Pismo Beach & Solvang

Pam and I decided to get away for a few days while I was in SoCal. I had suggested Catalina Island. Pam opted for a drive up the coast and it's a good thing she did. Let me warn you now that we happened to have planned this trip right in the throes of the biggest and longest blanket of rain that SoCal remembers ever seeing! In case you missed it, water did not ceased to fall from the sky for 8 straight days, and our little sojourn was smack dab in the middle of it. We could have cancelled, I guess, but Pam already had that Friday and Monday off, and we really did need to get away. So we went anyway.

It started raining on Thursday night; we left Friday morning. A 4.5 hour trip to Pismo Beach took almost 7 hours what with wet roads, bad visibility, and that old favorite known as LA traffic. We even tried the beach route for a while but traffic was worse and we couldn't see the dang water anyway. (I've been trying to cut down on my cursing, BTW.) I was able to introduce Pam to Johnny Rocket's in Laguna Beach however, and I think she was pleased!

For those of you not of the SoCal persuasion, Pismo Beach is where many of the old "beach blanket/Gidget" type movies were made WAY back when. Pam even wanted to walk down the pier even though all we could see were a million birds getting a free bath and some strange dark dots in the water. Those dots turned out to be crazy surfers getting whatever gnarly waves they could from the crappy weather.

The scenes from the pier reminded me of scenarios out of Dean Koontz novels, especially one of my favorites, the Odd Thomas collection (the 4th one takes place in a town that I pictured like this when I was reading it). Definitely no Frankie and Annette here.

After taking some punishment at the pier, we tried the Butterfly Zoo. It's a nice looking park with a path and no netting to keep butterflies in or fences to keep admirers out. Alas, (almost) no butterflies stupid enough to be out on a day like that - just a very small group (and one quail-looking thing) who hadn't enough sense to come in out of the torrent. The butterfly batch is difficult to see but they are hanging off a branch in the lower mid quadrant of the photo, at about 7 o'clock.

After a nice breakfast we decided to change course a little and go up to see the Hearst Castle. I mean, why not, right, since we will be indoors?!  Wrong. A tourist at the castle goes from bus to bus to garden to outdoor pool and the walk goes around several of the buildings, no matter what the weather. The guide started out at the outdoor, Grecian-style pool and gave us his entire spiel, even though water was coming down in buckets and very few people were listening. I guess they have to keep to a schedule, no matter what is going on around them. At the top, we couldn't see any gardens or ocean view or even, frankly, past the patio surrounding the pool. The house was cool, though, but to see it all (or at least more of it) one would have to take multiple tours at other times. And yes, for additional fees.

That's Pam and me in front of the indoor pool. It's a huge room made up of what looks like a zillion 1-square inch tiles, in and around. You can even walk upstairs (hidden from view) and dive into the pool from a catwalk across the pool itself. Well, maybe you can't, but they did back in the day. I know I've seen that pool in a movie somewhere but I can't place it...

Learned a valuable lesson I will pass on to you: nothing against the Hearst people, but don't bother going up there unless it's a clear day. The grounds are at least  1/3 to 1/2 of the tour so, unless it's perfect, it's a waste of money.

Sunday, we went into Solvang, a little Danish town, with the traditional Scandinavian shops, bakeries, and even people dressed in the traditional garb. The windmill is 73% to scale of the original, more famous one overseas. You can barely see me. but I'm on the steps, wrapped up in a blue lawn & leaf bag-looking thing. (Thank you, Pam!)

It was drizzling the entire day, but it wasn't as bad as the day before. The plus side was there were very few people out and about. We were the only people in the restaurant for breakfast. The owner/manager/greeter/waiter/cook (all one man) kept talking to us, probably because there was nothing else to do! Later, after a little shopping, we went to one of the bakeries for Aebleskiver - a traditional donut-type ball, empty inside, but doused with powdered sugar and raspberry preserves on top. I wanted to buy one of the special pans and sticks to make them, but wise Pam once again prevailed. You know me: I was trying to figure out how to fill those little suckers with chocolate pudding or mousse!

We drove back on Monday, in the rain again (still). Not a complete loss though - had a really nice weekend with a good friend and saw a house that I loved and could theoretically afford, very near the sand, some day...