57131--17 miles north of the blue door of Harmony

We are in Cambria, which sits on the coast, about 100 miles south of Monterey. It's a lovely spot. Our room is just across the street from the beach, and we could hear the waves crashing all night. The internet here is almost non-existent, and there is no cell phone signal. Maybe that's a good thing.



We stopped at Harris Ranch on the way down. It's a big steakhouse place on Hwy 5 in the middle of nowhere. I've been stopping there since the 70s, when the Chronicle travel columnist, Stanton Delaplane used to write about it. Back then you could get a big NY steak sandwich with enchiladas for about $13. The same sandwich costs $21 now, and doesn't have enchiladas. A side salad is $7. Every time I say "never again", but I keep going back. I wonder what Stanton Delaplane would think.



We got here in the mid afternoon and took a walk along the beach. We took another walk just before sunset and ended up at the seafood restaurant, where we had a very nice halibut dinner.

I brought two cameras with me, but forgot to bring a card reader. One of the cameras uses a card that fits into the Macbook, but I forgot to put the card in the camera. So it's iPhone pictures until I get home.

57132--internet slower than dialup

We had a great day. After breakfast we drove up the coast a bit to Hearst Castle. It was foggy, so the views weren't great, but Malida loved the house tour, and we spent a lot of time after the tour wandering the grounds and taking pictures. Pictures I can't download to the computer because I forgot the card reader, and even if I had brought it, the internet is so terrible that I can't even upload a crappy cellphone picture.

We came back after our tour and rested a while, and then walked up the beach to the place we wanted to have dinner. It's the restaurant that is listed as a distant second to the one we ate at last night, but we really loved it. Very little wait, a table with a view of the ocean, and excellent food. Can't ask for more than that.

As we finished dinner, the fog burned away, and the sun came out, just before sunset. We went back to the hotel and got our cameras and walked out on the beach to watch the sunset. It was just about perfect.

I tried to upload a picture here, but got the HTTP unhappy face. First post in I don't know how long without a picture. :(


Here's one that was in my LJ archives--a picture of a lighthouse door. Close enough.