Everyone who reads this blog knows how we love scenic drives, and one of the most famous outside of New England is the drive up the Pacific Coast Highway along Big Sur. We knew we would have time in Los Angeles at the end of the trip, so we got a car and hit the road! By lunchtime we were shopping in Ventura, and we spent our first night on the road in Morro Bay.

We stayed at the Best Western El Rancho just north of town and gave it good marks. I have reviewed almost all of the restaurants and hotels and many attractions that we saw throughout the trip; you can find them on TripAdvisor.

Morro Bay is a pretty harbor best known for the island in the middle, often referred to as the Big Rock. You don't see it in all its glory here because of the fog, but that's not unusual in Morro Bay.

Morro Bay is not a big town, but it is scenic and it enjoys close proximity to the celebrated Hearst Castle, which we planned to visit the next day.

But first we explored the downtown area and then had an unsatisfactory dinner at DiStasio's. We know we have to be flexible on the road, but that dinner was unacceptable even taking the circumstances into account. But the wine list is good.  After a good night's sleep, we set out in the morning for the Hearst Castle.

We had heard and read much about the Hearst Castle, the fabulous palace of publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst; it was a must-see part of the trip from its earliest planning stages. I'm glad we did it!

We had an excellent breakfast at the Blue Skye Coastal Café in Morro Bay, then went up to San Clemente to see what we could see about the castle. When we got there we were surprised. It's a huge complex, with a visitors' center down by the highway and the "castle" high on the hilltops about a mile away, above the fog. The approach is breathtaking, as are the views from every point on the property. The grounds are incredible, with statuary and gardens everywhere.

When we arrived, the tours of the big house were sold out until mid-afternoon, but we were able to get a tour of the guest cottages (plenty fancy enough for me) and the... wine cellar! and the ... kitchen! The wine cellar is still stocked with Bordeaux and Chablis from 1926.

I really enjoyed the kitchen. It was a non-nonsense affair with plenty of room, lighting and ventilation, plus all the (at the time) latest gadgets, plus molds and pans for all the kinds of Victorian classics that I like to make. I had a hard time leaving that room.

I posted a whole set of photos in an album on Facebook and in a set on Flickr for my friends who shun Facebook.

After the Hearst Castle we headed north to Big Sur, but we encountered a couple of happy extras along the way. First we stumbled into a beach covered with enormous elephant seals. It was really something - there must have been 40 of the creatures lolling on the beach, swimming, or enjoying a lively discussion like these two disputants.

As we pressed onward, we could not resist the opportunity to enter Harmony.  As you can see, not many people live in Harmony. That's not so surprising, since there really isn't much there except a little eatery and a crafts shop.  

So we left Harmony behind us and trekked northward along the coast, seeing vistas like that at the top of this page for a couple of wonderful hours.  

Along the way we found some delicious local Strawberries. 

The plastic-like California strawberries that we see year-round in our supermarkets are plastic-like because they are licked unripe and then artificially ripened in a truck as they make their way across 3000 miles of America to reach our undiscerning tables.  The ones that miss the truck are allowed to ripen on the vine and are as sweet and tasty as they can be.

Eventually we reached the northern end of Big Sur, near Carmel. It was dinner time and we were hungry - there isn't much to eat along that scenic road.

We stopped at Nepenthe, a fine restaurant on the sea-side of the road, with gorgeous views south over the route we had taken. The cheese plate had all excellent California cheeses, and we also enjoyed a local Castroville artichoke and I had the first California-gin Martini of the trip, made with Blade Gin from near San Francisco.

We continued up through Monterey, spending too little time there, and then on to Santa Cruz, where we spent the next two nights, but that's a story for another entry!