Heading East for a Change

We are going home in the morning. We aren’t done traveling yet, this is just a vacation. We’ll be back in Louisville for two weeks. We are hoping that they will be the two perfect weeks of fall weather that Louisville gets every year…

Asher will not be joining us. The airline allows no pets. So we’ve located a pet resort here in town. It’s called Raintree Pet Resort. They provide services for dogs, cats and “other critter friends,” meaning animals people keep as pets that aren’t canine or feline. This morning we bought a double supply of carrots and greens and took Asher over the resort. It really is resort-like for dogs and cats. They get their own “condos,” there are indoor and outdoor play yards and even a pool. For Asher it will not be quite so exciting. They gave us the option of the secluded critter room or the break room, where critters are often housed. We went with the break room so he will have lots of attention. We wrote out instructions for them on a little sign that starts, “My name is Asher..” and ends with “…If I like you I will lick your nose and if I don’t I will turn my back to you.” It was very hard to walk away from our little rabbit knowing we would be leaving him in the care of strangers for two weeks. He is essentially our child! He was happily munching his kale when we left, so at least he was comfortable. We told them about his ball-pushing habits and they said they’d try to get a picture of that for their lobby slide show. If Asher ends up on their web-site, we will surely let you all know.

We came home (so much more empty without a rabbit) and did our packing. It really didn’t take that long so now we are ready to go. Except we don’t leave until tomorrow so now we’re just sitting around twiddling our thumbs. To everyone in Louisville: We’ll see you soon!

Welcome to Sweltering Arizona

So, Arizona is hot. This we knew already, but it is one thing to look at the weather report and see that it’s 98º in Phoenix and quite another to be in 98º heat moving boxes into your new apartment! It is 98º right now, anyway (it’s early afternoon). We didn’t actually check the temperature while we were moving in, but given that the observed overnight low on Saturday was 80º, it must have been plenty hot enough while we were moving in during the sunset hour. And it’s not “dry heat” either. As long time residents in the Ohio Valley we know humidity when we feel it.

On Thursday we left Pismo Beach. We sent almost the whole day packing the trailer and then the car. When we were ready to go, we drove to Los Angeles. It was sad to see all the rolling hills we have come to love roll away behind us for the last time. We spent Friday in L. A. just relaxing. We had a big, fancy dinner with family and then went to bed early to be ready for our much longer drive to Phoenix. On Saturday we were on the road by 9:30, which is unheardofly early for us. It’s a good thing we did get going that early as the drive turned out to be looooong.

It’s about 350 miles from L. A. to Phoenix. That’s a six hour drive at most under ideal conditions. However, one can never count on finding conditions ideal plus were pulling a trailer and driving up-hill a lot in an under-powered vehicle. By 12:30 we had only come 140 miles! In Banning, California filled our tank and despaired. We had to get to Phoenix before 5:00 because that’s when the apartment office closed. There was no Plan B. Arriving on time was the only plan. Over-all the drive itself was uneventful. There just isn’t a lot along I-10 in that part of the county except for sand, rocks and scrubby, desert plants. We crossed into Arizona close to 2:00. We saw a huge dirt devil some time after that. Driving between Big Horn Peak and Saddle Mountain was also pretty neat. Other than that there isn’t much to say about the trip.
We had made better time in Arizona and were cruising through Phoenix at about 4:40. We were just two miles from our exit when we hit a major slow-down. There was an accident blocking the two left lanes right after an on-ramp joined the highway. Basically there were three lanes all trying to move their way over into the far-right lanes to get past the accident. We slowed to a craw! Maya called the apartments and told them our issue and they assured her that someone would be there until 5:00. So we crept by the wreck with one eye on the clock getting more and more agitated. We did eventually slip by and got off the highway and to the complex with a mere seven minutes to spare. Unfortunately the office was already locked up!

Matt sat with Asher (poor, hot rabbit) and shook his head while Maya paced around in front of the office periodically banging on the door and calling the office number. She could head the phone ringing on the other side of the door but no one was answering. Rage was rising. Eventually, maintenance-type guy happened along and his fist on the door did bring out an office person from whom Maya got our keys. No Plan B needed, whew! We moved our stuff in as the sun went down and effectively crashed after that.

On Sunday we began to set up our new apartment – just a little. Mostly we explored our new home. First we returned the trailer. There is no better feeling than getting rid of such a huge attachment as that. Then we found the local Taco Bell for lunch. Next we drove down to the hospital so Maya could get a good look at her route. It’s a huge complex, although her part of it is relatively tiny. One of the main buildings has an incredibly unique look. It seems to be invoking the look of a pueblo or something. We also found our way to the local World Market, the Target and Fry’s – the local version of Kroger.

Here are some fun facts about Phoenix: It is currently the fifth largest city in the U. S. by population. Louisville is 29th largest, Palatine is close to 400th and Punta Gorda is small enough that it appears on no list we could find. Phoenix is the most populous state capital. The surrounding county is Maricopa County, which (thanks to Phoenix) is the fourth most populous county in the U. S. You can watch a map showing Maricopa County’s growth over time on Wikipedia’s page. The name “Phoenix” was suggested after names such as “Stonewall” and “Salina” were rejected by the community. The name refers to the fact that the irrigation canals which made settling here possible were built overtop of those formerly used by Hohokam Indians.

Goodbye to the Golden State

Packing had been easier this time around. Since this apartment came furnished with dishes and pots and pans we have been able to back up our stuff and still be able to cook and eat off real dishes. We keep acquiring more stuff like our nice new shelf and countless new glasses, but with the trailer following the car there is still plenty of room for everything. California has been great and we are sad to leave. Of course, we don’t really get a lot of choice in the matter so there’s no use being too upset. We have to say goodbye. So: Goodbye California. When this blog posts we will already be on the road headed back east. We are starting to get excited about the possibilities of Phoenix and Arizona. In other words, we are remembering all the reasons that we wanted to go there in the first place.

Another Day in Morro Bay

Sometimes things change fast! On September 10 (not that long ago!) we woke up not knowing where we would be going next. By the end of the day Maya had a job and the address for our new apartment. Matt had reserved a trailer and we were already packing. Just as easy as that. We are headed to Phoenix, Arizona. We have wanted to go there for a long time. It was our top choice when we started this whole traveling thing but now that we are in California and were planning to stay a little while we really don’t want to go! It’s just that we’re not leaving on our terms. Someone else decided it would be now. That smarts a little.

We couldn’t leave without one more little adventure. We have wanted to kayak for quite some time. We thought we would go on the river above Florida Caverns or in the sheltered bay off St. George Island. Those didn’t pan out but several places nearby offer kayak trips. There are sea-cave exploring ocean tours and kayak rentals on almost all the beaches in the area. There are also rentals in Morro Bay. We decided that was for us and on Monday (just four days before this posting) we went to Morro Bay again to try our hand at kayaking.

Right across from the public parking lot is the dock for the Sub Sea Tours. They also do kayak rentals so we went there first. Unfortunately it was something called “Cal Poly Week” so they had large back-to-back groups of college students padding down onto that dock and claiming all the paddles. Since Maya’s been jerked around by work recently she didn’t want to wait around and hope there would be a kayak left for us. Matt thought he remembered another place further along the waterfront that also rented kayaks so we set off to find it.

We didn’t, but we stumbled on something even better. Morro Bay is surrounded by State and National parks and one of them rents kayaks and has the good business since to advertise this fact up on the main drag. We saw the sign, picked up the map and went down into the park to the Kayak Shack. There we had no problem getting a kayak because we were the only ones there. The prices were better, and the area of the Bay where you kayak out into is closer to the estuary so there are not pleasure sailboats or fishing vessels all moored around everywhere. That was just fine with us. In the aerial photo below the state marina we left from is in the upper center, far from the city and ships in the upper right. The mud flats of the estuary fill the bottom on the picture.
We have a decent amount of canoe experience thanks to summer camp and the principles of kayaking are about the same. Our two-seater kayak was a bit more stable than a canoe because it rides lower in the water and the paddle is double-ended so you can stroke on either side of the kayak with ease. Other then that it’s all the same stuff. Paddle on the opposite side from the direction you want to turn and remember that you’re going to feel this in the morning. It was great. We went out across the Bay and when we realized that the other side was really far away we turned about and tooled about near some tumbled boulder cliffs called White Point and in the sea grasses of the estuary. According to the High and Low Tides table Matt picked up the afternoon low tide that day was to be at 4:42. We were out in the Bay during the 3:00 hour so we were close to low tide and it was amazing how shallow some places were. We paddled through areas with just inches of water, our kayak scraping the tops of the sea lettuce. While we still cannot say we have kayaked in the ocean, an estuary is close and it only whets out appetite for more!

After we hauled ourselves out of the water, we went up the hill to the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History built into the side of White Point. It had a lot of neat interactive exhibits discussing the various forces of nature that create dunes, estuaries, and lava plug hills and the plant, animal and human interactions that take place in Morro Bay and in the estuary. We also took a short hike up to the top of White Point to get a view of the Bay. Neat!

And with that our blog is up-to-date. It has taken a massive effort, in two big chunks, but now we are caught up. Unfortunately, it is just in time for us to be moving on…

All Hail the Plant Kingdom

Sometimes even the best laid plans are swept aside. We had intended to stay here in California, in Pismo Beach, until December. We have a vacation home to Louisville coming up and even with that Maya was going to be done with this assignment on December 20. Then we would have gone to see family in L. A. for the holidays and picked up her next assignment in January. It was a great plan. We like it here, October is suppose to be the nicest month here on the Central Coast, having the holidays off was going to be great. Then it was all swept away. The hospital here decided that it didn’t need as many travelers as they had after all and cancelled the contracts of Maya and one other lady. So now we are moving. And soon! We found this out very early in September with her last scheduled day as September 20. While we waiting to find out what other jobs were available, we looked for some fun things to do a little closer to home.

Since we had enjoyed the Botanic Garden in Santa Barbara so much we looked for some other places like that. It turns out that the local college in SLO, California Polytechnic (known as Cal Poly), has its own arboretum. On the first Saturday in September we went up to the Leaning Pine Arboretum.

It is really more than an arboretum as there a lot more than trees there. There are all kinds of plants from all over the world. Every place in the world that is close to 30 degrees (north or south), and is on a western coast has a similar climate. Leaning Pine has plants from all these places. Western Australia, South Africa, the Mediterranean basin, Chile and of course California are all represented. They were all arranged in groups by county or by type of plant with many informational signs interspersed.

Matt was sort of crazy about how neat the place was. He just kept talking about what a discovery this place was and how it would be great to come back if we were going to be around longer. Maya said that it seems like the kind of place that would fill up with studying students at test time. Every college campus should have a well manicured and well landscaped garden of familiar and exotic plants to study in. Of course, only a school with a massive agricultural department (as Cal Poly has) could actually support such an endeavor.
Two days later, continuing our plant kick we went to a tiny state reserve called Los Osos Oaks. Matt has been wanted to go since we first got here to California. It is a little bit of forest that has never been developed. The groves of costal oaks used to be more wide-spread but most of the rest were cut down for timber or to make pasture-land. Some of the oaks in this particular grove are estimated at 800 years old. Since they are growing in the relatively poor soil of ancient sand dunes they are dwarfed and twisted. It was quite other-worldly to walk through such a tangled mess of trees.

The only down-side of the place is that as a preserve it is not at all developed. This extends to the so-called trails. There are places where the path is entirely unclear or where it branches numerous times in short order. All the paths seem to lead into deeper and deeper lost recesses of the forest. It’s great to wonder in, but a little daunting when you know you want to leave again sometime. There were quite a few moments when we were not certain of the correct path and a couple of these were almost scary. We did make it back out of the woods without incident, however. It is quite a nice little group of trees and quite a nice little hike.

A Proper Visit to Santa Barbara

After finally getting around to going to Santa Barbara we realized that there was a lot more than the zoo that we wanted to see there. We decided we had to go back! For two whole days! On the last weekend in August Maya had Thursday-Sunday off so it was the perfect time to go. We planned it all out, bought our tickets, booked our hotel and really did it!

Matt has been staying up late and consequently getting up late. Maya doesn’t like to move that fast on days when she doesn’t have to work. As a result we rarely are able to make it out of the house very early. This is part of the reason why we were so late in starting our day at the zoo last time and part of the reason we needed to have two days. We did fairly well on the morning of our departure: we were on the road by 11:00. Considering that Matt is still in bed at 11:00 some mornings, this was good indeed. It takes close to an hour and a half to get there so it was lunch time when we arrived in Santa Barbara. Good thing we looked up where there was a Taco Bell. Yum.

The first thing we did was see Mission Santa Barbara. It’s been called “the Queen of the Missions” and it was indeed lovely. Since Santa Barbara was also the site of the local Spanish government as well as the site of a mission it was one of Alta California’s original (European) population centers. The mission also became the site of California’s first bishop when there were enough Catholics here to warrant it. For all these reasons, the mission could afford a little more lavish facilities right from the beginning. There was a stone church built early on and then another to replace it when the first one fell down. The church has been in continuous use and has been maintained very nicely. It’s not nessicarily the most authentic mission, but it is stunningly beautiful. The day we were there sun was shining in a nearly cloudless blue sky. The heat from the sun and the breeze from the ocean made for the perfect temperature. California is a beautiful place.

After the mission we went slightly up into the hills to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. It looks like a palatial rancher’s home that has been converted. It could totally be a clan castle. The big attraction right now is a set of dinosaur bones from Africa. There was a long-neck’s leg (Jobaria) and the Sahara’s version of Sharptooth (Afrovenator). We were really excited about it, but somehow it was a bit of a let-down. Maybe we felt there were supposed to more skeletons… The regular displays of the museum include all kinds of stuff on geology and extensive displays on various fossil animals. There was also a small (very small) astronomy-themed room as well as nice collection of Chumash artifacts. They had a sea-going boat built in the manor of the Chumash. They split logs into planks then drilled holes in the planks and bound them together with ropes. The cracks between were sealed with tar. This vessels allowed trade and travel along the coast and out to the Channel Islands more than six miles offshore. Masters of their environment!
Outside was the skeleton of blue whale. The largest creature ever. It is amazing to think that there are creatures that large out there in the ocean right now! Also, there were some rocks with bits of whale bone fossils in them so Matt just had to have his picture with them.

The next day we went aboard the Condor Express with high hopes to see a living blue whale. We had booked ourselves a whale-watching cruise. We imagined something like four hours of brilliant sun and seeing huge animals splashing trough the water and blowing their spouts on all sides. Reality is often bitterly different from imagination. We did indeed spend many long hours on a boat cruising through the Channel. There were just two things missing: the sun and the whales. Once we were out in the water a fog set in the reduced visibility to at most one fourth of a mile. It turns out that the way you find whales when whale-watching is to watch for them. So with visibility so low we would have had to stumble upon a whale to see it. And while we were bumbling about in the fog it kept getting colder and colder. Or maybe it just seemed that way.

We did see a lot of dolphins. The nature guides along with us said that it was a mega-pod of common dolphins numbering over 1000 individuals. As the tales say, the dolphins did indeed follow the boat and played in its wake. Maya says it must be fun to be a dolphin because when you watch them they seem to completely enjoy being dolphins. Then, just when had given up on seeing a whale, we saw one! We saw two! It was a mother humpback and her nearly-grown calf. We caught a few brief glimpses of their backs and their flukes but then they dove and we lost them in the fog. It was really neat to see them but it was disappointing not to see a blue whale and to be so cold for so long.
We had left the dock sometime after 10:00 and it was close to 3:00 by the time we were back. There was only one more thing we really, really wanted to see. We drove back up into the foothills of the mountains and went to the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden. The garden specializes in plants of California. Not just plants from the Central Coast either. They have samples of all of California’s diverse plant live. There was a redwood grove and a collection of orchids native to the state. There was also a cactus area, a plains area and one hillside was devoted to the hearty, scrubby plants of the Channel Islands. The thing that we really liked about the garden is that, for the most part, they aren’t garden-like. That is, they looked less like someone intentionally planted things in rows and more like someone scooped up whole hillsides from various places in California and placed them all together without disturbing any of the plants on the hills. Of course, that probably means the garden’s keepers work extra hard to maintain that look. In some places “garden” is not even the right word and the place looks more like a preserve of the naturally occurring flora. Of course, for a California-themed garden in California that is only appropriate. The Botanic Garden also contains the 1806 dam built by Indians (under Franciscan direction) that helped deliver water to the mission below. Parts of the aqueduct run along side of the trails in the garden.
We felt good to go home after the gardens. There is a lot more to do in Santa Barbara, like taking sailing lessons, going to Rocky Nook Park, seeing the art gallery and the Presidio downtown… All that (and more) we’ll have to leave for some other time.

Santa Barbara Zoo

We have wanted to go to the Santa Barbara Zoo for some time. We had intended to go back in July but ended up spending that chilly day in Lompoc instead. One month later, on August 20, we did finally get down to the zoo.

It was not the most amazing zoo ever, but it was pretty close. There was one section devoted to animals that live in or near water. There were poison dart frogs, piranhas, turtles, alligators, other fish, even a sloth hanging out in the branches above the turtle pond! The neat thing about the exhibit was that they were not in a building as is typical for tanks; they were set in the walls of an open-air tunnel. It was a little bit like being in a cave, except for the aquarium tanks lining the walls. At the end of the tunnel you could go left to the Elephants and lemurs or right toward the penguins. The whole zoo in under a bit of renovation at the moment, so the penguins were elsewhere.

We went toward the lemurs. They are frequently our favorite. They had two large groups on display. There were both ring-tail and black-and-white ruffed. At the Louisville Zoo there are only two black-and-white ruffed lemurs and they are both crotchety and chastised by the other lemurs. Here there were about a dozen and they all seemed to be getting on quite well with each other. There was even a baby lemur! Well, it was a young lemur, actually. It was born in April so that makes it no longer a baby by lemur standards.
In the Wings of Asia aviary we saw Mandarin ducks, a bird called a Palawan peacock-pheasant and one of the world’s largest pigeons: the western crowned pigeon. They are seriously large – as large as a turkey! They have this amazing plumage on their heads. When we saw them they were obsessively picking at their breasts. They would bend their heads over, nip at their feathers and then look up again. They did this over and over again in very quick, jerky movements. The bleeding heart pigeon is also an amazing bird. Matt keeps saying we should have our own aviary someday and fill it with rare and exotic pigeons.

On the way back toward the elephants we passed the gibbons. They are very agile and they would run along the ground with their arms held up waiting for a branch to grab hold of. When they got they one they tucked their legs up and transitioned to swinging smoothly. It really stunning to watch. We took some video of it but rather then post our video, here’s one by someone else. It’s not from Santa Barbara, but shows about the same range of behaviors that we saw.

Next we saw the elephants. We also saw a giant anteater. And the lion pen was next. It was constructed in such a way that we got right up on the lions. There was a male and a female and when we first arrived the male was sitting right next to the glass sort of leering at the crowd. He started calling out for the she-lion who was circling the large faux rock in the pen. Then he went and they followed each other around the rock for a while. What does this behavior signify? The zoo also has giraffes and gorillas, but it was nearing the end of the day by then and those animals weren’t really engaged in any interesting behaviors. It was close to time for the zoo to close anyway so we headed back to the exit.
We were supposed to have done more than just go to the zoo but we had spent so much time looking at all the animals that just about all the places we were interested in going were closed. We just went to supper instead. We has looked up a couple restaurants that specialize in veggie food and the one we chose to go to was called Sojourner Café. It had good food. We got a huge plate of nachos to share. Matt loves nachos and might have gotten them anyway but they happened to sound good to Maya too so we ordered one to share and each got a little extra something as well. The nachos were great and Maya liked her vegetable gumbo, but Matt’s Mexican cornbread was nothing special.

Across the street from the restaurant is El Presidio Real de Santa Bárbara. It was the headquarters of the Spanish military in the area back in the days of the missions. It was closed already by the time we were there but maybe we’ll be back…

Olives and a Mission

In the middle of August we went north to Paso Robles again. The main thing we wanted to do was go back to that olive oil farm that had been closed the last time we were there. It’s called Pasolivo. They have 45 acres of olive trees and the press is there on site. They said it was less than 3 hours between picking the olives and pressing the oil. So when they say it’s fresh, it is. They had a little tasting bar and as it turns out olive oil that fresh just isn’t to our liking. It tastes bitter with an after-taste of twigs. Even their flavored oils – lemon, lime, tangerine – still tasted mostly like bark. Too bad. It wasn’t a complete lost however because they also had Katz brand vinegars. We sampled them as well and their red wine vinegar made from zinfandel wine is so good. It’s spicy and such an intense flavor. It’s the best red wine vinegar we’ve ever tried. It’s at least twice as good as the next one we know of.

Only six miles north of Paso Robles is another mission. This is Mission San Miguel Arcángel in the very small town of San Miguel. We headed on up to see our seventh mission. San Miguel is known for its un-restored, and un-renovated interiors. It looks about like it did when the place was first put up. This refers mostly to the interior of the church, but applies to the rest of the mission as well. To this we can attest. Going inside the museum section is quite a step back in time. All of the other missions that we have visited have either been in continuous use and frequently updated (San Luis Obispo), have been restored to their original pristine glory (La Purísima), or were really nice to start with (San Juan Capistrano). At San Miguel it looks like everybody got up one day and left leaving everything behind. Everything is so obviously old. The old-ness goes deeper than that though, the amenities at San Miguel were really meager to begin with and have only gotten more spare-looking in the 200 years since. Dirt floors, dirt walls, few windows, just hides on the ones there are, cramped quarters... The fathers and at La Purísima appear to have lived a hard but not unpleasant life. Those at San Miguel look to have lived just a hard life.

The mission was founded in 1797 but was essentially destroyed by a fire in 1806. The current buildings date from 1807. The mission fell rapidly into dis-use and dis-repair after the land was secularized by Mexico in 1836. There was not even one padre assigned to the mission for a period of almost 40 years. The church was officially returned to the Catholic Church by America in 1959 but it was not until 1878 the any staff was assigned to it.

Today the church is once again administrated by the Franciscans who originally founded it. Not the very same fathers, obviously! The old parts of the mission, the church and some of the work spaces, that remained in 1878 are now the museum area. The rest of the quadrangle has been rebuilt and is living and working space for young men training in the ways of the order. Those areas aren’t open to the public. The church also serves as a local parish church. That is, it did until 2003. An earthquake in December 2003 damaged the church itself to the point that no one is allowed inside. Money for repairs and re-enforcement of the walls is ongoing but as of now the church is closed. All the stucco has fallen from the façade as well. That’s just part of life in California.

Flying Like a Dream

Early in August we took our new marlin kite out for a fly. For being on the ocean we just haven’t had much of the kite-friendly winds that we expect. Maybe there’s a perfect time of day, but we haven’t found it yet. The marlin does, in fact, fly. It is a bit tricky to get up in the air and if the wind dies out even a little the thing dips its nose and heads for the ground in a hurry. It’s hard to recover from that, but we could sometimes. Usually he ended up with a scuffed nose. Once you get it up high enough that the winds are a little better it’s easy, but that’s the rub! With one to pull the string and one to throw the kite and both running it’s just possible. What fun.

A Day in Morro Bay

The evening after the Farmers’ Market Debbie and Dallas came to stay with us for a couple of days. Did we mention we love having people visit? Since they are big game-players, we taught them to play mah jongg. That set has come over 3,000 miles so it’s nice to get to use it! We also made cake and pie. It was a choice between blueberry muffin cake and apple-blackberry pie. In the end, we couldn’t decide and so made both! Both were really good.

One of the days they stayed with us we went over to Morro Bay. It’s to the north and west of us. It’s a little bay as far as secluded harbors go but there is a giant rock called the morro that sits at the mouth of the bay. The rock is an ancient lava plug. There is a whole line of these plugs across San Luis Obispo County and they are known as the Nine Sisters. Morro is a Spanish word meaning “pebble” or “crown-shaped” depending on whom you ask. The southern part of the bay turns into an estuary. It’s suppose to be “one of the last unspoiled estuaries” in the U.S. There are also about five different parks that overlap around the edges of the bay so there is a lot of scenic beauty to be seen.

We weren’t there for that though. We went for the little shops and such. That, and the fish n’ chips. Well, Maya didn’t go for the fish n’ chips but that’s what Dallas wanted. There’s a little restaurant called Giovanni’s that mostly serves out of a outdoor counter. The customers line up down the block. The guy in front of Dallas picked his own crabs out of a huge tank next to the front of the line and has them cooked up. Proof of California’s progressive stance on conservation and climate change #15: Even a little almost-a-hole-in-the-wall place like Giovanni’s has separate waste cans for trash and recyclables.

We didn’t hang around for the fish. We went elsewhere looking for something made without seafood, or even near seafood. That’s no small task in the fishing town! We passed places offering seafood pizza, seafood tacos, fresh seafood, seafood and steak, seafood and barbeque… We eventually found a women’s clothing store that also had a deli in the back (no joke). So we got sandwiches. Maya got a some kind of tomato and mozzarella thing and Matt got a sandwich called “The Kraut” that was tying to be a ruben (but not succeeding).

After lunch, we checked out the shops. It is the same kind of tourist-trap mixed with really expensive art items that we have found on the main drag in all quaint little towns, except with a sea theme. One shop featured vintage and vintage-style metal signs advertising all kinds of sentiments. There was also a few clothing stores that were neat.

We also went into the Morro Bay Aquarium. This was not a large-scale, high-class place. There was just one large room with maybe 10 tanks. Also, they had sea lions in some pools outside. The fish, eels, crabs and one octopus on display were all neat to see. All the animals come out of the bay and the tanks serve as something of a rehabilitation facility for sick and injured animals. They also had a display case with preserved bits of very large animals, like the eye of a squid and the jaws of a great white shark. It was fairly neat. Admission was only $2 so it was good for that price.
The last adventure of the day was the trip on the Sub Sea Tours. We had wanted to rent a little electric powered boat and just cruise around the bay for a couple of hours. Debbie and Dallas had done this before and it’s fun. Unfortunately, they had no openings. So to get out on the water we tried the Sub Sea Tours. It’s not an actual sub but the boat is painted yellow like a certain famous submarine. The boat just has a very deep draft and there are windows under the water line. This is not actually as cool of the trip as you might think. The boat tools around the bay a bit and the guide points out some of the sights such as Morro Rock and the Thangorodrim-esque triple smoke stack of the local power plant. We also saw sea lions and sea otters. That’s nice. The “sub sea” part of the tour turned out to be really weak. We motored off near the Morro and threw some fish-bait overboard. From the windows below one could see the fish swarming around to get the food. It was all interesting to see, but not worth $14 a person!
And that’s Morro Bay. We came home that night and had pasta, garlic bread, pie and cake. Thanks Debbie and Dallas for staying with us!