April 10th to 13th - Monterey, Santa Rosa

April 10th - Thurs - to Monterey, CA
This was a busy and slightly stressful day.
We left Buellton about 8:45 and arrived at the Hearst Castle just before 11. We were not able to get on a tour until 1:10 so we watched the 40 minute “Building the Dream” movie first. Then we walked back to the 5th wheel and I made a nice lunch. I really enjoyed the castle tour while Terry put up with it for me!
The castle was different than I expected. Mr. Hearst had collected all types of things from Europe & England - statues, carved ceilings, church choir seats, doors, windows, paintings and tapestries for example - and incorporated everything into his buildings. We saw some of the main house - the Casa Grande - and one floor of one guest house. The interiors were very dark and “castle-y”.
When we left the castle, we went north along Highway 1 which goes along the coast. We were not aware that it was sometimes hundreds of feet above the water so there was a lot of climbing involved and we got ourselves into a short fuel situation again. The 3 service stations along the way did not have diesel and when we finally filled up we took almost 32 gallons in our 34 gallon tank.
We are staying at the Laguna Seca Recreational Area which is run by the state parks but includes what looks like a private race (car) facility. It was my choice as it costs “only” $30 per night as opposed to $50 to $70 in other parks in the area. We turned off the highway and immediately saw a sign for a 16% hill to get here. Terry was impressed with my choice at that point!
There are 2 areas with hook-ups and one without. We selected a spot near the road and then took a drive around the other loop. There were lots of people there and a forest of tents with kids so we decided to stay by the road. There is a one way road around this loop but several of the sites are backwards to the line of travel so you would have to go the wrong way around the loop to back into them. We are going to spend most of tomorrow in Monterey so figured the road would not bother us.
Terry’s Mom is back in the hospital with pneumonia. Don says her attitude is still pretty good and they are hoping she will be back in rehab by Monday.

April 11th - Fri - Monterey
The RV park was very quiet and dark last night. Had a great sleep.
We went first to the Monterey Aquarium this morning. It is a huge, two story building and is very impressive. We seemed to be 15 minutes too early or too late for feedings but enjoyed seeing everything.
Next we walked down “Cannery Row” and browsed through several stores without buying anything. Back to the truck to drive to Fisherman’s Wharf where we window shopped, had clam chowder in a bread bowl for lunch and watched sea lions basking in the sun on a dock.
More California “sticker shock” - you have to pay for parking everywhere in Monterey, 75 cents for ½ hour or each part of ½ hour.
The RV park is not in a town so we drove to Salinas to a grocery store for a few items. When we got back to the RV park, trucks & trailers were constantly going past to the race track with their cars for races tomorrow. Terry took the opportunity of basically no rules in the park to clean the bugs off the 5th wheel and wash the truck.
There were some trial car races going on so we decided to walk up the park a little for a better view. Just as we started out, all the trucks/motor homes and trailers started pulling out of a staging area and heading past us to go around to an area where they would be staying. Many, many dollars rolled past us!!

April 12th - Sat - to Santa Rosa
We thought about staying another night so we could watch the car races but decided to carry on. Terry did not want to drive through San Francisco so we headed over to I5, through Stockton and then drove north of San Francisco back to Hwy 101. One long section of highway was narrow 2 lane with posts on the centerline to stop cars from passing. A subsequent section had a concrete barrier down the centerline. There must have been a lot of accidents for that extreme measure.
We stopped at a rest area so I could make some breakfast. Just started cooking when the wind changed a bit and the large feed-lot hidden by a semi parked beside us became evident. We ate in a hurry and got out of there.
We are staying at an RV park at the fairgrounds in Santa Rosa. Our PA book said you could stay three nights at the PA rate but we were informed that as of March 1st it was changed to 1 night.
We set up and then went to find a bank and a grocery store as it seemed time for baby back ribs. Stopped on the way back for me to get a haircut and then relaxed and enjoyed dinner. But then we had to check out a casino about 15 miles away. As we drove north on 101, we could see a large, well lighted building on a hill to our right. It turned out to be the casino which you reached by going past it and over a bridge and then along a very windy, narrow road through farm land. There were 2 huge, multi-level parking garages and a large casino. We played for a few hours before losing our allotted amount.

April 13th - Sun - Santa Rosa
The RV park provided a great magazine of “101 things to do” in this area. So after checking email (yes, there is wi-fi at a fairgrounds RV park!), eating breakfast, paying for another night and visiting with neighbors, we went exploring.
We drove to nearby Sebastopol and found a street with whimsical junk sculptures in many front yards. Searched for a flea market that turned out to be only Costco clothing for sale and then headed for Bodega Bay, passing through Bodega where much of the movie “The Birds” was filmed.
We continued on up Hwy 1 to Jenner, stopping a couple of times to take pictures. There were lots of cars on every available parking area near paths to beaches and lots of people on the beaches. It was cool (62) and breezy but people were sunbathing and wading in the surf.
We stopped at a flea market in Guerneville and then succumbed to ice cream. We walked through the most amazing collection of junk for sale at the flea market. It was in a rickety, long, narrow building and was totally mind boggling. I kept trying to think of something that I could ask for but didn’t come up with anything weird enough!
Did a couple loads of laundry while Terry tried to figure out what our destination should be tomorrow.