Santa Barbara to Cambria

I stopped for lunch in Solvang, a town made famous by the movie “Sideways.” It’s known for its wines, especially its Pinot Noir. I saw a couple of locations I remembered from the movie, most notably a restaurant with a yellow sign in the front. Before the wines put it on the map, it was known for being a little slice of Denmark, complete with Danish bakeries and a windmill. The town had the signs of a bad economy though – stores shuttered and not a lot of tourists. Maybe “Sideways” generated some overbuilding? Or was this just the beginning and I would see the effects of the recession everywhere I went? I had planned to eat lunch in one of the bakeries, thinking that they might serve lunch and then I would get something sweet as a treat. Turned out all that they served were sweets – so I had some florentine cookies for lunch. Wasn’t the first time, wouldn’t be the last – though I did want something more fortifying. I walked around for a bit and thought what the heck, when in Rome – so I went into one of the tasting rooms and tried some of the wines. To cleanse the palate between wines, the tasting room offered some crackers – the combination of wine and crackers balanced out the sweet lunch. I had less than a glass total and more than enough crackers and water to feel not the least bit impaired, but for good measure I walked around a bit more before getting back in the car – after all, I don’t drink a lot, had not had a lot to drink in Morocco, and hadn’t driven a car in two years! I also bought wine to deliver to everyone I was going to stay with until I got to Chicago and would turn in the car. On the way out of town, I drove past vineyards far and wide.


Time to move on! I stopped at Pismo Beach, which is one of the few (if not the only) spots on the California coast where you can drive on the beach. I expected Bugs Bunny to climb out of a hole with a carrot, but didn’t see him. I stopped in San Luis Obispo for a little walk/drive around the historic area. I went past Morro Bay and was drawn to Morro Rock, a volcanic cone that reminded me of the little mountain on the way to Timhadite. It’s probably more closely related to the outcroppings at Cannon Beach, Oregon, but it’s all by itself here in the middle of the California coast. It would be fun to walk out to the rock…sometime when there’s more time? The destination for the evening, on Martha’s recommendation, was Cambria, a little seaside artist’s colony south of Big Sur. There, I had booked a lovely B&B that was connected to a store selling Shaker furniture, and I decided that if there’s room for it in my future home, I’d like a Shaker dining set. I spent a good portion of my Morocco years sitting at a plastic dining table in a plastic chair – it actually wasn’t that bad, but these Shaker ones were beautiful.




Cambria has some very cute gift shops, and after I got settled in my room, I took a walk. I passed a rock/crystal store and did a double-take – in the window there was a large black-and-white fossil of the kind found in Erfoud, the orthoceras. I walked in and asked where it was from and then said, “don’t tell me, I’ll tell you – Erfoud, Morocco; right?” I asked her if she had any bowls. Martha and Susan had bought a bowl in the Azrou Artisana and put it in the box that has yet to arrive. All right, it is never going to arrive. I had bought them a couple of things to replace what was never going to arrive, and if I could get them an Erfoud bowl….then they’d have one! I bought it and had it sent! Turns out my brother-in-law has some of those fossils too, out here in Southampton. I think they are beautiful. As to whether I should have gotten more in Morocco – well, now I know they can be found here too. I went to the beach for sunset and then out to dinner. So far, two days, about 150 miles each – not a lot of driving, but the days were full!