Our first real trip in Doris was to cruise the California coastline exploring fun places to park as well as several HipCamp and HarvestHost sites. We spent most of our time in the Paso Robles area which is SO full of wonderful surprises! Beaches, wineries, farm stays. You name & they have it.
We are “practicing” just about everything — breakfast, storage, emptying the toilet, even afternoon naps. Mostly though I guess we’re practicing “sauntering”. It’ll take us 4 days to get from menlo park to LA.
Hard to get tired of this shoreline . . . ALTHOUGH, after 500 turns on narrow little Highway 1 you’re certainly ready for a stop or two.
Joan’s always up for a stop!
San Simeon
As we drove down the coast, all the campgrounds were FULL, FULL, FULL. The more we drove, the more we felt like Mary and Joseph.
BUT, eventually we found a turnout on a frontage road where we could park RIGHT ACROSS FROM THE WATER. The lupine were amazing and it made for a terrific morning walk. Yes, we did feel a little sketchy, anxious that a CHP might knock on our door in the middle of the night and tell us to move. But it all worked out. (FYI, that tends to happen with Joan. Things just work out). It’s a great lesson for the “over planner” in me.)
We poked around Cambria in the morning, but it was kinda touristy. You can tell by the dorky pictures that we fit right in with that vibe. THEN, in the sky, we saw “Parallel lines crossed by a transversal”. –> The Geometry teacher in me felt RIGHT AT HOME.
The Paso Robles Area
While Cambria was very “meh”, the rest of the day was much better. This was really our first experience of true “Wandering” — taking whatever road looked interesting and stopping just whenever we felt like it. Even though we were driving a giant van for several hours, it felt oddly relaxing. To give yourself the gift of following your curiosity is a real blessing.
Lone Madrone Winery
If you’ve never just wandered around this area — between 101 and the Coast, near Paso Robles — it seems like there are literally 100’s of wineries and niche farms you can visit. Lone Madrone was a total impulse stop for lunch. It just looked so inviting from the road! The lunch was fabulous. Good food and sitting in big Adirondack chairs while tasting a little of this & that (I sure as heck don’t remember).
Hambly Farms
Next stop was camping at a lavender farm — Hambly Farms. It’s run by Milton & Gina. He’s a middle school teacher (amen!) and she works for the county. They raised their kids in Paso Robles until recently when they decided to return to their families’ farming roots. After a bit of research they decided on this BEAUTIFUL spot on a hill about 20 minutes outside of Paso and started planting lavender. It’s drip irrigated and safe from critters (“nothing eats lavender”) and will smell AMAZING in about a month.
The Hambly’s are more than doubling the number of plants this year and should end up with close to 5000 in the ground. We first met them at the Paso Robles Art & Wine show at the big square in the middle of Paso. They were certainly doing terrific business, so I’m sure the farm will do well.
Sunrise on the farm was followed by breakfast of eggs from the Hambly’s chickens and a bit of coffee from the market in downtown Paso. Had to love the messages that came with our morning.
See Canyon Apple Ranch
Our last night before Los Angeles was at an “Apple Ranch” just south of SLO.
The scenery was picturesque, the facilities amazing, and we spent a relaxing evening christening the van with a lovely bottle of wine (courtesy of Dana & Tom Hayes). It goes well with “Zoodle Marinara”
(NOTE: If you’ve never had Zoodles, you’re missing out on a treat!)
GRAMMAR QUESTION: What the heck is the difference between a “ranch” and a “farm”?
When I hear “Apple Ranch” I picture a herd of Honeycrisps and Pippins grazing in a field.
A Few Stops in L.A.
Calabasas: We stopped in to see Joan’s nieces’ families (Jodi’s & Deanna’s) near Calabasas. There we also picked up:
Artwork-by-Delphine (Jodi’s youngest, see the incredible Bird and awesome Orange Octopus below), and
Benches and a new table for the back of the van (thank you California Adventure Vans! You doubled our usable space)
Redondo Beach: After Calabasas, we “camped” in Redondo Beach where our BeReal for the evening captured a terrific dinner we had with Jan (Joan’s sister), Jerry & Gwen (brother & wife), and Jeff (nephew).
Back home via Paso Robles, again
Our final stop was at the San Antonio Valley Olive Ranch. There’s that conundrum again — “Ranch” or “Farm” . . . to me, “Olive Ranch” makes me think we should go feed & water the Kalamatas.
Maria & her husband were tech workers who loved to water ski. They ended up skiing at pretty much every rural lake up and down California until they had kids. Then they decided they needed to just “pick a lake” to simplify the logistics of camping with kids. Lake San Antonio, about halfway between Paso Robles and King City turned out to be just right. Maria took classes at UC Davis to learn about olive farming (ranching?) and oil making, and the rest was history.
It was lovely to settle in with a purple G&T and watch the sunset.
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