{"id":691,"date":"2013-02-02T07:29:22","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T07:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/?p=691"},"modified":"2014-01-30T16:46:50","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T16:46:50","slug":"january-31-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/?p=691","title":{"rendered":"January 31, 2013 – Hwy 101, Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove and Paso Robles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heading to San Jose with stops whenever something interesting catches our attention.<\/p>\n

\"By<\/a> \"Canoga<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"eucalyptus<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"Park<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"Top<\/a><\/p>\n

The scenery changed abruptly after entering the Los Angeles area.\u00a0 From flat land to rocky outcrops atop smooth sided mountains, from lazy floating buzzards to precise surveying hawks and from sand and Joshua Trees to tall skinny palm trees, spikey green cypress and lazy fragrant eucalyptus.\u00a0 The landscape left it\u2019s sickly stick look and was replaced by huge full trees and the ground was covered with those succulent ice plants that my cousins and I used to use to color the sidewalks. \u00a0\u00a0Instead of seeing dessert illusions of water on sand, we saw the blue and foamy waters of the ocean.\u00a0\u00a0 I love California\u2026the weather, the smell of the ocean and eucalyptus, it\u2019s my home state and I think it is a most magnificent state.\u00a0 As soon as one of us wins the lottery we can afford to come back and stay for a while.<\/p>\n

Our path of choice was El Camino Real aka Highway 101.\u00a0\u00a0 We weren\u2019t sure if the markers were bells or lights but their\u00a0 rusty presence marked the road every few miles.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u00a0\"Amazing\"<\/a>\u00a0\"heavy<\/a>\u00a0\"Truly<\/a>\u00a0\"You<\/a>\u00a0\"More<\/a><\/p>\n

First stop was Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove.\u00a0 Awesome clumps of butterflies clinging to eucalyptus tree branches.\u00a0 They winter here, not in Mexico as those that come from the Eastern states winter.<\/p>\n

\"Chicken<\/a>\u00a0\"Rio<\/a><\/p>\n

We overnighted in Paso Robles at the Rio Seco Winery. \u00a0One of the perks of belonging to Harvest Host is staying at winery\u2019s for the night.\u00a0 \u00a0The owners gave us a bottle of 07 Zinfandel to enjoy for the night as a gift.\u00a0 It was fruity and absolutely yummy!\u00a0 The area was\u00a0cool in the evening and we expected the roosters to crow in the am but not a peep.<\/p>\n

In the morning, we spent some time talking with the owner who used to be a scout for\u00a0 professional baseball. After having breakfast muffins and coffee offered by the owner\u2019s daughter, we bought a few bottles of the Zin, one MVP and one Cab and again rolled down 101.\u00a0 One stop at Flying J for diesel and a much appreciated long hot shower and then settling in\u00a0for the night at the Santa Clara Elk’s Lodge RV site where we will spend the next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heading to San Jose with stops whenever something interesting catches our attention. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The scenery changed abruptly after entering the Los Angeles area.\u00a0 From flat land to rocky outcrops atop smooth sided mountains, from lazy floating buzzards to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lilypad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3199,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions\/3199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}