San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara

We've always liked San Luis Obispo so decided to stop there overnight. We stayed at the Garden Street Inn which is in a lovely old building. It was amazingly inexpensive and included a wonderful breakfast. 

Andrew went for a longer run but I stuck close by along the short creekside paths in the downtown area. It's not very long so I did a few laps and stopped each round and did some air squats and step ups to help get my workout in. Definitely some great scenery in this small area. 

"Yach Ka" (The Fish Steelhead)

Note the white egret at the bottom of the photo.

The are several bridges that can be used to cross the creek.
From ones like this to some large rocks to step across. 

I wanted to get a bit more distance on my run so went past the hotel and, up the street, came to this building totally covered in vines. 

We then headed over to Avila Beach for coffee at a waterfront cafe and to continue our way south. 

 

Pismo Beach and the Monarch Butterfly Grove wasn't too much further down the road and we loved seeing all the monarchs when we were in Mexico a couple years ago. There were just a few butterflies around (many more will arrive later in October) but there's a large education component to the grove, from learning how to provide a suitable environment for monarchs, to research projects that are being done to ensure their livelihood. The monarch population has decreased significantly over the years from about 230,000 in 1990-1991 to less than 23,000 in 2021-2022, and some recent years even lower. 

We still had some time to spare before getting to Santa Barbara, and found Presqu'ile Winery near Santa Maria to have a "picnic" lunch. Albeit in rather fancy surroundings! #vanlife ????  :-) 

Cape Disappointment and WA-OR Coastline

As we headed south along the Washington/Oregon coast it started to rain and kept it up on and off for a couple of soggy and foggy days. While it's not as nice as sunshine, it makes for some interesting views. 

We stayed overnight at Cape Disappointment and, in the morning between rain showers, went for a walk along the beach. The pelicans and seagulls were in abundance! Of course, they started to fly away as we got closer but this also made for some interesting photos. 

It continued to rain most of the morning but gradually we began to see some sunshine. 

We turned inland to start making our way around the chaos of San Francisco and suburbs and found a beautiful little campsite among the redwoods at Van Duzen Campground. Great place for a morning working out as well!  

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium

We headed out on our fall road trip by taking the Coho Ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles. The mountains were hazy from smoke due to recent wildfires. 

The following morning, it was foggy heading into Tacoma and looked like we were on a bridge to nowhere as we crossed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. 

Our first main stop was the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It's surprising we've never discovered this one before! It was really good and I hope we have time to stop again on our way back. In addition to the zoo and aquarium, there's also botanical gardens and lots of trails that we didn't get to. 

There's quite a large exhibit about the wolves that were near extinction and how the
zoo breeding program helped bring them back. 

Cute frog out on the flowers!

See the worm? It's lunch time.

Sleepy otter

HUGE flower! Hand for size reference.

Momma and Baby Seal

Last August, after we first took possession of our new home in Victoria, we often saw a mother seal and baby on the little island just in front of our place. 

Momma (presumably the same one) is back again this year with another baby but we've only seen them about three times. Too bad, as they are very cute! 

Photo taken by Andrew as he gets much better shots than I do. 

Butchart Gardens in the Late Summer

Last week, Andrew, Penny, Clare and I headed out to Butchart Gardens and, once again, it certainly didn't disappoint! Dahlias (and bees) were the main attraction but there was so much colour everywhere! 

It's been so different each time we've gone and it makes me realize what a massive undertaking it must be to change displays and keep everything looking so beautiful all the time. They really do a wonderful job of it!