North to San Francisco & Amtrak to NY

     On Wednesday we buttoned Big Red up at the Santee Lakes Preserve, and started out on a new adventure. Bright and early we headed north from San Diego on I-5 with a final destination of Emeryville, CA, a suburb of Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco.  Pretty big step for us, because unless you have experienced it, there's nothing that compares to California freeways around LA.  I will tell you now.  If you don't have a specific reason to travel south of Los Angeles.....don't. Traffic is always bad around LA and San Diego highways start shutting down about 2 PM.  Now, don't take this as a complete negative.  San Diego is fun with lots of things to do.  But you have to do them between the hours of 10 AM & 2 PM.  Of course, as I mentioned in my previous blog, there's always the trolley option.
     At 9 AM traffic was at a standstill as we worked our way west toward I-805 & I-5.  On I-5 traffic was moving pretty well, but we were approaching that magical 10 AM hour, when all the traffic seems to just disappear.  North of San Clemente we started getting a little congested, and when we jumped over to I-405 south of LA we discovered the HOV lane.  If you're traveling with a buddy, you get your own special lane, and amazingly, the traffic seemed to honor the 2-person rule.  We had very little trouble cruising past stopped traffic at about 55 mph, as Debbie commented to each driver, "Should have found a buddy!"  We cruised up U.S. 101, El Camino Real,  and as we traveled further and further from SoCal, the terrain got prettier and prettier.
     U.S. 101, also known as El Camino Real, the Royal Road or the King's Highway, is actually 1600 mile highway that joins California's 21 Missions, starting at Mission San Diego de Alcala in the south, and Mission San Francisco in the north.

 Our first stop on today's journey took us to the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.  This mission was the fifth mission founded by Father Junipero Serra, in 1772.  Visible in the picture are 3 bells along the front facade of the Mission.  To the right, there's a wall with 2 additional bells.  The bells are named for the patron saint of the first five Missions, and are tuned to a  specific note.  The ringing of the bells is a tradition started by Father Serra in 1772.  There is a very nice museum at the Mission which contains numerous items showing the history of the Mission, and admission is simply a donation.


There are some very lovely gardens, and Debbie pointed out the Hydrangea's blooming in the garden, and was amazed of the color.

     Day 2 we traveled up California State Route 1, along the magnificent California coastline.  This was the portion of California we were waiting to see. We had journeyed up here previously, about 30 years ago, and visited Hearst Castle, but today we were out to enjoy the coastline.  And we weren't disappointed.  The morning marine layer was still visible, and caused some of the pictures to seem dull, but overall, the views were awesome. The portion between San Luis Obispo and Carmel is an official National Scenic Highway, and once you travel it, you will understand why.

Approximately 4 miles north of Hearst Castle, we saw a sign for Scenic Vista, so we pulled in.  What we had stumbled on to is known as a rookery here at Piedras Blancas (White Rocks), and is a beach dominated by elephant seals. The seals have only been coming to Piedras Blancas since 1990.  One pup was born in 1992, and 5300 were born in 2014.

They were heavily hunted in the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries, and there numbers dwindled to less than 50.  Today their population has grown to over 200,000, with the largest rookery up near Santa Barbara.  Today we watched the return of juveniles and yearlings.  We watched in awe as the young males jousted with each other in the water and on the beach.  But most just seemed to be enjoying the sunshine and catching up on some sleep.

     After having a great dinner at the Black Bear Diner  just across the street from the Hyatt House Emeryville, we are settled in making final preparations for our Journey Across America via Amtrak tomorrow.  The Amtrak Station at Emeryville, where the California Zephyr  begins it's 4 day journey, is located right behind the hotel.  The hotel is letting us leave our car parked out back for 2 weeks, and hopefully everything will work out fine.  

      Check back often, as I'm going to try and keep this running through the entire train trip.  See ya on the rails!