Air, Old Age, Whales, Castles & Elephants

June 6, 2015
Elks Lodge #2504
Oceano, California

 
Yesterday we drove to the central coast town of Oceano.  This section of California is very pretty and is much less populated than the southern area of the state.  The beach two blocks from where we are camped is the only beach in California that allows motorized vehicles.  Needless to say it is very popular with campers and 4 wheel drive vehicles.


 
 


We walked down to the beach to find a long line of vehicles waiting to buy their passes to get on the beach.  It seemed like kind of a racket to me.  Before you could go on the beach, air must be let out of the tires so you don't get stuck in the sand.  When you drive off the beach the air has to be put back in the tires.  One person had a booming business selling self service air at the rate of $1 per tire.

 

We were walking on the beach watching the whales when a young couple came up to us and asked us to take their photo.  We got to talking and they mentioned that they were from San Diego and had been in the Navy.  Dave said that he had been in too but got out in 1965.  The woman was astonished with this and said that 1965 was the year her mother was born.  The man complimented Dave on had well he was doing for his age and he thought it was great that he could still walk around and everything.  They were a sweet couple but that conversation didn't do much for our egos.

Today we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to the Hearst Castle.  When I was booking tickets the night before I noticed that the morning tours were hardly booked while the afternoon tours were mostly full.  Thinking we would beat the crowds, we bought tickets for one of the morning tours.  This morning we figured out why everyone wanted an afternoon tour -  the fog does not lift until about noon. 






Notice the fog.













Another surprise greeted us as we arrived.  Due to the severe drought all the restrooms were closed and the only thing available was about half a dozen Porta Pottys for all of the people. 

Guest House

Guest House

Neptune Pool minus the water.

















Indoor pool with diving balcony

Look closely and you will see zebras grazing with the cattle.  There are still about 150 descendents of the original herd that were part of a private zoo.

 

When we got back to the visitor center the fog finally lifted and we were able to see the entire estate.


On the way back to the camper, we stopped at Seal Beach to see the elephant seals.  This rookery was the site of the birth of more than 5300 elephant seal pups last year. This time of the year the population is made up of mostly teenage males returning to molt at the beach.  From a distance, it looked like a bunch of dead fish had washed up on shore, but with a closer look we discovered that it was seals sleeping tummy side up.