Road trip to the California Central Coast : Part 1

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A road trip after not traveling for a few months 

Well, my husband suddenly said,” Let’s go to Monterey this weekend!”

 

My husband will suddenly plan a trip, and it’s a kind of a surprise gift.

 

So we went on a road trip to Monterey, where we had gone 3 years ago!

 

We drove about 320 miles each way during 3 days, as shown on the map:

 

Wine tasting at a winery 

The route on the first day is

Home  ➡   Winery  ➡  Morro Bay  ➡  Moonstone Beach 

 

The distance is about 220 miles.

 

When we got off the freeway, I could see huge vineyards 

 

The view of vineyards.

 

We saw a sign for a winery and wine tasting and so we suddenly stopped and went to their

tasting room.

 

This area is called, “Califonia Central Coast” and it is also known for its several wine districts.

 

Most Japanese people think that California wine = Napa or Sonoma, which are both north of

San Francisco.

 

However, many wineries are concentrated in this area which is south of San Francisco but north

of Los Angeles.

 

As you can see on the following map, the areas with colors are all wine districts with numerous

wineries in each district.

 

When we checked this map, we could see that there are many wineries to visit!

 

LAETITIA Winery which we visited is in Arroyo Grande district. (Blue circle)

 

The winery which we stopped at this time is called “LAETITIA Winery”

 

 

The entrance of LAETITIA Winery.

 

There are vineyards as far as the eye could see.

 

The tasting room in this building.

 

We can taste five kinds of wine from the tasting menu. It costs just $10!

The tasting room is open from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM every day.

 

The tasting room has a high ceiling and is a bright room. Also, the staff is very nice and friendly!

 

We could choose five different kinds, for example sparkling, white, red and dessert wine

from the menu.

 

There are many kinds of wine on the menu. I couldn’t make up my mind!

 

I chose sparkling wine, Rose wine, two different kinds of white wine and red wine, and then

shared with my husband.

 

The staff was friendly and they suggested some matches for each customer’s taste.

 

The person in charge was a middle-aged man who used to work for as a firefighter in the city

of Los Angeles.

 

He was so nice person and he was born in Orange County which is the city as same as

my husband.

 

They talked and talked. Haha 

 

Anyway, American people tend to talk to so if they hit it off, they talk on and on.

 

I could not jump into that conversation so just I was smiling 

 

This is Chardonnay. The taste was light and dry. Actually, we bought a bottle of this wine.

 

This is Pinot Noir. Medium body and the taste was nice as well.

 

 

About “LAETITIA Winery”   ↓   ↓   ↓

http://www.laetitiawine.com/tasting-room/

 

 

◆We encountered some wild animals in Morro Bay!

We left the winery then drove to the next place, Morro Bay.

 

Morro Bay is a small port town with an iconic geographic feature, Morro rock.

 

It’s known an ancient volcanic mound.  There is a chain of nine volcanic mountains

which run between Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo. 

 

They called the Nine Sisters or the Morros.

 

The Morro Rock is the first mountain in the nine sisters. It used to be a sacred place for native

Indians before the Spanish came to America.

 

This place changed over time.

 

During World War Ⅱ, this area was used for training for the military.   Also, Morro rock was used

as an observation point for seacoast defense by the American Navy.

 

However, in recent years, the government changed the rules and then this Morro rock becomes a

sacred place again

It is now prohibited by law to climb up the mountain on the footpath used by the Navy.

 

The first mountain of the Nine Sisters, Morro Rock, and the Morro Bay.

 

This town is a small port town and this atmosphere was reminiscent of the port town

in Izu, Japan 

 

I felt comfortable and the time went by so slowly in this town.

 

We completely forgot to eat lunch so we tried to find a restaurant at the port.

 

When we were walking on the boardwalk, suddenly we found some wild sea otters!

 

I’ve never seen wild sea otters like this! (Just in an Aquarium)

I was so excited to see them 

 

Wild sea otters were floating in the bay.

 

The video of cute sea otters!   ↓   ↓   ↓

 

I was madly in love with watching these cute otters especially the three babies.

 

However, we were starving by now, so we left to have lunch.

 

Many of the restaurants in this small town have the similar menu 

 

We chose a casual small restaurant which has a patio and we could see the ocean.

 

I ordered a clam chowder soup which is the restaurant’s specialty, Bay shrimp cocktail,

and fried potatoes.

 

The soup and the shrimp tasted good!

 

Clam chowder soup, Bay shrimp cocktail, and fried potatoes.

 

We stuffed ourselves with food then we had coffee to go for a walk.

 

When we were walking along the boardwalk, we saw some people were getting on a small

cruise boat.

 

The curious scenery temped us, then the friendly boat captain asked us to join the short cruise.

 

“Hey, guys! This is the last cruise today before the sun goes down. We are leaving within a

few minutes. Why don’t you join us? Don’t worry about the money. Pay later.”

 

I really love the light-hearted character of these Americans!

 

This small boat which we got on.

 

The tour was about 40 minutes and the boat captain explained about the history

of the bay, the wild animals and so on.

 

It was an interesting story and we enjoyed very much.

 

We could see Sea Otters and Sea Lions which were sunbathing.

 

It was an amazing tour! 

 

Many Sea Lions were sunbathing before sunset.

 

You can watch the video of Sea Lions   ↓   ↓   ↓

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QnYdw-kRhk

 

Another feature of Morro Bay is that it is quite popular for surfing.

The inside of the bay is very calm, but outside the ocean is so wavy.

 

When we visited there, there were many surfers were riding waves about a meter high.

 

Wavy surf point at the Morro Bay.

 

 

The last destination of the first day was “Moonstone Beach” 

After we spent a few hours at Morro Bay, we drove to Moonstone Beach where we spent the night.

 

We drove about 30 minutes further north to the motel in the town of Cambria.

 

It was a nice timing to see the sunset.

 

We stopped at the beach before we got to the motel and then we watched the sun go down

in the Pacific Ocean.

 

We saw a couple who were middle 60’s seated on the rear of a pickup truck, watching the sunset,

eating dinner and drinking wine .

 

I thought that it was a sweet scene because I have never seen like this couple in Japan.

 

The sunset at Moonstone Beach.

 

Great view of the sunset  ↓   ↓   ↓

 

Thank you for reading my blog today as well!

 

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