NINE SISTERS (!)

No, my siblings have not recently multiplied.  We spent last Wednesday through Monday at Morro Bay State Park in San Luis Obispo County (Central Coast of California, for you out-of-staters) with 39 other Lazy Daze rigs and a couple of SOB’s (Some Other Brand) for the annual Yahoo LD Forum get-together.  The Nine Sisters are the remnants of a streak of  ancient (20,000,000 years) volcanoes extending from Islay Hill (the first), within the city limits of San Luis Obispo, to Morro Rock (the ninth), seen at the right in the distance in the stitched photo above, and in the next photo.  There’s a tenth peak, called Davidson’s Seamount, but it’s under the water off to the Northwest, about 3600’ below the surface.  They range in size from Morro Rock’s 576’ to Bishop’s Peak’s 1559’.  We’re standing on top of Black Hill (the eighth) at 665’.  This is a nice hike right out of the campground, which (stitch photo) is generally in the trees behind the woman in the white tee shirt.  Morro Bay is the body of water at the left (stitch photo), separated from the ocean by the narrow peninsula that runs from the landmass at the left to just short of Morro Rock.  In this picture above, you can see the very narrow inlet snaking along between the Rock and the end of the peninsula.  The town of Morro Bay is arrayed above, with the iconic triple (they look like one in this perspective) stacks of the power plant looming over all (they don’t emit any smoke these days).  Morro Rock was first sighted in 1542 by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo who named it "El Morro," which in Spanish means crown shaped hill. If it looks a little depleted, that’s because it had been quarried for stone for nearly 70 years until the mid-1960’s.  Our intrepid group:

It was overcast and foggy when we arrived Wednesday evening.  We had dropped Mom off at LAX for her flight home to Indy that afternoon, didn’t get on the road until 2:00, and covered the 200 or so miles in 4 hours flat.  No road drama.  Most of the day’s drama occurred at LAX when I, in yet another senior moment, tried to waltz through TSA (to accompany Mom to her gate) with a Leatherman tool in my bag.  That’s like a Swiss Army knife on steroids.  Have to say that the TSA folks were quite decent about it.  They had to escort the bag and me to the exit, but that’s about it. 

The Park offers both hookups and boondocking sites, and most of the rigs were in the no-utilities sites at $35/night ($50 for hookups).  As in all California parks, the cost is pretty stiff for a barebones spot, but I have to say this place is probably worth it.  Very pretty locale with lots to do (you can walk or bike into Morro), and the added attraction of the fabulous Bayside Cafe just steps away.  I think I look forward to their homemade desserts as the highlight of each trip up here.  We ate two dinners and two lunches here, and I was ready for more, but we had to participate in the potlucks Friday and Saturday nights.  Not a chore, as this group puts out some great food, even pleasing the many vegans in the crowd.

Shown above are multiple examples of only two of the dessert choices, the carrot cake (moist, dense, and with a not-too-sweet cream cheese frosting) and the berry cobbler, which you can get with either whipped cream or a beaker of heavy cream to pour over the top.  I opt for the heavy cream.  Heck, that’s what Lipitor is for, right?  Below is one of our lunches:  excellent clam chowder (the inset is of Loni’s combo chowder, which has green chile mixed in for a little spice;  I prefer the straight chowder; both are loaded with meaty clams).  So, chowder and boysenberry cobbler.  Oh, yesssssss!  It is, easily, the best cobbler I have ever eaten.

I think just about everyone participated in the potlucks, and despite the evening coolness, everyone seemed to have a good time.  There certainly was no shortage of food.

One of the fun things to do up here is to kayak in the bay.  There’s plenty of wildlife to see, from herons to otters.  Larry W, our resident Mr. Fixit, constructed a clever davit system to hoist his and Renee’s kayaks on and off their LD.  That’s their rig to the left in the photo above, sporting two kayaks on top.  Here’s how he does it:

They do lower all the way to the ground, so there’s no awkward lifting.  Pretty jazzy.  We didn’t bring our inflatable this time, and I wish we had done because the weather turned out to be splendid Friday through Sunday.  Yet another toy languishing in the garage.  We did bring the bicycles, instead of the scoot.  Can’t carry both.  On Sunday, we rode into Morro to visit the Rock and to see the otters that had been reported.  Steve and Nancy joined us, in a repeat of our first meeting them about five years ago.  We did see a group of four otters grooming and generally lazing about (left of Loni’s shoulder), but not the larger romp of two dozen that had been sighted the day before.  And, we sighted the elusive Larry-Renee tandem.  A pink kayak, Renee?

We held the usual “open house” on Saturday, where we got to peek inside each other’s rigs to see modifications and decorations.  Some of them are really dolled up, not all to my liking, but nifty nonetheless.  Mikio and Dorothy have a 30+ year-old rig that is a couple of feet shorter than ours, but a similar configuration inside.  It looks like new!  The newest rig was only six weeks out of the factory.  There weren’t any other organized activities, so most of our time was spent in meeting new faces and getting reacquainted with the Northern California owners whom we only see once a year (here).  A lot of nice folks.  We hope to get together with Berkeleyites Gary and Suzanne when we visit the kids (and g-kid) in the Bay Area.  I also got to meet Jim of Life's Little Adventures blog, which I like to follow for the hiking tips and great pictures.  This was his and Gayle’s first time here, and we hope to see them back.  As full-timers, however, they might be anywhere in the country come each March. 

My alleged allergies didn’t seem to get any better or worse with the change in venue.  I’m somewhat skeptical of the whole diagnosis, but we’ll see whether the upcoming shots therapy does any good.

For our last night in camp we, of course, strolled on over to the Bayside Café for an early dinner on the patio. 

I tried the linguine with mixed seafood:  shrimp, scallops, slipper lobster, salmon, and some other fish, probably cod, in a light cream sauce.  Yes, it was delicious.  Unlike many other places I’ve tried, which overcook all the seafood uniformly, this was perfectly done for each item.  I’ll spare you a shot of my (again) cobbler and Loni’s key lime pie.

Adios, Morro, for another year!