This was a short four day trip Cindy and I took to Paso Robles with our trailer, Lil Pal.
Day 1
This was our travel day to Paso Robles. This was a short drive of only about 3 1/2 hours along the costal route up the 101 freeway. We stayed at the Wine Country RV Resort, which is a really nice RV park that we highly recommend and will stay at again. As you can see in these pictures, the sites were large and well kempt and the grounds were in outstanding shape.
Here was a local cat that hung around each day.
I made some BBQ shrimp and veggie kabobs for dinner that were really good.
Day 2
Since we were in Paso Robles, we had to spend some time wine tasting. So our first stop was a winery right down the street from our RV park, the Robert Hall Winery. We have been to before and really love their wines. We sat outside in their courtyard in the shade.
Since we were going to visit at least one more winery, we split a tasting. All of the wines were outstanding and of course we ended up taking up home a bottle or four.
Our second (and last) stop was a new winery to us, Cass Winery. It was a short drive through the hills to the winery. It was a pretty setting and we were able to sit on the covered porch. In addition to our wine tasting, we had a delicious cheese and charcuterie plate.
The wines ranged from average to very good, so of course we had to take home several bottles that were in the very good category.
We returned to our trailer, took a nice little after wine tasting nap, relaxed at our RV site, and ended the day with BBQ steaks and veggies.
Day 3
This was our sightseeing day. It started with a nice drive through the foothills toward Highway 1 on the coast. We drove past the Tooth and Nail Winery, which is a winery inside a castle surrounded by a moat. We didn’t stop and wine taste this time, we only took a few pictures.
The “word on the street” is the castle thing is a gimmick and the wines are average at best. That being said, we will still try this place out on a future trip and judge for ourselves.
We continued on to our first stop, the Elephant Seal Rookery in San Simion. So what is a rookery? It is the chess piece that sits in the corner of the chess board next to the Knightery. No? OK, it is a colony of breeding animals, in this case, elephant seals. We drove to the viewing area and walked to the south where we saw three elephant seals laying in the sand by the water.
We also saw the trails left in the sand from the seals as they moved about the beach.
This was interesting, but a bit underwhelming. We were hoping to see more elephant seals than the three we saw. As we walked back to our car, we kept hearing the sound of elephant seals barking. We walked to the north a bit and saw the real colony. There were at least 100 seals there laying all over the sand.
Now this is what we came to see.
After getting our fill of elephant seals, we headed back down the coast toward Morro Bay.
Our arrival in Morro Bay was met with fog, making Morro Rock difficult to see until the end of the day.
Here is a harbor seal sticking his head out of the water near the docks.
We walked around the embarcadero area, did some sightseeing and shopping, and finished the evening with a nice surf and turf dinner on the dock by the water.
On our drive back to our trailer, we stopped for coffee in Cambria. Now this is a really small town, but worth the stop if you are in the area.
Day 4
This was our pack up and head home day. On our drive home, we stopped at the iconic Madonna Inn for an outdoor lunch. I had a delicious pastrami on marble rye. All I could think about was the episode of Seinfeld where Jerry stole the loaf of marble rye from the old lady on the street in New York.
And so ends our eighth trip of the year.
Our ninth trip will be the first week of October to St. Joseph, Missouri to visit our friends the Culvers. Cindy and I will be traveling with Sylvia and Corrianne. We should also be meeting Dan B there as well, who will be coming in from north Texas.