On March 10th we drove 69 miles north to the Santa Maria Elks lodge. Nice setup with 50AMP full hookups.
That night our weather radio went off to tell us about the huge Japanese earthquake and to say there was probably a tsunami threat. About 45 minutes later the weather radio went off again with the tsunami warning. Luckily we were inland and at over 200' elevation so we went back to bed. In the morning we were glued to the internet watching the news come in.
That day we ran errands in Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo and parking lots were full of RVs that had been evacuated from low lying areas. We had a good lunch at Huckleberry's in Pismo Beach and heard that they were allowing campers back into some campgrounds. We drove down by the Oceano Elks lodge, where we stayed March 2009, where they were allowing some RVs back in. There was no significant damage locally, but people did watch the tsunami take the water way out and back in.
On the 12th we went to Morro Bay. Here is Morro Rock.
Some of the beggars.
There is some surf today.
And a few people walking, including dogs.
Video of Morro Bay (1.93MB WMV)
We went to the backside of Morro Rock and a bunch of people had scopes on some falcons. This is our best photo showing a Peregrine Falcon.
A close-up from the above photo:
It was lunch time so we had lunch at Thai Bounty in Morro Bay and it was quite good.
March 14th we headed to San Simeon and had a very nice lunch here:
We sat inside but they had a nice outside seating area with a garden and view.
Then we drove north a few miles to the Elephant Seal viewing area.
Elephant Seal Photos and Video
The pier at San Simeon on our way back home.
The view from out on the pier.
This sea otter was hard to photograph as it kept diving.
Video of Sea Otter (365KB WMV)
You can see Hearst Castle in the background. We visited the castle in the late 80s and enjoyed the tour. For some reason we have not been as interested in touring again. Natural attractions like elephant seals excite us more than manmade stuff.
Now we will make our way back to Hesperia.
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