Thursday July 8
For one thing, I thought it was Wednesday until evening when Ken clarified that for me, it all seemed so surreal.
Ken was up reading the travel guide early, before 7:00 am. He discovered a Danish Restaurant, that serves up a great breakfast - Paula's Pancake House. It was busy and very tasty. Our waitress didn't know flour was made from wheat - where did she come from?
After breakfast we explored Solvang. It is a very touristy Danish village. Buellton, Los Olives, Ballard and San Inez were next. We saw ostrich, pigs, donkeys and miniature donkeys.
The back country road was worth it just for the creatures along.
Los Olives is where the Andy of Mayberry show from the 1960's was filmed. If you remember it, you grew up before the Beatles became famous.
We took the back way into Santa Barbara and got lost in Goleta.
Once we got to the main part of Santa Barbara the tourist information centre was closed and the weather had turned cool again so we walked around.
More walking on tree and garden lined streets with expensive stores to tempt us.
Wednesday July 7
We ate breakfast in the flower garden.
We saw California quail and cactus - odd, as we have the quail in our garden at home.
San Luis Obispo (SLO) is where we went for morning tea and coffee to warm up. It actually got warm and sunny by the end of the morning. I shopped the morning away, Ken was at the Apple store talking to a "Genius". SLO has great trees, gardens and shopping. It is a city but fairly easy to get around in and absolutely beautiful.
We are trying to cut down on our food consumption. When you are at home you can snack whenever and make big meals consisting of food you love. It is hard to cut down the "food" cycle. When you are on holidays it is easier because you don't have food in easy access. The added bonus of holidays is you can walk frequently.
We checked out a few restaurants for supper and settled on The Firestone Grill. It was reasonable with great French fries (I know, not very food conscious but we are on holidays). Then of we went for new adventured in a new area.
Tuesday July 6
We awoke to sunny, warm almost hot weather, so we did some walking at the campsite. I could actually wear shorts.
When we stopped for lunch we decided we needed a good long walk.
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| From Gabriola to California |
We walked into Paso Robles. It was a nice little town with a beautiful park. It was a very good walk.
When you walk you get to see the flowers and birds. Smelling the scents of the flowering trees.
Sometimes you even find good thrift stores.
Once we arrived in Morro Bay we went way out on a land bridge to a big rock island.
We saw many seagulls and many little gophers. The greatest aspect was baby seagulls.
Have you ever seen one? They are grey fluffy, wobbly creatures. We also saw a crow and an Egret rookery up in the trees by the triple tower power plant.
There is a walk behind and through waterfront restaurants that we strolled along. We checked out all the menus when we returned to our campsite it was still empty.
Monday July 5
We got up, I did a yoga routine, Ken stretched. Ken did some e-mailing and looking up places we might want to go to in San Francisco on the internet.
We walked to the Goodwill on Mission and 11th. It had so much. I tried on lots but only purchased two tops. It is often wise to not purchase when you are uncertain about something. Once we returned to the hotel it was check out time. We walked to Shalimars on 532 Jones St. and Geary. The food wowed us as it did at their other location, so flavourful with whole spices. The atmosphere was noisy, busy and not very clean looking.
We went to the Haight District.
I walked around and discovered a Goodwill and a cool looking house.
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| From Gabriola to California |
Ken recorded a response to some questions posed to him by The Shingle Newspaper.
We found a Japanese Restaurant we went to before, but ended up at Wholefoods. Sadly we left San Francisco - south on I-5.
Sunday July 4
I got up and did a great yoga routine, felt great. I will not stop doing yoga again. Sun salutations are hard again, not that they ever were particularly easy. We ate breakfast in the room.
On our way to find a thrift store we discovered free first Sunday of the month at the Asian Museum. Mostly it consisted of Hindi and Buddhist religious artifact.
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| From Gabriola to California |
Wow, was it ever windy outside when we took pictures of city hall.
Being lost and walking we ended up in the Mission District at Community Thrift Store (huge). Then we took a BART to Embarcadaro and hoofed it up to Chinatown for a late lunch.
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| From Gabriola to California |
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| From Gabriola to California |
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| From Gabriola to California |
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| From Gabriola to California |
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| From Gabriola to California |
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| From Gabriola to California |
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| From Gabriola to California |
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| From Gabriola to California |
Cold and windy as we continued into the Italian District.
We actually left a great coffee shop as we did not have enough cash - lucky for our waistlines.
We walked around Union Square area in the evening. Exhausted we went back to sleep.
We hiked back through a residential arae and passed the Ritz Carlton. We were very cold and went back to our cheapo Motel 6. We ate at a Turkish restaurant close to our hotel. What we each had to eat was made with freshly baked bread - yum.
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