We have had a hard time getting access to internet and the time to write, so we are a few days behind. We should probably assume this will be the case for the duration of our adventure…

We spent a night in the Santa Cruz mountains with Cinda and Larry.  They were wonderful to us (as usual) and among the many gifts they showered us with, we got two tickets to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.  Lacey and I both have soft spots for the ocean and its inhabitants, and even though there is a slightly depressing aspect to seeing animals in glass boxes… We like aquariums, and this one is one of the best. Good times.

We proceeded to Paso Robles (up and coming wine country) and spent the night at Lacey’s Grandma’s house… always a good time.  After a good nights sleep and a great grammie made breakfast we decided to drive to San Diego (our final mandatory stop) by following the Pacific Coast Highway.  It was a wonderful drive, with beautiful scenery most of the way.  Our main complaint was the lack of pet friendly beaches 🙁  Tie did not like that at all.   That night after unsuccessful attempts to find camping we decided to head inland into the Los Padres National Forest (for the full adventure read two post ago or click this link).

The following day we drove into Ojai, CA a very welcoming artsy town.  We walked around a little and spent some time at a great coffee shop while doing some web browsing (Luis mostly cursed at his computer due to photo upload problems).  After a nice long “coffee break” we headed back to the PCH down to San Diego.  It was a nice drive through some of California’s richest areas, but on the up side there were some really nice beaches.  With one funny anecdote narrated by Luis: We stopped by a nice ritzy looking beach spot maybe in Huntington Beach to check it out… All of a sudden Tie bolts out of the Cruiser and heads down the steep steps straight to the no dogs allowed beach full of beautiful SoCal folk.  I half heartedly go after him when I notice that after a quick surveillance of the area he takes a nice long poop in front of the lifeguard on duty 🙂  The lifeguard starts telling me to come down and get my dog and his souvenir…  after finding a bag this very embarrassed tourist proceeds to do the walk of shame to retract his dogs poo… Thank you very much Tie.

We had a good time in San Diego with Luis’ Navy buddy Gil.  We got the full tour of his current duty station the Aegis class Destroyer USS Milius.  It is a pretty cool boat.

The next day, we are proud to say we found doggie heaven and it is called Dog Beach in Ocean Beach… Needless to say, Tie had the time of his life, especially after spending several days of mostly leash and truck.