We stayed there three nights and I felt it was the perfect amount of time to fully relax, enjoy the town and all it has to offer - including delicious local cuisine.
On the way up to Cambria we made a pit stop in Morro Bay to check out the Rock and stretch out our legs.
Morro Bay is another cute little beach town. Its most prominent attraction, aside from windsurfing and the local sea life, is the Rock.
In a nutshell, the Rock is a volcano that almost erupted. However, before it erupted the magma solidified in the vents and subsequently created a dome. It's really interesting - check out this link to learn more.
After admiring the Rock for a little bit, we continued our drive up the coast.
We ended up arriving in Cambria several hours before our scheduled check in time at the Fireside Inn at Moonstone Beach. Luckily the staff were so friendly and accommodating. They were able to let us check in early and settle in. At check in, they even give you a bag of homemade cookies to take with you.
The Inn has such a cozy feel to it, and as the name indicates, each room has a fireplace! The rooms are decorated very tastefully - no weird patterns or gross carpets here. On top of everything, the rooms each have a Keurig machine and they set out K-cups for you. This was a really nice touch. And, if anyone is as picky as I am, you should know that the rooms, bedding, and towels were all very fresh - no bleachy, dusty, or other typical hotel/motel smells. Yes - I pay attention to these things.
Did I mention the location? This Inn is located right off Highway 1 and has a quiet street between it and Moonstone Beach.
Later that day we went to downtown Cambria for dinner and a little touristy browsing.
For dinner we went to Linn's Restaurant, right in the heart of downtown. The food was good, but little did I know what I was in for when I tried the famous Olallieberry Pie! Olallieberries are a local phenomenon in Cambria and kind of taste like a cross between a blackberry and a cranberry - sweet with a little tartness. They warmed up the slice of pie and put a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream on top - and wow - it was pure bliss. We loved this place so much that we may have returned two more times before leaving:)
After we rolled out of the restaurant, we walked around the main street. It is filled with cute shops, cozy restaurants, and wine bars. The gift shops were filled with locally crafted pieces - so beautiful! A lot of the shops also sold ocean themed gifts - which is perfect for me. We stumbled upon one shop in particular called Home Arts. This store sang to my soul!I ended up purchasing a seahorse glass nail file (works very well, and also looks cute) and some fresh smelling room freshener called "Mermaid Kisses." How could I not buy that? And yep, we loved this store so much as well that we returned the next day.
The next day we woke up early to grab breakfast- the Inn had a great breakfast buffet! There was an assortment of muffins, bagels, bread, yogurt, oatmeal, and they even had sausage, eggs, and... a WAFFLE MAKER! This is the way to my heart - a nice breakfast at the place I am staying on vacation. It really makes it easy to relax not having to rush around to get breakfast outside the hotel.
Once we finished breakfast, my parents headed off on their Hearst Castle tour while I opted to stay at the Hotel to do some yoga and relax. It was a nice morning.
When my parents returned, we went down the street for lunch at Moonstone Beach Bar & Grill. They had a really nice outdoor patio overlooking Moonstone Beach. The service was good and the food was good (pretty standard options).
After a little walk along the Moonstone Beach boardwalk, we headed out to the little town of Harmony. It was about a 10 minute drive away and is known for its glassblowing studio and pottery barn. We were a little disappointed in it to be honest, mostly because my mom made the effort to call before we drove there to make sure they would be doing a glassblowing demo when we got there (duh - that is the whole point of wanting to go there!). The person on the phone said yes and they would be doing demos until 4pm. We arrived at around 3:30pm, and the person at the studio said they were done doing glassblowing demos for the day. WHAT?! So, we walked around the studio a little bit (all while being a little peeved of the misinformation) and they had beautiful, very expensive pieces. It was nice, but I did really want to see the glass blowing firsthand.
And finally, no beach trip is complete without a good old fashioned barbecue! We found a great spot at Leffingwell Landing, just a few minutes walk from the Inn. The spot overlooked Moonstone Beach and was out of the direct sun glare. For the barbecue, my Dad cooked up some beer bratwursts and we put them in artisan hot dog buns with mustard and sauerkraut. Before we headed out on the barbecue, I made a kale salad... in the bathroom sink (proper sanitary precautions taken, no problem). It's a delicious salad that I make all the time to goon the side of everything.
Ingredients:
Kale
Olive Oil
Lemon
Salt
Pepper
Red pepper flakes
Garlic (optional)
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
Instructions:
Wash kale and run through a salad spinner or pat it dry. Add a little olive oil - just enough to very lightly coat the kale. Then squeeze in the lemon juice (use as much or little as you like depending on how strong you want the lemon flavor). Be sure to monitor how much liquid you are adding - you don't want the salad to have too much extra liquid. Finally, add in the salt, pepper, red chili flakes, and garlic (if using). Massage the kale for a few minutes to help soften the leaves. Enjoy!
When we finished the barbecue, we went back in to downtown Cambria for, that's right, MORE OLALLIEBERRY PIE! I also got a little something extra to take home for later - a chocolate eclair. It was so tasty and looked like one of the fancy desserts I used to buy in France... like something you would have expected to see in front of Marie Antoinette herself.
The next morning we headed out to my most anticipated part of the trip - the Piedras Blancas Light Station (after gorging myself on the Inn's breakfast of course).
Now, for those of you who don't know me, I love lighthouses. There's just something so special about them. I have been to a few other lighthouses - a few in Northern California and one in Maine, but this one was one of my favorite tours yet.Although the lighthouse itself may not look as spectacular as the others at this time, the tour was incredible and I learned so much. At the other lighthouses I visited, the tours were self guided and the information provided was minimal. The tour we had at Piedras Blancas was really extraordinary.
If you are thinking of going to visit this lighthouse, be sure to check their website. At the time I'm writing this post, they only do one tour a day and they provide very explicit instructions on where to meet for the tour. They also only have the tour on certain days if it is not a peak tourist season.
The website instructed us to meet at the Piedras Blancas Motel, a mile North of the lighthouse. The tour guides meet you there and at first I was like.. are we going to have to walk all the way back to the lighthouse? And the answer is no. The lighthouse is a gated property and since they only have tours once per day, they don't keep the gate open. So, you meet at the Motel, pay for the tour, then caravan into the lighthouse property (they check your ticket on the way in).
The tour was two hours and we walked all around the property. Our guide was so knowledgeable and had a great sense of humor. You can tell he really knows his stuff and loves what he is doing. Depending on the time of year, expect to see a variety of sea life off the coast, including seals and even whales!
Without going on and on, I will leave it at this - definitely visit this lighthouse if you go to Cambria or are driving through to Big Sur!
We then made our way to the elephant seal rockery. I could stay there for hours observing these elephant seals. It's a true gift to have the chance to observe them in their natural environment.
For lunch we stopped at a barbecue place, Main Street Grill, in downtown Cambria. I had a tri tip sandwich and caesar salad. The caesar salad was delicious, but the tri tip was seriously lacking flavor.
After filling our bellies, we walked across the street to the Montello Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar Tasting Room. It was a small shop with lots of visitors. You can sample all of the oil and vinegar they have sitting out. Everything I tried was delicious - except the chocolate balsamic vinegar - that really should not be a thing. The owner was very knowledgeable and took the time to explain to us what true aged balsamic vinegar is and looks like. Basically I learned that I haven't been completely scammed in the past, but that I wasn't getting true aged balsamic.
I walked away with a bottle of the cherry balsamic vinegar - so delicious! (It tastes amazing on top of vanilla ice cream).
Then we made another stop at the cute Home Arts gift shop and picked up some more "Mermaid Kisses" sachets and a whale mug that I had been thinking about since the first time we went there.
It was a nice day, but quite exhausting. We needed a nap before dinner.
After a little nap, we went for a walk on Moonstone Beach to closely check out the driftwood features that someone built on the beach. There was nothing holding them together, just the driftwood itself and how it was stacked and angled.
For dinner we went to the Sow's Ear Cafe in downtown Cambria. It was a pretty fancy restaurant and I did feel a bit strange walking in wearing my jeans, hoodie, and sneakers, but there were a few other tourist tables dressed the same.
The restaurant vibe reminded me so much of Carmel, which I loved. We shared two appetizers: lobster corn dogs and also a fried brie cheese plate. For the main course, I chose the Lobster Pot Pie. It was so delicious, filled with huge chunks of lobster meat and mushrooms, and came with a side of perfectly seasoned and not greasy vegetables and rice.
On our final day, we tried to find some tide pools to check out after our breakfast and before checkout. On our search, we passed by Hearst Castle and we saw Zebras! They were grazing in the fields alongside the cows. It was so cool to see them.
We ended up going to Leffingwell Landing for the tide pools. There wasn't time to go down and walk through them, but we looked at them from the cliff. While we were standing there, we saw the true circle of life. There was a group of several turkey vultures picking at something on the beach. We couldn't see in detail what it was because it was so far down. After they picked at it for a while, we saw.... it was a seal:( I know this is a natural life circle, and it is good that nature has this process I guess, but it still made me feel sad.
Our time in Cambria then sadly came to an end. But first - we stopped by Linn's one more time to grab an Olallieberry shake and a slice of the Olallieberry pie to go.
On the way down from Cambria, we took a slight detour to Quicksilver Ranch, right outside of Solvang to see the miniature horses. They were adorable. A baby horse was close enough to the fence to touch. They had a strange wool like coat on them that I'm sure will molt off later on. I had so much fun watching them.
This was such a nice trip. Cambria was the perfect place for me to unwind and be able to relax completely.
I hope this gives you some inspiration to visit Cambria and the places I mentioned. The central coast is special because of its tiny beach towns and abundant sea life to watch and learn about firsthand.
Cambria also hosts a Christmas market each year that I hope I'll get to visit in the next year or so. I do have kind of high expectations for Christmas markets after experiencing the European markets, as well as the ones in New York City. It is definitely worth a visit though.
All of the photo credit goes to my Dad. Thank you for sharing the photos you took. I need to get better at remembering to take photos for my blog now:)
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