Paso Robles

After our relatively exhausting time in LA, wait, LA wasn't exhausting, we spent 4 nights in Santa Monica frolicking on the beach. I guess I'm just used to saying everything's exhausting. Nonetheless, we were exhausted, so we were both really looking forward to our stay in Paso Robles, located in Central California literally half way between LA and San Francisco. During our time in Paso, we stayed with Eric & Dorothy, Kristian's Grandfathers brother and his wife. We stayed for 3 nights in their beautiful home while they showed us around the area and met the relatives. To say the least, we absolutely loved it. We were in great company, in a beautiful place and seeing really cool things, why on earth did we leave? Who knows, it will remain a mystery. But anyway, this was our time spent with Eric & Dorothy in Paso Robles.

We loved our first Amtrak so we decided to do it again. This time we had oodles of leg room, it was actually ridiculous, you had so much room you could outstretch your legs completely and not touch the seat in front (I know what your thinking, we both have short legs, but don't underestimate the amount of leg room we had, a normal sized human would still think it was more than sufficient)

This was Kristian's kosher microwaved hotdog which stunk so bad, but he said it was strangely delicious.

This was just one of the typical restaurants in the heart of Paso Robles. Some very nice places in the vicinity. 

A look down the street in Paso Robles. 

The park right in the heart of Paso Robles

Kristian & Eric strolling along

After we visited the main part of Paso Robles, we visited one of the lakes nearby which was nearly empty as you can see from the photo above and the ones below. Turns out Paso Robles hasn't had any rain since February. So everyone in Australia, or around the world, start doing a rain dance!

Quick, look over there!

If you look at the tree line you will see where the water used to be. It was at something like 14% capacity. 

Eric & Dorothy took us to Paul & Debra's (their son & daughter in law) house. They live on an amazing property as you can see by this photo which is the view from their back deck.

I was super happy when I found out that they bred Llamas and sheep. This little one is Scarlet the baby llama which was beyond adorable.

Though she was super friendly, I was convinced Scarlet was going to bite me because I ran out of food to give her.

Lauren's new best friend, a three day old lamb.

Feeding time for the mumma sheep and all the babies.

This lamb was less than 24 hours old and it was huge but so so so cute. The whole time I was cuddling the lamb it kept crying for its mum which made it even more adorable.

The baby Llamas mum.

Little Scarlet.

Such sweet little things.

Kristian with his new friends.

All the sheep waiting for their food.

Adorable three day old lambs having a snuggle.

We decided to stay at Paul and Debra's for a few games of pool and some dinner which was great fun. 

Kristian honing in his pool skills. Turns out he's pretty good. 

Our new friend Tico 

Wrestling with Tico

The next morning Eric & Dorothy drove us to Morro Bay which was just beautiful.

I (Lauren) decided to take a photo, so as you do you tell people to smile, clearly Eric was the only one listening as Kristian has his eyes closed (typically) and Dorothy was looking away. But a good photo none the less.

A shot out on the bay. 

The old power station in the middle of the town. 

As Morro Bay is still a working fishing town it would only be fitting it we all had some fish and chips.

Good old fish & chips by the bay.

Sleepy sea lion chilling on the rocks right near the restaurant.

The men patiently waiting for the women whilst they shop.

Because we were only staying a couple of nights in Paso Robles, we didn't have enough time to visit the incredible Hearst Castle. But lucky for us we did get to go the visitor center and we did get a glimpse of the castle from a distance.

Not the best photo in the world due to the castle being so far away and our zoom not being very good. But if you want to look at it better just google Hearst Castle, it's pretty impressive.

On our final night Dorothy made us some delicious toasties, which she even cut into little squares for us. It was crazy delicious. 

The photo won't rotate but you still get the idea. We put some laundry on, completely forgot about it and look what Dorothy did. She got it dry for us and even folded it. We definitely felt spoilt rotten.

Our beautiful room at Eric & Dorothy's

Eric & Dorothy's gorgeous house.

The pretty street.

Our limo for the few days.

So that brought a close to Paso Robles and our stay with Eric & Dorothy unfortunately. But I'm sure we will be back at some point in time. We just wanted to say a final thank you to Eric & Dorothy for picking us up, taking us in and showing us around whilst we were in town, and an extra special thanks for driving us all the way to San Francisco, good times.
So as you just read, our next destination is San Francisco, which we were both eagerly excited for (and it did not disappoint!). But more on that later, now its time to board the flight to Seattle!

See you all soon!
Lauren & Kristian.