PCH – Day Ten – San Simeon, CA to Oxnard, CA

This was the day that wasn’t originally planned… I slowed down the trip to lessen one day in LA so we could explore Cambria, Morrow Bay, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, and Santa Barbara.

Before leaving San Simeon, we went looking for zebras. We even found one! Yes we did! As Travis Tritt said, “That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!” Seriously, San Simeon has zebra that populated after the zoo on the grounds of Hearst Castle was closed. Hunter was looking so hard. I saw this guy all by his lonesome and decided to give Hunter an early morning win and honestly, it may be a zebra.

And then back to the elephant seal vista point. This two were starting to get I to it and the big one moved so fast to break it up!

Down into the town one Cambria, we walked around Moonstone Beach a little, found the now closed NitWit Ridge, and ate breakfast at Linn’s Easy As Pie Cafe.

After a most delicious breakfast at Linn’s where I didn’t get to eat any of olallieberry, but I did buy a jar of ship home. We moved onto The Brown Butter Cookie Company, which Josh and Pops had told me about on the YouTube channel link here again, my absolute favorite YouTube channel. I get a ton of information from Josh and he is definitively a friend in my head. The cookies were ridiculous. I had a sample I was greeted with a sample of the most ridiculous cook. I’ve ever eaten in my life, and Hunter bought a lemon sugar cookie and happily gobbled it up.

We then moved onto to Morrow Bay where I had intended to hike around the Morro Bay Rock, but once I actually saw it with my own two eyes, the answer was definitive no! Hard hard pass… it’s HUGE!

Hunter and I went to the Museum of Natural History and found the most wonderful most interactive most well put together small town museum I have ever seen in my life! I genuinely cannot say enough about it. If you ever find yourself in Morro Bay, this a must on your itinerary…and not just for kids! There’s a park ranger to answer any questions, a lovely little gift shop, and also a hiking trail up to a vista point where we got the most incredible pictures. I tried to have Hunter take a few pictures of me… I don’t think it worked out all that well. You be the judge lol

After lunch, we went to San Luis Obispo to put our gum in Bubble Gum Alley. And yes, I again had to chew the gum because Hunter doesn’t like gum. We also found the coolest surf shop called Moondoggies. I was the biggest Gidget fan growing up, so of course we had to stop and of course I bought Hunter a shirt. We passed the local mission, walked the riverwalk, and on the way out of town, found the world’s oldest motel.

In 2022, I stayed at The Madonna Inn, and it was worth every penny, but I didn’t get to eat at The Copper Cafe, so Hunter and I rectified that this afternoon. I also snuck into the men’s room because their urinal is a waterfall… no, I’m not joking

On Pismo Beach we walked the pier and encountered the most incredible women who work at the information center, which is an airstream trailer on the pier! These women won the lottery of great jobs in America! They were incredibly nice and very helpful. We popped into a couple of shops and then started our drive to Santa Barbara.

Also… If you’re in Pismo Beach are supposed to eat at splashdown Café, but there was no way I was fitting more food into me at that moment, but I did take a picture of it!

In between Pismo Beach and Santa Barbara it’s not a very exciting drive down Route One with mountains on both sides and no ocean view. But then we took the exit for Santa Barbara, drove down Stearns Wharf pier (which wasn’t stressful at all), and had a really good dinner! Hunter undeterred by his last linguine and clams sauce ordered it again and I had to stop him from picking the plate. I got homemade crab cakes.