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California Adventure – A Travelogue

 May Chen

Santa Barbara was our first stop; we drove through this lovely town, had lunch in one of the restaurants in downtown, then went to the beach and had our afternoon tea at the Double Tree Hotel which is right across the street from the beach. I had been to Santa Barbara before, its beauty impressed me then and I still am impressed this second time around.

In the late afternoon we headed north to our next destination, which was San Luis Obispo. We made it just in time for their Thursday night farmers’ market. Streets were blocked off for the occasion; there were different kind of foods and goods to sell and it was packed with locals and visitors. There was also live music as the sun goes down and magic show to watch. It was a fun evening. On our way back, we got a six-pack of beer to celebrate the beginning of the journey that took us more than 10 years to realize.

We stayed at a charming bed and breakfast inn in San Luis Obispo for our first night. After a healthy breakfast, we toured the town. This town is centered around the Spanish Mission, which is one of the best-preserved examples of 18th century Spanish architecture. We spent some time visiting the mission and walked around the downtown area which has a small creek runs through it.

After lunch, we made our way to Hearst Castle, which was one of the highlights of this trip. The castle was commissioned by William Randolph Hearst with the help of the San Francisco architect, Julia Morgan. Constructions began in 1919 and continued on nearly three decades. This spectacular estate was built on top of the hill among 250,000 acres of land owned by Hearst. It has three guesthouses and a magnificent main house, Casa Grande. While the houses were of the Mediterranean Style, the two imposing towers of the main house were inspired by a Spanish cathedral. The castle also houses many superb art collections, but in order to see that, we would have to join another tour, which we weren’t planning to do. Although I would have no doubt on its art collections just by visiting the ground floor of the main house, but I was most impressed by the beauty of its swimming pools. With the backdrop of the mountain, and the view of the coastlines, the outdoor Greco-Roman style Neptune Pool is just breathtaking. The indoor Roman Pool is a mosaic-tiled pool with eight marble statues of Roman gods, goddesses and heroes. The pool is decorated from floor to ceiling with 1" square mosaic tiles and in blue and gold color scheme and stylized star patterns. They were stunning.

Early next morning, we departed for Big Sur, the 90-mile stretch of the beautiful coastlines between San Simeon and Carmel. To our surprise, those famous curves on Highway 1 were not as bad as we imagined them to be. We arrived with plenty of time to do a little hiking. With Chiu Chung Wo’s advice, we settled on the Ewoldsen Trail in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. Within a few minutes’ walk from the parking lot of this park is the lovely McWay Waterfall, which is an 80-foot waterfall, drops directly into the sandy beach. It was an incredible sight, just awesome.

The Ewoldsen Trail is a 4.5 miles loop trail starting from the red wood forest by the McWay creek and climbing up ~1,600 ft to the magnificent coastal views. It was quite strenuous; we did it in 3 and half hours, not bad for the 3 old ladies. I am so proud of both of them, although I thought Gina would be able to do it, however, I had my doubts about Shirley, but she surprised me, she did it with ease, so don’t let her fool you, she can hike!

After the hike, we were covered with tons of dust and in desperate need of a hot bath, but unfortunately, the hotel room, which we paid the corporate rate of a Toronto Four Season, turned out to be worst than a room in Motel 6. The bathroom was so small, one couldn’t even turn around in there, so of course there was no bathtub, only a tiny shower with huge spiders crawling all over the place. The room itself was bare and it was very noisy since it was facing the highway, and our neighbors partied until 2 or 3 am in the morning didn’t help either. Gina was so terrified of the place, that she put a chair against the door at night, just in case. However, with all these being said about the room, the hotel surrounding was very nice, the Big Sur River runs along side the hotel ground, there were chairs in the water, people can just sit there read and relax or have a drink, and much to our surprise, its restaurant was excellent. (We thought it was going to be a mom and pop establishment serving chicken fried steak). We ended up having breakfast there also.

(Shirley’s note: May was first to take the shower while we were unpacking. A horrify scream came through with shouts of spider, spider… I asked if she wanted me to go in and take care of it. Yes, yes was the response. The huge spiders turned out to be some ¾ inch black spiders. Did not flip them around to see if there was an orange sign at the belly though…)
 

After a great breakfast, we left for Seaside, which is just north of Monterey to meet up with Esther Chu, one of the Lighters who live around there. Esther, Shirley and I and another girl were inseparable when we were in 7 and 8 grades, but we sort of lost touch after they left PC, so it was really nice to see her again. Esther took us to Carmel, Pacific Grove and the marvelous beaches. One look at the area you will understand why she lives there for so long and never have the desire to leave – that area is so captivating, and the weather is mild all year round; it is just a gorgeous place. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Esther after a late lunch because we had a dinner date in San Francisco that we had to keep – the dinner the Bay Area Lighters hosted for us.

 

We arrived at San Francisco right on time for the dinner. We had a big table that seated all 15 of us. Although the dinner was excellent, but being able to spend times with our friends was even better. We really appreciated that so many people showed up, especially seeing Karen Kao, who looks really well after all she had gone through, we are very thankful.

We decided to play tourists on the last day of our trip, so we took the bus to Union Square, then rode the cable car to Fishermen’s Wharf, had a wonderful seafood lunch, walked around Pier 39 before we took the tram and headed back to the hotel. To cap off the night, David Lin and his family treated Gina and I to another great Chinese dinner while Shirley visited her sister who lives in Emeryville.

Our California adventure ended after breakfast the next morning, Shirley and I drove straight back to LA; Gina stayed behind and spent some quality time with her son who lives in San Francisco.

So we did what we set out to do, which is to have a fun and relaxed trip. We only had a very loose itinerary to start the trip with, no getting up the crack of dawn, other than Hearst Castle, no other places that we must visit. We chatted and ate a lot, tried to take in as much the breathtaking sceneries as we possibly could. We didn’t get lost while driving, but that was due to the kindness of Steve Cheng who loaned us his precious GPS. I did yelled at that GPS lady a few times, especially when on couple crucial intersections, she kept her mouth shut while yakking non stop when we know the way, but mostly she was very helpful.

Although I had gone on trips with Shirley quite a few times, but this was the first time I traveled with Gina, (without Steve). We had a great time, we didn’t fight, and we didn’t argue, I wouldn’t mind go on another trip with them again, in fact, we are already thinking about our next destination. But this time we will have to make it sooner rather than later, time waits for no one; we certainly don’t want to wait for another 10 years. So, suggestions, anyone?