central coast

i had the whole week off! hooray for february break.

on tuesday, i headed south to the california’s central coast to visit my dear dear dear (truly, one of the all-time dearest) friend sara, who is living on vandenberg air force base with her husband, matt.

 

{i took a lot of pictures, playing around with my new camera.}

 

we met at the cute town of morro bay, strolled along the embarcadero, caught up over grilled cheese
on the pier, explored morro rock and hiked up black hill for an overlook.matt gave me a tour of the base and taught me lots about launching rockets,
monitoring satellites, and crazy cool space technologies.we went to this gorgeous spot where we could see the remnants of shipwrecks and the surging sea.

on wednesday, sara took me to la purisima mission, and we hiked around in the hills.
oh how good it felt to talk with a bosom friend!

a little further south, we saw this sign and knew our choice to check out ostrichland was a good one.

  
this place was hilarious. one of the more bizarre things i’ve ever done. i loved it.

  

   we went to the darling danish town of solvang. we had both been before but it was fun to explore together.
sara showed me a cool sock shop and i introduced sara to aebleskivers!
there was a farmer’s market happening, which was totally delightful to stroll through.

  

sara and i caught a bit of sunset at the beach on base, and then ate in the air force cafeteria and had stimulating conversations with matt. sara was so kind and found a place for me to sleep (she and matt live in a hotel room for now), and also to have sleepovers with me while i was in town. pillow talk with this girl is the best.

on thursday morning we went to pismo beach and checked out the monarch butterfly grove.
it was pretty impossible to capture on camera, but there were thousands of monarchs flying through the eucalyptus trees – it was magical.

we stopped at the cutest barn en route to montana del oro state park,
where we explored mountains and ocean and dunes.

we got to san luis obispo in late afternoon, just in time to see bubblegum alley in the daylight. i have been wanting to check this place out! i looooove the gum wall in seattle, and it turns out bubblegum alley started nearly fifty years before! some may say it’s kind of gross, but i think it’s kind of awesome – a colorful and collaborative genius of street art.

matt met us for the night farmers’ market on san luis obispo’s main street. it was super lively and fun
and we got to try all kinds of delicious.

i am seriously mega blessed to call sara and matt the dearest of friends. i cried after i said goodbye.
it was a really wonderful three days.