Laguna & Los Osos

 

                                              

Feb 13, 2025 - We made it to Laguna today, and stayed overnight before our drive to Los Osos for the long weekend.  We're excited to finally visit Los Osos and see the house that Elaine & Ian bought.  We're meeting up with Ian and his parents to do some demolition on the house before Elaine & Ian move in, in a few weeks.  

We needed a quick arm workout before a walk down the street for dinner at Wine Gallery for happy hour.

half price pizza, meatballs and fries

then a quick game of Qwinto before bed.

Feb 14, 2025 - Kevin got up at 5:00AM and drove the RV to Los Osos.  It's a 4.5 hour drive when there isn't any traffic and it's pretty hard to find a time when there isn't any traffic since you have to drive through LA to get there.  Elaine is working a half day, so I'm hanging at Starbucks, while she works and then we'll head north at around noon.  Since we're not getting there until 5ish, we'll meet everyone at the vineyard in Paso Robles. 

A pretty rainbow at a rest stop on our way to Paso Robles

It looked like we could walk over to the end of the rainbow and find the pot of gold

Pretty drive when we're getting close to the vineyard.

and then not so pretty

We made it to the vineyard and the new house looks great!

Last time we were here (at Elaine & Ian's wedding, Sept 2021) this room didn't have finished walls, floors, or windows.

 

Feb 15, 2025 - We're all headed to the new house in Los Osos this morning.  It's about a 45 minute drive from the vineyard.

pretty sunrise from the new deck

Happy Valentine's Day

We made it!  Love that mountain in the distance.  I think it's Hollister Peak which is one of the 9 Morros or 9 sisters.  It's a 1404 ft peak that is part of a chain of volcanic plugs, that run from Morro Bay to San Luis Obispo.  Morro Bay Rock is one of the sisters.  A volcanic plug is a volcanic object which is created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano.  Hollister peak can't be hiked because it's on private land, but a lot of the peaks in the area can.

They've made a lot of progress.  There are 2 stairways in the new house, and they thought it would be good to get rid of one of the stairways so the living room is more open and the space on the first floor will be added to the master bedroom.

There's Morro Bay Rock in the distance

and Hollister Peak

a walk around the block with Elaine

we stopped at the Honey market down the street.  How cute!

and we're back home

Next Elaine and I drove downtown (which is only a mile away) to pick up sandwiches for the crew.  We did a quick walk through town while we were there.  Love this boardwalk next to the bay

lots of kayaks

it's like a lake out there today

doesn't this look like a pineapple?

more kayak pics

downtown Los Osos is a pretty laid back spot...love it!

downtown is only about 2 blocks long, we're looking down to the bay

we picked up sandwiches at High St Deli, which has a wonderful outdoor garden (as do most restaurants in downtown Los Osos).  I of course love the bench inside the old VW van.

and another cute bench

Todd and Laurie in the dumpster (which is getting quite full)

Kev's on break

that's a big hole

all this space gets added to the master

view from the kitchen

the remaining stairs

We're back at the vineyard and having a beer at the horse shoe pit

Kevin and Ian are playing horse shoes

Anderson Hill (one of our favorite places to camp)

the new road to the new vineyard house

sunset though Tiny

it's a little chilly and that fire is taking the edge off.

Feb 16, 2025 - Another day at the Osos house.

sunrise at the vineyard

nice bench in downtown Osos

coffee from the Nautical Bean

the town pier

half bear/half cow paddle boarding?

nice stump table and chairs

Elaine, Laurie & I walked down Elaine's street for a walk around the 1 mile boardwalk loop in the Elfin Forest (there's Morro Rock in the background)

Hollister peak in the distance

Morro Bay estuary

they're closing up the hole

looks great!

Feb 17, 2025 - Todd, Laurie and Ian all headed back to Laguna, but Elaine has Tuesday off, so she's hanging out with us for another day, yay!

On our way to Osos, we stopped at SloDoCo, in Atascadero for a pillow donut, which was so good

a walk at the vineyard

Feb 18, 2025 - Elaine's headed back to Laguna today, and Kev and I are going to hang around Los Osos for awhile.

a foggy morning at the vineyard

I think there's a sunset in there

Feb 19, 2025 - Today we rode our bikes downtown and went for a walk in the Elfin forest

after riding downtown, we had lunch at the picnic table at the pier

a walk through the forest

there are a lot of bear sculptures in Los Osos, (Osos is bears in Spanish).  When the area was discovered by the Spanish in 1769, it was called the valley of the bears, since there were so many bears here.

Sunset with Morro Rock in the distance

Joshua Tree

 

                               

Feb 11, 2025 - It is a 7 hour drive from Tucson to our next stop, Joshua Tree National Park.  We have reservations at Black Rock Canyon Campground ($17/night with our Sr National Park Pass).  The campground is on the northwestern side of the park, and not far from the town of Joshua Tree.  Last time we were here we stayed at Indian Cove Campground, not far from here.  The Black Rock Nature Center is at the campground (it's pretty small with not much going on).  There are lots of hiking trails that leave from the campground and we'll probably just stick close, since we've been doing so much driving.

Sunrise in Tucson

I love a sunrise over the mountains

Tiny's

We drove by Pinal Airpark (between Tucson and Phoenix).  The "Boneyard" is a site for storage of out of service aircraft.  The dry desert climate prevents corrosion.  It is the largest airplane storage facility of its kind in the world.

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We drove by Picacho Peak State Park, doesn't it have a distinctive peak?  We camped here for a week in 2018.  It has some really nice hiking trails.

We made it to California!  The Agricultural border check station. 

 

If you look closely there are mountains in the distance, but it's really windy here in Palm Springs and the visibility is quite low.

A little less windy as we drove

lots and lots of wind turbines and solar panels

Sunset from our campground

Site 15 in Black Rock Canyon Campground.  There aren't any hookups here (like most NP campgrounds), but there is a bathroom (but no showers) and a dump station and potable water.

nice evening view out the window

Feb 12, 2025 - We enjoyed a chill morning "at home" and then hiked the High View Nature Trail, which is 3 miles round trip, right from the campground.  It was a pretty hike and the views from the top were great!

hiking up

nice view, and a little sun popped out

gray day

there's a roadrunner

up close

We're Headed South on Our Way West

                                

                                 

Feb 6-8, 2025 - Elaine and Ian bought a new house in Los Osos and we're going to Cali to help with some demolition in the house and to help them move.  We've only been home from Hawaii for 3 days, but we're already bored and the weather looks like it's going to be cold and snowy, so why not leave now?  We decided on Thursday to leave and it only took a few hours for Kevin to un-winterize the van and for us to pack it up with everything we need.  It was going to get into the low 20's Thursday night, so we planned a route that would keep us out of the cold.  We drove 2.5 hours to just south of Louisville, where it was going to hit a low of 32 (which we can handle with an un-winterized RV).  We stayed at Walmart in Sheppardsville, KY.  On Friday we drove 11.5 hours to a Cracker Barrel in Greenville, TX (just east of Dallas).  Saturday we drove 10 hours to El Paso, where we stayed in a Walmart Parking lot.  

                     

pretty sunrise this morning

In Western Texas we're finally seeing some mountains in the distance

lots of cargo trains out here

Feb 9, 2025 -  Today we have a short drive day...only 5 hours to Tucson.  We've been to Tucson before and enjoyed the biking trail in the city (we brought our bikes) and we liked Saguaro National Park.  I found a private campground (Desert Trails RV Park) just outside of Tucson where we'll stay for the next 2 nights.  It's got full hook-ups and is only $50/night.   

I liked this sign welcoming us to New Mexico

more cargo trains

and lots of Saguaros!

that's a hillside full of them

We've got our very own Saguaro at site G4

Feb 10, 2025 - Today we took the bikes to Tucson for a bike ride on the Tucson loop trail.  We started at the Santa Cruz River Park Silver Lake Access.  We did a 10 mile ride, crossing over the "river" (riverbed) half way and riding back to the car down the other side.  After the bike ride we drove to Gates Pass Scenic Overlook for a hike and then to Saguaro National Park Red Hills Visitor Center.  We had dinner in the park with a view of the saguaros.  When we got back to the campground Kev finished off the day with Rummikub at the Activity Center.  

the view out the RV window this morning

I just had to "hop" onto this frog along the bike trail

lunch at the trailhead

Tucson in the distance

we ran into a horse along the way

watch out for the ice on the bridge!

nice sculpture 

view from the Gates Pass Scenic Overlook Trail in Tucson Mountain Park

sweeping views

it was a nice hike!

view from the Saguaro NP visitor center

this is what the frame of a Saguaro looks like. 

A cross section of a Saguaro.  The frame is in the middle, surrounded by water.  You can guess the age of a Saguaro based on how tall it is.  A one inch Saguaro is 5-10 years old.  They begin to grow branches (arms) at 50-100 years.  Old age and death are at 150-200 years and a few saguaros can live to be over 200 years old and reach 50 feet in height

Tiny looks good in among the saguaros

pretty desert colors