Midwest Reunion Road Trip to Morro Bay

View of Morro Bay from Montana de Oro State Park

In September 2008, Nena and Terry met and moved into a little apartment in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Terry taught Nena how to dance like Justin Timberlake and Nena taught Terry how to recycle (ok, so both of those lessons failed). However, some of the cross-cultural exchanges stuck. For example, Terry developed an affinity for hiking and country music that grew long after the end of the Procter & Gamble internships. In May 2014, Terry visited Nena in California with one request: go on a California adventure.

Commence road trip to Morro Bay, in the first person...

At 6am on Friday morning we departed Berkeley after a much-needed but too-short night of sleep. We beelined down HWYs 880/101/1 until we arrived in exotic Carmel, just in time for a hearty breakfast burrito. We were chatted up by surf-instructor Ed, who nearly convinced us to stick around for surf lessons. After some beach frolicking we continued down scenic HWY 1 along the coast - a stretch of coast that I'm less familiar with. The views were staggering!

Excited and tired in Carmel

We stumbled across some beaches drenched in sea lions, where we gleefully watched them grunt, grown, and throw sand on each other for a half hour.

After some mishaps (1. Nearly running out of gas, then paying $6/gallon, 2. Stopping by Hearst Castle and being severely disappointed - you have to pay $25 just to get near it!) we arrived in Morro Bay, set up camp, went for a short hike to look at the bay, ate a delicious lunch at a vegan/vegetarian restaurant (much to Terry's surprise), and went for a hike in Montana de Oro State Park, just south of Morro Bay.

Terry at the campsite!

After surviving the hike without a mountain lion attack, we returned to Morro Bay (the town) and went to the windy beach. We observed a ship practicing turns at the mouth of the harbor for a little while before heading into town for some fish & chips and white wine: classy!

Morro Bay is famous for Morro Rock, which defines the skyline of the Bay (Morro = spanish/portuguese/italian for prominent rock formation). The rock used to be surrounded by water, but was connected to land by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct Morro Bay Harbor. The rock was quarried for 80 years before being preserved for peregrine falcon habitat. A large power plant, characterized by three tall cooling towers, sits adjacent to the harbor.

Dynegy power plant (a.k.a. "Three Fingers")

We camped out at Morro Bay State Park (only moving campsites once to avoid sleeping next to a Rihanna party and nearly being ticketed the next morning for moving into the wrong campsite). On Saturday morning we arrived at Kayak Horizons just in time for the 10% off deal (arrive before 10 am). I had to launch my boat at Anchor Street Park, a few blocks south. 

5 minute kayak training for Terry

Once Terry was settled into her rental boat, we followed a tip to cross the Bay and look for narrow points in the sand spit, where we could extract ourselves from our boats and hike over the dunes to the ocean-side beach. Apparently we don't know how to follow directions, because we found ourselves in shallower-and-shallower water, eventually bottoming out and having to backtrack. We never did find the trails, but we did get to look at the sand dunes up close.

We meandered down the Bay and then back up towards the harbor to look for seals and otters. Some paddle boarders broke the sad news that otters seemed to be lacking in all their usual hang-out spots, so we begrudgingly accepted that sea lions would be the most exciting discovery:

5 miles later we were tired out and headed back to the rental shop. We departed Morro Bay, refilled on sunshine and salt water, and headed back to San Francisco with a quick stop for delicious Thai food in Paso Robles.

Thanks for visiting, Terry!! :)

Date: Saturday, May 10th, 2014
Duration: ~2 hours
Distance: ~5 miles