California Journey Day 5

For years we have heard about the stunning drive down the coast of California on the Pacific Coast Highway. Most people say it’s a drive not to be missed, but one friend said she rode the whole way (thank goodness she wasn’t driving) with her coat over her head because it was so scary. It was raining again and when we saw a break in the weather on the weather channel we headed down the coast for the three hour drive. Once you get on the road that follows the coast, you are committed since there is no way to get off the PCH until you are far south. Amazingly enough the rain held off until we pulled into our next destination. (Dumb luck??). The western coast is so different from Florida’s coasts; beautiful, rocky windy coast, but not really a scary drive. Quite a lot of curves and few guardrails on the edges, but we were so happy we did it. One of the most beautiful areas was at Cambria where we spent two nights on MoonStone Beach. There was no sand, just beautiful colorful tiny stones covering the beach. Here the hotels are all across the road from the beach and we stayed in a great unit with a gas fireplace and a view of the beach. We were very relieved to see our room since we had booked this online from a TripAdvisor recommendation and we are never sure what we will get. Every room we booked from TripAdvisor on this trip was great. This was the off season and everywhere we went we were greeted like long lost friends who were willing to spend money at their establishment. Here we saw signs for a California State Historic Landmark called Nit Wit Ridge so, of course, we had to go find it. Turns out it is a house built entirely of junk and is considered a fine example of FOLK ART! It was built by one man over the course of 51 years. He dug out a hillside and used abalone shells, tile, car parts, beer cans and lots of old toilets to create his own “Hearst Castle”. Historic Landmark, no less. Amazing what is called art, but we went looking for it and found it! Seek and ye shall find! MA