Back in March 2021, we took a little family weekend trip to the Central Coast to get away. We stayed in San Simeon, but spent most of our time in Morro Bay and Cambria, two places to which I had never been.
Day 1:
We drove 4.5 hours south to the Quality Inn in San Simeon, which wasn't bad for a cheap dog-friendly hotel. We arrived in the evening, so we grabbed dinner at La Terrazza Mexican Grill in Cambria and spent the night in. We ate our gigantic burritos (succeeded by yummy churros for dessert), and did a birthday tarot reading, à la my babe, the witchy tarot pro.
Day 2:
The next day, we ate a free breakfast from the hotel and then headed to the San Simeon Bay Trail. We hiked an easy four miles, punctuated by some tree climbing, and saw lizards, a snake, a bull, butterflies, orange beetles, elephant seals, an otter, and vultures. This trail had some cool tree tunnels and we stopped for lunch at a jutted point where we watched elephant seals snoozing down below.
After that, we drove eight minutes north to Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery, where we watched a bunch of these dog mermaids doing their thing. I named an especially noisy one of them, Oskar.
Next, we drove 14 minutes more north to Ragged Point Inn, where there is a Ragged Point Trail that leads down to a small waterfall. The trail is less than a mile, but it's super steep. For this reason, Babezie declined to join Muddy and me down the slope. My boy is a pro rock climber, so we had no trouble getting down there to take some photos.
After a short stint of downtime back at the hotel, we ventured out to Hearst Memorial Beach to watch the sunset (and some beach bunnies?!). Everything is named "Hearst" here after the notorious newspaperman, William Randolph Hearst.
Day 3:
On Day 3, we drove 30 minutes down to Morro Bay, driving through Cambria. On the way, much to our surprise, we spotted some zebras on a hill next to the highway! We later learned that there are wild zebras roaming there; leftovers from when Hearst Castle had a zoo.
In Morro Bay, we rented paddleboards from Morro Bay Paddle Sports and paddled around for 1.5 hours. We saw some otters playing around!
We ate lunch on the pier and walked around, making a stop at Garden Gallery, a neat plant store with creative planters and accessories. Morro Bay reminds me of a combination of Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz.
We drove back to the hotel to pick up Muddy (he hasn't learned how to paddleboard yet, so he had to stay "home"). We walked along the Moonstone Beach Boardwalk in Cambria for sunset time. Dogs aren't allowed on the beach, but we snuck Mud into the tide pools with us.
For dinner, we hit up Robin's Restaurant in Cambria. I had the most divine calamari, roasted artichoke, and truffle fries.
Day 4:
After another free hotel breakfast, we visited the zebras once again, but they were mostly hiding.
We next walked the nearby Junge Trail along the beach. Muddy got to play on the beach, and we saw a hawk, harbor seals, and (unfortunately) a dead elephant seal.
On the way back home, we stopped in Paso Robles for gas, where I found a tick on my leg. I checked Mr. Mud and sure enough, he had two ticks on his paws. Luckily, he takes flea/tick/heartworm medicine, so they didn't latch.
Finally, we drove another 3.5 hours back to Oakland and got milkshakes at my favorite, Fenton's, because we weren't ready for our mini vacay to be over. Muddy got chocolate ice cream on his head in the process. It was his own fault.
Photos and a few videos posted below!
Onward,
Chris