I live in San Luis Obispo County along the Central Coast of California where
it is raining right now, this is the fourth good storm we've had this year
(over 5" so far!!! We average about 14" a year)- very unusual for this part of
the country. We usually don't have the grass come up until December or so but
it is getting green here already in November - very fun.

Don't miss Big Sur along old Highway 1, a really beautiful part of the
California Coast lots of places to camp but call ahead for availability - it's
super busy in the summer but should be a little slower this time of year. The
highway gets washed out every other winter or so so I would check on that
too.

Then there is always Hearst Castle to the south if your into the touristy sort
of stuff.

Cambria is a nice little town south of Hearst Castle with little art shops and
such - Robin's is a very good restaurant there.

Still further south is the city of San Luis Obispo with a great little
downtown with Mission San Luis Obispo in the center of town. Very pleasant to
walk around, lots of places to eat, most of them good.

About ten miles to the west of San Luis Obispo is the town of Los Osos where
GoWesty is located - worth a visit if you crave Vanagon stuff.

South of San Luis is Pismo Beach where I live - we get lots of tourists but
it's mostly people who drive RV's and giant trucks. For reasons unknown the
restaurants absolutely suck - do not eat in Pismo Beach - trust me, we've
tried them all! The camping in Pismo is unpleasant.

Just next to Pismo Beach is Oceano with a small uncontrolled private plane
airport. It is one of the few airports in the nation with camping allowed
adjacent to the runway - if your into planes............. One guy there has an
old Stearman Biplane that tops out at about 70 miles an hour, he gives
airplane rides and will do loop-the-loops and stuff like that - lots of fun.

An hour and a half south of Pismo is Santa Barbara - one of the nicest places
in the world one can live. There are a few public campgrounds north of Santa
Barbara - all of them pretty decent.

Have a fun and safe trip........

Markus in Pismo Beach
 
 
 ------ Original Message ------

 Received: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 09:27:16 AM PST

 From: Darren Lastfogel <dlastfogel@PLYFORMS.COM>

 To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM

 Subject: Re: California Dreamin - Trip up/down coast, need advice

 

 Hello
 

 I once lived near San Francisco and one of my favorite day trips was to
 

 Bodega Bay and sometimes we would go to half moon bay, Both are very
 

 beautiful areas as far as where to camp maybe you could find a place online.
 

 Another place that I liked to go hiking and fishing was Lake Beryessa ( I am
 

 sure that is spelled wrong )Look it up.
 

 
 

 Darren
 

 
 

 -----Original Message-----
 

 From: Phil Walker [mailto:phil.walker@BROOKS.COM]
 

 Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 11:27 AM
 

 To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
 

 Subject: California Dreamin - Trip up/down coast, need advice
 

 
 

 
 

 For the Thanksgiving holiday week we are thinking about driving up the coast
 

 of Cali (from south to San Fran). Our trip would be Salt Lake to Ventura, up
 

 the coast to San Fran and over through Reno back to Salt Lake. We've been to
 

 San Fran and to Southern Cal, but never in between. We're brining our young
 

 son along (1.25 years) so we're going to be flxible about how long we drive
 

 and where we stop. I'm looking for some suggestions on:
 

 
 

 - Things to NOT MISS on the coast.
 

 
 

 - Good places to camp (or any place to camp!) -- We've stayed at some of the
 

 various beaches south of San Fran, so I'm assuming there are campgrounds
 

 like this all along the coast
 

 
 

 - Good places to EAT! Any hole-in-the-wall resturants would be great. It
 

 would also be neat to find a cool place for turkey day.
 

 
 

 - Busses to meet! If anyone is doing the same thing, we'd at least like to
 

 know where we can wave at you.
 

 
 

 - Anything else I may have forgotten.
 

 
 

 The end of the trip is open-ended, so we don't need to be on too-tight of a
 

 schedule (7-9 days I think). We're looking forward to a happy turkey day!
 

 
 

 Thanks,
 

 
 

 -Phil (Suzanne, Sage and Star - yorkie)
 

 
 

 SLC, UT - 89 Westy --> Blue with yellow v'gon.com stickers