Given that more than 2 months have passed since this trip ended, it’s about time for this series of vacation diaries to end. So the last days of the trip I took with hubby, his mother, and her little black dog will be covered here. We were in San Luis Obispo, for the purposes of visiting my mother-in-law’s childhood friend, and to do some sight-seeing. One of our visits was to Morro Bay, where you can see Morro Rock. Morro Rock is the last in a line with a series of seven (or nine?) dead volcanos running parallel to Route 1. More below the fold…
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In the years I lived in California, I had driven past Morro Bay several times, but had never stopped there. Actually staying in the area for a couple of days made it possible to find out what the town was like. It’s a modest tourist town with a nice beach, and a great big rock by the entrance to the bay. Here are a couple of close shots of the rock.
We wandered along the main drag by the bay, but none of the junk shops seemed appealing. (We visited Morro Bay on the day following the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, FL, so our mood was a bit subdued.)
We also stopped by a small, local botanical garden.
We didn’t do much else in the way of sight-seeing in San Luis Obispo beyond this and visiting the Madonna Inn.
The next morning, we hit the road for Santa Barbara. The idea was to visit the mission, but my mother-in-law decided that she really didn’t want to do that. After lunch, we headed inland with Ojai as our next destination. While on the road, we took some photos of the landscape.
Ojai has a reputation as an artist’s colony, so we were anticipating a wealth of art and culture. We were disappointed. The center of town appears to be a large outdoor mall with fancy and expensive wares intended for people with way more money than we had. I admit we found a very interesting used furniture store, but even if we had found something we liked at a reasonable cost, there was the issue of getting it back home in Pennsylvania. We did have an interesting dinner at this place, though.
The tag line for the HiHo!, running along the bottom of the windows, is “Cheeseburgers, Shakes, Fries, and sometimes Pie.”
So we headed for Ventura, where we spent our last night on the road. The next day, we headed for the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where we tried to get in as early as possible. The experience of driving on the 405 during rush hour did nothing for my well-being. It didn’t help that during this ordeal, the GPS started telling us to “turn left on Allison Road.” Anyone familiar with the LA freeway system knows that there are no left turns to be found anywhere. We turned the GPS off for the rest of the trip.
Despite the traffic jam, we managed to get to the Getty’s parking structure early enough that we were able to enter the parking structure—until an attendant noticed my mother-in-law’s dog. Apparently, dogs are not permitted anywhere on the grounds, not even left in the car in the parking garage, so we could not visit the Getty. Oh, well. It will have to wait for another visit, one without a dog.
We then proceeded to Descanso Gardens, in La Canada-Flintridge, which has always been one of hubby’s favorite gardens because of their rose collection. When we arrived, a production company was in the process of shooting a movie or TV show, blocking a portion of the parking lot intended for the handicapped (my mother-in-law). Bothersome, but we lived through it. After that, we proceeded to Claremont where we ate lunch at Walter’s, took a brief tour of the Claremont Colleges (where we met 21 years ago), and then drove back to San Diego.
So the ending of the trip was a bit of a downer, but overall, we had a great time and learned a lot. Next year, we’re thinking of doing another road trip somewhere else—maybe California north of Sonoma, or Oregon, or Arizona. We’ll see what develops.
Now, for the comments!
Top Comments (August 23, 2016):
From Dragon5616:
I loved this comment by The Geogre in Georgia Logothetis' Abbreviated Pundit Roundup. His assessment of the Republican nominee and "cheating" is spot on and elegantly expressed.
From your humble diarist:
chicago minx posts a cute funny in Hunter’s front page post Tuesday Trump Dump: So fast your head will spin!
Top Mojo (August 22, 2016):
Top Mojo is courtesy of mik! Click here for more on how Top Mojo works.
Top Photos (August 22, 2016):
Tonight’s picture quilt is courtesy of jotter!