Day 72 - Paso Robles, CA to Solvang, CA

Mike Mladenoff
Jun 12, 2016
3 min read

Updated: Apr 27, 2020

Leaving Paso Robles, we turned west toward Cambria driving through winery row. We've been to Cambria several times, but it was fun to visit some familiar places and show the rest of the family where we come every year on our anniversary. We found a good parking spot on the street and visited Kristen's favorite yarn shop.

Before leaving, we bought some gluten free treats at Linn's Restaurant and then walked across the street to pick up some sandwiches for lunch.

Kristen found some flowers that she wanted to bring back to our home garden.

We the headed up the coast to San Simeon to stop at the Elephant Seal Rookery. As we approached the parking lot we noticed that it was very crowded, so we kept driving to look for a better spot. It just so happened that 1/2 mile north of the main parking lot was another turnout. We did not actually know if there was a place to park as the lot was lower than the road and we could not see it. So we gambled and turned and and just as we crested the entry, we were greeted with a virtually empty parking lot with lots of room. We ate our lunch that we purchased earlier in Cambria and then spent some time watching and listening to the elephant seals. It was a pretty cool sight, but these creatures sure do make some noise and they stink.

We turned back south and decided to stop at Moonstone Beach in Cambria.

Just south of Cambria is the little town of Harmony. The townspeople make a big deal about how few people actually live here. If you blink while driving, this place is easy to miss. However, we knew about this area beforehand and visited the chapel and the glass studio.

At this glass studio, you can pay for a hands on glass making experience. Luckily, while we were there, someone had paid for such and experience and was making a bowl.

The last stop of the day was Solvang. Like always, the main street was crowded and we started looking for a good spot to park. Along the road, we saw signs for dedicated RV parking, but had trouble finding the location. Once we found the lot, we gathered our stuff to get out and experience the City. As we were doing this, we noticed that there was another RV in the lot that appeared to have been rented by a Korean family. I'm not exactly sure what they were up to, but they kept doing high speed laps in the parking lot. Eventually they stopped and just drove off. And just as we walked out of the lot, that was also shared by the sheriff's department, a patrol car can speeding through the lot and nearly hit Rachel. This upset me and I went back to talk to someone in the office, but all I could hear as laughing and they could not hear me outside trying to get their attention. However, there was a sign on the door with a telephone number, so I called it and reported the incident to the officer on the phone. I'm not sure what happened after that, but we just moved on.