger and more of them.  Looking up into the trees you could see some butterflies flying around (check that off my bucket list).  We spent the night in Oxnard which was closer to the airport and returned home the next day.

We've decided Ca. isn't one of our fav places to visit but we do really like the central coast area now and also like the area north of San Francisco (Bodega Bay, Jenner, Healdsburg ).  We loved the Monterey area (previous trip) but didn't make it to Big Sur.  I'd like to check out the area south of San Francisco and get south to Cambria and go to Hearst Castle.  We were very close this time but ran out of time.