Need more tips for California

Marc Muench

Jase,

Don't forget Santa Barbara, I am a bit jaded as it is my home town

As I write this it is about 70 F and sunny, yes the fires are buring in Northern Cal but down here the sky is smokeless, thank God! You and your family are more than welcome to stop by my studio and I can share more pointers. There are many wonderful locations to see in Santa Barbara, beaches, mountains and the most beautiful mission of them all the Santa Barbara Mission, oh and Sterns Wharf is cool

Best
Marc

Moogle Pepper

Marc Muench wrote:

Jase,

Don't forget Santa Barbara, I am a bit jaded as it is my home town

As I write this it is about 70 F and sunny, yes the fires are buring in Northern Cal but down here the sky is smokeless, thank God! You and your family are more than welcome to stop by my studio and I can share more pointers. There are many wonderful locations to see in Santa Barbara, beaches, mountains and the most beautiful mission of them all the Santa Barbara Mission, oh and Sterns Wharf is cool

Best
Marc

One of the places I regret to not have been able to visit. :cry

jasonstone

Marc Muench wrote:

Jase,

Don't forget Santa Barbara, I am a bit jaded as it is my home town

As I write this it is about 70 F and sunny, yes the fires are buring in Northern Cal but down here the sky is smokeless, thank God! You and your family are more than welcome to stop by my studio and I can share more pointers. There are many wonderful locations to see in Santa Barbara, beaches, mountains and the most beautiful mission of them all the Santa Barbara Mission, oh and Sterns Wharf is cool

Best
Marc

Hey thanks for the offer Marc - will see how things pan out and maybe I will try to swing around to visit anyway - not everyday you get such an invitation

Cheers, Jase

philiphutson

jasonstone wrote:

:cry Looks like the best laid plans of mice and men eh

So I'm guessing we're going to have to change our plans - my wife is gonna die - she's spent hours and hours and (well days) researching hotels/motels etc and locations to visit

Sonoma/Napa is under a cloud of smoke
Big Sur and the coast is under a cloud of smoke

What thoughts people? How much of this trip would we have to move do you think? nothing like local knowledge on the ground

Unfortunately I can't tell from the news reports which exact areas I'd need to avoid on our planned route

Thanks to everyone for their help with this

Here's our planned route on google maps

Cheers all, Jase

Just one suggestion don't stay in fresno if you can get a room in oakhurst.
I realy like the bestwestern in oakhurst http://www.yosemitegatewayinn.com/virtual.html
Oakhurst is nice sierra town with decent food at many different places. Its been about 2years since I've been to oakhurst but if I remember correctly the kettle restaurant was good food.
And as other people have mentioned you could skip sequoia for an extra day in yosemite. I personally love sequoia and visit it about twice as much as yosemite but unless you get on a trail yosemite is better.

-Philip Hutson

jasonstone

philiphutson wrote:

Just one suggestion don't stay in fresno if you can get a room in oakhurst.
I realy like the bestwestern in oakhurst http://www.yosemitegatewayinn.com/virtual.html
Oakhurst is nice sierra town with decent food at many different places. Its been about 2years since I've been to oakhurst but if I remember correctly the kettle restaurant was good food.
And as other people have mentioned you could skip sequoia for an extra day in yosemite. I personally love sequoia and visit it about twice as much as yosemite but unless you get on a trail yosemite is better.

-Philip Hutson

Thanks for the tips

I just checked out the Inn you linked to - but unfortunately all booked out for the day before, on and after our planned arrival date.

I'd love to make Sequoia too, but we don't want to rush Yosemite and then not enjoy either of the parks.

Maybe with the fires though who knows - maybe we'll spend more time over that way...

Cheers, Jase

Angelo

big sur evacuation
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/us/03fire.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

jasonstone

Thanks everyone - we've still got 2 weeks so we're ever hopeful

Just wondering if Monterey or Carmel are affected too???

We had planned on staying in Cayucos and then driving up the highway 1 through Big Sur to stay at Monterey for 2 nights.

What about driving around Big Sur (inland from San Simeon as Ian408 suggested) and then going on to Monterey/Carmel?

Thanks again to everyone who is taking the time to keep me updated on this as sometimes I don't know where to look on which news sites etc.

Cheers, Jase

Bassett1976

jasonstone wrote:

Thanks everyone - we've still got 2 weeks so we're ever hopeful

Just wondering if Monterey or Carmel are affected too???

We had planned on staying in Cayucos and then driving up the highway 1 through Big Sur to stay at Monterey for 2 nights.

What about driving around Big Sur (inland from San Simeon as Ian408 suggested) and then going on to Monterey/Carmel?

Thanks again to everyone who is taking the time to keep me updated on this as sometimes I don't know where to look on which news sites etc.

Cheers, Jase

You should be able to drive around the affected area. Just keep watching the news for updates. Going inland to get to Monterey will be quite a drive as the major highway "inland" is the 5 freeway and that is about an hour from Highway 1. You can always spend an extra day or two in Monterey. This is one of our favorite places to go on vacation and it can be quite relaxing!

jasonstone

Bassett1976 wrote:

You should be able to drive around the affected area. Just keep watching the news for updates. Going inland to get to Monterey will be quite a drive as the major highway "inland" is the 5 freeway and that is about an hour from Highway 1. You can always spend an extra day or two in Monterey. This is one of our favorite places to go on vacation and it can be quite relaxing!

Luckily I like driving
We're booked into Monterey for 2 nights already -just hoping that the fire/smoke doesn't affect that area either

Cheers, Jase

p.s. btw if anyone is living in that area etc. then my best of wishes and good luck - hope that everyone and everything gets out unscathed!

philiphutson

jasonstone wrote:

Thanks everyone - we've still got 2 weeks so we're ever hopeful

Just wondering if Monterey or Carmel are affected too???

We had planned on staying in Cayucos and then driving up the highway 1 through Big Sur to stay at Monterey for 2 nights.

What about driving around Big Sur (inland from San Simeon as Ian408 suggested) and then going on to Monterey/Carmel?

Thanks again to everyone who is taking the time to keep me updated on this as sometimes I don't know where to look on which news sites etc.

Cheers, Jase

To get to Monterey from Cayucos
From Cayucos you go north about 15miles (just south of Cambria) to 46. Take 46 east and you get to 101 head north about 2hrs to salinas and then you head back west to monterey. 46 is close enough to San Simeon to make it easy to go to hearst castle and even the elephant seals and then head back south to 46.
Some one else was suggesting 5. That would be way out of your way.

Here's some sites along 101 between Paso Robles and Monterey.
There are lots of wineries in and around Paso Robles. The terroir of the area produces very strong reds. The east side of Paso Robles in hot and dry with very little coastal influence great for Zins (red zin of course). The east side of Paso Robles has the coastal influence (marine layer not as hot etc).

On 101 between Paso Robles and Salinas there are two missions (really three but soledad mission is non existent these days). Mission San Miguel about 15 miles north of Paso Robles is currently undergoing earthquake damage repair. The other is Mission San Antonio de Padua. San Antonio is in a marine base so there might be problems getting on but it would be worth trying it is the most authentic mission.
About one hour north of Paso is Pinacles National Monument. Very interesting rock structure. Pincales is an ancient extinct volcano on the San Andreas Fault. Half of the volcano is near the town soledad the other half is down near LA.

Map of some of the estate level wineries in Paso
My two favorite wineries from the map are Cass and Still Waters

-Philip

aktse

Goleta (near Santa Barbara) on fire too
You might want to contact Marc before you visit his studio since Goleta is on fire too. I actually thought the smoke was from the Big Sur fire until I saw smoke coming from the mountains in Santa Barbara.

I drove down from the bay area to San Diego today and actually went to the coast a bit.

Yes, highway 1 is closed, but we were able to doubled back a bit to see the Elephant Seals and it is possible to do things on the coast.

Basically, just check the news before you go anywhere and things might change when you're here.

Marc Muench

aktse wrote:

You might want to contact Marc before you visit his studio since Goleta is on fire too.

Next time I will think twice before braggin Yes there has been a fire here which began less then 24 hrs from my previous post here. Good news though the fire is now contained and my studio is still here, as well as my house. Both were about 1/2 mile from the raging flames:wow

Looks like California might be gaining on all the fires and by the time you get here everything will be calming down, with luck that is

aktse

Marc Muench wrote:

Next time I will think twice before braggin Yes there has been a fire here which began less then 24 hrs from my previous post here. Good news though the fire is now contained and my studio is still here, as well as my house. Both were about 1/2 mile from the raging flames:wow

Looks like California might be gaining on all the fires and by the time you get here everything will be calming down, with luck that is

When I saw the smoke billowing from the hillside, I quickly thought of you.

Glad to hear that you and your family are safe!

jasonstone

Thanks everyone - glad to hear that you're house is safe Marc

Flying on Friday so good to hear that they are hopefully contained a bit more - although latimes.com saidsomething about more hot weather and wind

Well it's in the hands of now!

ian408

jasonstone wrote:

Tlatimes.com saidsomething about more hot weather and wind

Yup. Thursday is supposed to be the hottest around here (SJC) with cooling over the weekend.

The Big Sur area is still hampered by the closure of Hwy 1.