It is not often that "theres no plan". We have lists right from groceries, to shopping to day-to-day tasks.
This time was different -
Long weekend - no hotel booking - no activity booking - not sure of time.
Packed bags for 2 days - took some food - filled petrol in car..
It was what we say "Palla kadichundu plan pannama irundhom" until that weekend Friday :)
The only plan was to not have a plan!
We finished house cleaning and packing on friday night, anxious to know which direction we would take the next day. When we went to bed, I bet both of us where thinking "oooops!!?!"
The next day we were on road by 1pm. During breakfast we put chits to pick a direction and we had to go south (was praying "hope not going south" literally ;)) Chances of traffic was there. We decided to choose a place to eat when hungry and site-see when bored of driving and look for a city to stay when tired.
We hit Pismo beach for our first stop. It was the time for sunset so we were on right track. It was beautiful...As I spent most time looking at the beach, poor KK was looking through orbitz to find a place to stay for the night. Long weekends most of the places would be booked we knew... (Worst case we had even got our sleeping bags ;)) Luckliy after a few phone calls we found a hotel at a nearby city called San Lius Obispo. It had a beautiful little downtown.. We walked for awhile along the beach, clicked some "selfies" and drove our way to the city for dinner.
We had dinner at a fancy Thai place. We were in "bhayangara pasi" so "oru paruka veedama" cleaned the plate. We took a much-needed walk in the downtown and then headed to our hotel. We were kind of tired after all the "non-planning" experience and slept off now in excitement-anxiety about the next unplanned day.
We had dinner at a fancy Thai place. We were in "bhayangara pasi" so "oru paruka veedama" cleaned the plate. We took a much-needed walk in the downtown and then headed to our hotel. We were kind of tired after all the "non-planning" experience and slept off now in excitement-anxiety about the next unplanned day.
Next day(Saturday) we had breakfast at the hotel and decided to go further south. Friday evening, on our way I had noticed a beach called "Avila". So we decided to spend sometime there and drove to the beach which was quite near by. It was surprisingly filled with lots of people..some bathing, some sun bathing, surfers, selfie-takers, kids playing in sand etc, people having cheedai(that would be us :P)
After awhile we left from there for lunch to a small Dutch town called "Solvang". The town was around 6 blocks only. We had burger for lunch and decided to take a nice bike ride around the town. It was a doubles bike with a roof on top. Burger "erakitu" bike epdi otardhu...so we roamed around the shops for awhile. We then took the bike and followed the map for the town which was put up on the bike itself to cover all the small lanes. We saw one horse carriage and other small fancy shops.
We then took a cookie bite and bought a soveinier magnet and headed to the next hotel stay. This time we booked it during lunch itself and luckily again got a decent deal. It was in a city called Paso Robles. We stopped at a view point for seeing the sunset, it was an unamed beach along the roadside. It had beautiful huge waves coming towards the shore.
But it was getting cold so we didnt spend much time there and drove for dinner to Dennys. Then we headed to the hotel and booked a Hearst Castle tour for the next day (Monday).
Next day we had breakfast at the hotel itself and headed to Hearst Castle. On the way to our amazement, we saw zebras grazing on the right side of the road where there was greenery. They were not afraid of the onlookers, but continued having a good time and so did we.
We then reached Hearst Castle.
There was bus ride up the hill and we were just in time for the same. The ride up was quite winding and narrow, we saw few more zebras and horses on our way. The guide was explaining the history of how the castle was built. On our way to the castle, the castle looked v nice i.e on top of the hill....once we went inside (he showed Mr.Hearst's hall, dining room and billiards room)...we werent particularly impressed. Either we didnt have an eye for 1917 wall hangings or 1850s wooden architecture (I felt like all the wall hangings needed a good machine wash!!) , it looked kind of clustered. And guide was all praises for the interior designer and architect and we had people around us who went "Oh wow" so we just played along with the crowd for 25$ (thats the tour price) and ticked off this place from "parents/fmly places to visit list"..heheheeh There was a huge outdoor swimming pool and a beautiful indoor swimming pool (these two were better than the palace itself!)
We clicked some pics and headed back to the shuttle that would take us back to the visitor center. Innum 25$ vasool agalai, we had a movie to see as a part of the guided tour :P (how the castle was built etc). So we hurried with some snacks...(Thai food) and went to the theatre drowsily. To our surprise the movie was better than the actual tour...hehehehe.
After awhile we left from there for lunch to a small Dutch town called "Solvang". The town was around 6 blocks only. We had burger for lunch and decided to take a nice bike ride around the town. It was a doubles bike with a roof on top. Burger "erakitu" bike epdi otardhu...so we roamed around the shops for awhile. We then took the bike and followed the map for the town which was put up on the bike itself to cover all the small lanes. We saw one horse carriage and other small fancy shops.
We then took a cookie bite and bought a soveinier magnet and headed to the next hotel stay. This time we booked it during lunch itself and luckily again got a decent deal. It was in a city called Paso Robles. We stopped at a view point for seeing the sunset, it was an unamed beach along the roadside. It had beautiful huge waves coming towards the shore.
But it was getting cold so we didnt spend much time there and drove for dinner to Dennys. Then we headed to the hotel and booked a Hearst Castle tour for the next day (Monday).
Next day we had breakfast at the hotel itself and headed to Hearst Castle. On the way to our amazement, we saw zebras grazing on the right side of the road where there was greenery. They were not afraid of the onlookers, but continued having a good time and so did we.
We then reached Hearst Castle.
There was bus ride up the hill and we were just in time for the same. The ride up was quite winding and narrow, we saw few more zebras and horses on our way. The guide was explaining the history of how the castle was built. On our way to the castle, the castle looked v nice i.e on top of the hill....once we went inside (he showed Mr.Hearst's hall, dining room and billiards room)...we werent particularly impressed. Either we didnt have an eye for 1917 wall hangings or 1850s wooden architecture (I felt like all the wall hangings needed a good machine wash!!) , it looked kind of clustered. And guide was all praises for the interior designer and architect and we had people around us who went "Oh wow" so we just played along with the crowd for 25$ (thats the tour price) and ticked off this place from "parents/fmly places to visit list"..heheheeh There was a huge outdoor swimming pool and a beautiful indoor swimming pool (these two were better than the palace itself!)
We clicked some pics and headed back to the shuttle that would take us back to the visitor center. Innum 25$ vasool agalai, we had a movie to see as a part of the guided tour :P (how the castle was built etc). So we hurried with some snacks...(Thai food) and went to the theatre drowsily. To our surprise the movie was better than the actual tour...hehehehe.
One good thing out of this whole hearst castle tour was that on our way back one of the tour guides mentioned that whales are very near the pier this afternoon and we could see them closely. So we drove to the W.Hearst beach where they had pier and people were flocking at the edges to take a look at the whales and whoaaaaa there were many!!!! Big black whales...we saw atleast 6 of them. There was a crazy family of three who were kayaking and were quite near to the whales...apparently they chose to kayak at that time to see the whales....70% of time I was looking at that family worried that they might get too near the whales and 30% I saw the whales (which itself was breathtaking!!) We also got to see lots of different birds and seals/sea lions etc. We didnt feel like leaving...watching whales so closely is like once in 10 times that too for free!! Else they have whale watching activities charging 50 bucks where they take you on a cruise to middle of ocean to see fins of the whales here and there...here it was all around :)
We started driving back towards home, it was a good 4-5 hours back. We had taken some kacha mucha for eating so werent hungry. Once home, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant and headed straight to bed...
On the whole...it was definitely worth not planning ;) ;)
We started driving back towards home, it was a good 4-5 hours back. We had taken some kacha mucha for eating so werent hungry. Once home, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant and headed straight to bed...
On the whole...it was definitely worth not planning ;) ;)
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