Navy Seals? No, Elephant Seals!

 

Today was a beautiful day--temperature in the mid-70s, relatively little wind, plenty of sunshine.  Dave and I drove north on Highway 1 and visited the elephant seal rookery. 

About 17,000 of these large marine mammals migrate thousands of miles, twice a year, to the central California coast for birthing, breeding, molting, and rest.  We happened to be there at a prime viewing time.  Some of the newborns were only a few days old.  After they are weaned, they leave their mothers, never to see them again. 

The Piedras Blancas rookery, where we visited, is located on Highway 1 seven miles north of San Simeon, west of Hearst Castle.  A few miles south of there, we saw some zebras on the hillside, but we didn't have  a chance to stop and take a picture. 

Waves hitting the rocks while we viewed the seals.

Last night Dave and I had the pleasure of attending a performance by the Peking Acrobats.  The troupe was formed in 1986 and we saw them  perform about that time at Sea World in California.  It was an amazing performance both then and now.   Acrobatics, juggling, and balancing acts make for spectacular entertainment.  I enjoyed this show much more than the Mystere Cirque de Soleil show that we saw in Las Vegas. 

I found the following pictures of the Peking Acrobats on  the internet.

One of the highlights was the "Balancing Chair" act.  Spectacular!  The performer received a standing ovation.  Those chairs are balanced on four wine bottles.  He had to perform on the floor, rather than the stage, because the stage wasn't high enough.  I held my breath because I thought he might topple over into the audience!

Tickets were pricey at $44 each for seniors, but not a bad price if we only have a chance to see the Peking Acrobats every 26 years! Clark Auditorium, where they performed, is located in Arroyo Grande which is near Pismo Beach. I highly recommend the Peking Acrobats as a wonderful family-friendly show!

Why Pismo?

This is our second year of snow-birding in Pismo Beach.  Many snow-birders go down to the Palm Springs/Desert Hot Springs area, or to southern Arizona, Texas, or Florida. 

Our site at Pismo Coast Village, #161

We come to Pismo Coast Village RV Resort in Pismo Beach, California because we are shareholders here.  It's not a time share, instead we own a share of stock in the company.  After purchasing a share, we get spend 45-70 days free-of-charge at this resort during each calendar year.  The number of days we have available depends upon how many are "prime" days versus non-prime days.  This year we are using 61 days altogether, nine of which are prime time.  We pay no monthly fees, no annual fees, no dues, nada.  If we decide at any time to sell our one share, the prices seem to remain about the same as when we bought our share, or slightly higher.  There are only two shares available to buy at this time.

Looking back at Pismo Beach from Shell Beach

This weekend is the annual share-holders meeting, which included a wine and cheese get together on Friday night at the clubhouse, and a board meeting on Saturday.  We didn't attend either event, but we sent in our proxy vote for the business items. 

The way this park gets its money for on-going maintenance is that half the sites are available to non-shareholders.  These sites cost $44/night and up.  This revenue has, for the past 35 years, paid for all maintenance and improvements at the park.  Dave and I are impressed with the amount of maintenance that we see going on in the park--everything from improving the sites to painting and other upkeep.  This is an old park, with an excellent location, so each site is not as spacious as we would like, but we find it very livable.

Shell Beach's stairs down to the tide pools

Another feature of this park, which we don't use since we drive our motorhome down here each year, is the ability to store your RV (mostly fifth-wheels and trailers) and have it delivered to your site and then towed back to the storage area when you are done using it.  Many, many people use this service.  Most of the people seem to be from California so then they can just come to the park in their car or small truck and they don't have to mess with towing a big rig through traffic.  It's an ideal setup for those who need a place to store their RV and don't want to use it when they are not at Pismo Beach.

Shell Beach

The weather here is generally sunny in the winter, but not hot.  We usually have daytime temperatures in the 60s or low 70s, and night temperatures in the mid-40s or low 50s.  This year has been a little colder than last year, with a few night temperatures in the mid-30s.  Brrr!   Last night we received the first rainfall since we have been here, but next week the sunny skies are predicted to return.  We like sunny skies!

One of the biggest advantages of Pismo Coast Village RV Park is being able to listen to the roar of the ocean.  In addition, we get full hookups with 50 amp, a satellite signal, cable TV, good cell service, excellent free WIFI, a swimming pool and baby pool, game room, ping pong, shuffleboard, a store, laundry,  restrooms, gated entry, excellent security, and access to the beach.  It's only about six blocks to the shops in Pismo Beach.  And a free site is a very hard price to beat!

The park entrance clam shell gets new paint each season.

Books, Electronic Books, and Libraries

We've been visiting the libraries in this area.  Grover Beach is close to the RV park, but the library is a small, volunteer library with donated books and not connected to a larger library system.  Still, they had two of the books that I wanted to read.

Arroyo Grande is a little bit further (5 miles or so) but their library is much bigger and connected to the larger Black Gold library system which stretches from Paso Robles to Santa Barbara.  By using the address of the RV park, Dave  and I were each able to get free library cards.  Better still, we are able to borrow electronic books from that library system as well as from the Oregon consortium which we can use through our home library system.  Both e-book systems work the same way so we didn't have to learn how to use it.  We can also get electronic audio books from both systems if we choose.  We load the books onto our Nooks, but Kindles can now be used for library books, too.

Arroyo Grande library

I'm reading Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilters series, starting with book 1, The Quilter's Apprentice.  I'm almost finished with book 2, Round Robin, and then it's on to book 3, Cross-Country Quilters.  There are at least eighteen books in this series and I'm trying to read them all and in the order they were written.   I read one of these books a while ago, before I started learning to quilt, and I didn't care for the books.  But now my interests have changed, and I am enjoying the books. 

Yesterday Dave and I made the 20 or so mile trek to Santa Maria to get the next book in the series.  Yes, I could have put it on hold, but the libraries are closed the next two days because of the holiday, and I knew I would be ready to read the book before I could get it on hold.  This library system charges a dollar for each book you put on hold, which is reasonable, but it adds up if you put a lot of books on hold like I do at home (for free).

The Santa Maria library is one of the nicest libraries I've ever visited.  It has a small cafe, a library store, lots of study areas and lots of comfortable chairs, as well as lots of books, magazines, and computers.  We also stopped at the small Nipomo library on the way back to get another book in the series. 

Santa Maria library

The other two small branch libraries that are closest to us at the RV park are Shell Beach and Oceano.  We can return our books there and pick up our holds there instead of driving to one of the bigger libraries.  But e-books are the best, because we order them and return them online, without leaving the comfort of our home or motorhome.  And e-books from the library don't cost us a cent!

I enjoy visiting libraries--the way some people enjoy visiting wineries or department stores.  I walk around, I drink it all in, I "try on" some of the books, and I enjoy the atmosphere.  I even have my own rating system for libraries and all that they offer.  Libraries are a good place to hang out on a rainy day, not that we've had any rainy days since we've been in Pismo Beach.  It's a very low-cost hobby!

Enticing Morro Bay

Dave and I drove to Morro Bay this afternoon.  We had a plan of eating lunch at Bob's Big Boy, but alas, the one in Morro Bay was out of business, like most of the other Bob's Big Boy Restaurants.  It's not that it was such a fantastic place to eat, but it was reminiscent for us because we ate there when we lived in Riverside.  Their Sunday brunch was especially good. 

The iconic smokestacks of Morro Bay provide electricity to the city.

So instead, we ate at Lil' Hut, the outside version of the bigger restaurant, Harbor Hut.  It's where I go for chowder in Morro Bay.  We soaked in the sunshine at our outdoor table and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the bay.  We saw pelicans and seals as well as lots of other birds.  We watched the harbor cruise boat touring the bay and admired many of the sailboats moored in the bay. 

This guy was busy cleaning the windows of a dinner-cruise boat. 

After our lunch, we walked along the waterfront.  Then we drove to the nearby village Baywood and went to their Monday Farmer's Market.  Luscious-looking vegetables, fruits, and flowers were for sale and I bought strawberries and a huge cauliflower. 

I enjoyed seeing pelicans.

On the way home from our adventure, we took Los Osos Road and stopped at Costco for some chicken and a rotisserie chicken.  Dave got gas at Costco ($3.67/gallon) while I went inside to make the purchases. 

A paddle-boarder in the bay.  He made it look easy!

An even braver paddle-boarder out beyond the ocean waves.

What a fine day we had! I'm already planning on going back to the Baywood Farmer's Market some other Monday to purchase some oranges.

Arrival in Pismo Beach, CA

As we drove south on Highway 101 on Thursday, January 5, we eagerly anticipated our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean.  As we made a turn near the first Pismo Beach exit, there it was--the ocean view that we had anticipated for almost a year.  We left Pismo Beach around the middle of February in 2011.  This year we are staying for two months.  As we drove, Dave and I talked about all the sights that we are planning to revisit and a few new things that we are planning to do.  Mainly we are hoping to get out into the sunshine every day and to get some exercise every day.

We are off to a good start with the exercise.  Last night we walked to town and back and stopped for dinner at our favorite clam chowder place, Splash Cafe.  My hip pain bothered me on the way back, even after taking Tylenol, so today we were eager to get our bicycles out and go for a bike ride for exercise.  Bicycling is easier on my hips than walking.  We rode six miles--around the RV park and around North Beach State  Park to the south of the RV park. 

Last year North Beach State Park was closed for some repairs.  It looks like most of those repairs are still not finished, but this year the park is open.  There were a few rigs there, but not very many considering that our RV park is packed with rigs.  The state park doesn't have any hookups, but the price is better--$25 instead of around $50 per night for the RV parks in this area.  The state park has beach access after climbing over some low dunes.  The state park has spacious sites, which our RV park and all the RV parks in this area DON'T have. 

The state park is located adjacent to the seasonal monarch butterfly viewing area, and is also connected to a boardwalk walking path that leads to the golf course and access to Pismo State Beach.

I don't have any pictures to share because it was getting dark when we walked to town, and it's very hard to take pictures while riding a bicycle!  I'll eventually get around to posting some pictures of the RV park, but for now, if you are interested, you can click on the official Pismo Coast Village RV Park website.

Here's an aerial photo from the park's website:

One Night at Patterson, CA

Dave wrote about our stay in Corning.  We were there for five nights in total.  We ate at the casino buffet twice, both times yesterday.  It seemed like we would never need to eat again, but wouldn't you know we were hungry again today. 

While we were in Corning, I worked on a new sewing project, the sawtooth star quilt block.  Don't look too closely as the points don't quite match up like they are supposed to.  I'm going to try it again, being even more careful with my cutting and sewing this time.  This was a fun block to make, and was a quick project since the pieces were large enough to make a 12 1/2 inch block. 

This morning we headed for Patterson, CA.  We are staying at Kit Fox RV Park.  This is a Passport America park, and the half-price rate was $21 for a pull-through, full hookup site.  The park offers free Tengo internet, but it was down today, so we used our cell phones to tether to the internet. 

Recently our Camp Club USA half-price membership was folded into the Passport America half-price club.  In order to sweeten the change for us, they gave us some free months on our membership.  So far we are very happy with Passport America and we are good through March, 2014.   There are only a few parks that we liked that belonged only to Camp Club USA.  I hope those parks will sign on with Passport America.  The other nice thing about Passport America is that it offers a free Droid phone app which makes it super easy to look up campgrounds. 

Patterson is a small city of 20,000 located off I-5, southeast of Livermore and south of Stockton and Tracy.  Patterson is known as the "Apricot Capital of the World".  A wine bar/nut store (Stewart and Jasper Orchards) was located across the street from the RV park and I bought some almonds and dried apricots.  Yummy!

The hills west of the I-5 freeway, as viewed from our space at Kit Fox RV Park

The hills at sunset, around 5:15 pm

Tomorrow is the day--a four hour drive and then our arrival at Pismo Coast Village RV Park in Pismo Beach!

Corning, CA

Our drive over the Siskiyou Mountains was uneventful yesterday, in that there was no snow to be seen, except on Mount Shasta, but we couldn't see the top of the mountain.  We did have a lot of rain, with sun breaks mixed in, which made the drive somewhat interesting. 

Dark skies heading south on I-5:

A little while later, partly sunny skies at the Siskiyou summit in Oregon:

After a lunch stop at the Weed rest area, we drove past Shasta City (still no snow) and hit fog when we crossed the final Lake Shasta bridge.

Dave and I arrived in Corning, CA around 2:45 yesterday afternoon.  Corning is a town of about 7500 people, located right on I-5, south of Redding and Red Bluff and a few hours north of Sacramento.  The big draw here for us is the Rolling Hills Casino RV Park which offers full hookups with good, free WIFI for $25/night.  There are no restrooms in the park, however, and no cable TV.  But the sky is open for good satellite reception.  Another draw for us is the casino golf course which is highly rated. 

The food at the casino is notably good, but we haven't eaten at the buffet yet since we like a bargain, and the 2 for 1 senior bargain nights are Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Since tonight is New Year's Eve, the casino is offering a  big party with lots of food and a comedy show, all for the (NOT) bargain price of $140 per couple.  No thanks.  Dave is usually asleep by midnight and neither one of us are party people.  I know, we're boring!

This morning, Dave and I drove around Corning and did a few errands.  I stopped at the Quilt'n Thyme store and bought a couple of items since everything was 20% off today.  The store has an interesting background--the owners are foster parents who have adopted seven of their special needs foster children.  She is a long-time quilter who has made many quilts to donate to hospitals, and he is a former teacher who is also a pastor of a church.  I was surprised and pleased that a town as small as Corning has a quilt store.

Another stop we made was at the famous Olive Pit store.  That store is always busy.  I tasted a few different olives, and then bought my old standby--almond stuffed olives.  It's a fun store to visit.  They also sold California oranges, but I didn't need a 15 pound bag, so I didn't buy any.

Dave stopped at Radio Shack but didn't have much luck there, so after lunch we decided to drive over to the "big" town of Chico which is about 35 minutes southeast of here.  He went to Best Buy and bought a product with the salesman touted, but didn't end up working for what he wanted (omni-directional digital antenna).  See his blog for more details on this "local channels" project.  We'll be returning this product at the Best Buy in San Luis Obispo. 

After Dave's errand at Best Buy, I visited Honey Run quilt store in Chico and finding some bargain fabrics that were 40% off.   I forgot to take a picture of the quilt store, but it was located in a cute, older craftsman-style house.  Different fabrics were displayed in different small rooms of the house.  The clearance fabrics were located in a closet.   After a successful visit to the quilt store, we headed back to the RV and took a walk around the RV park.  The park's RV spaces had filled in again, but there were still a few spots left at 4:30 pm.  This is a first-come, first-served park with about 70 spots plus a no- charge overnight area where RVs and trucks can park. 

We're going to hang around here until Tuesday or Wednesday since we don't have reservations to arrive at Pismo Beach until Thursday, January 5. 

Happy 2012!