~Santa Barbara~

 One of the days while staying at Rancho Oso we took the 30 minute drive down to lovely Santa Barbara.

We spent some time on the beach - lovely and warm.

People rent all sorts of boats, kayaks, paddle boats, yachts etc....

We enjoyed walking on the pier.   Sterns Wharf is great and people go there for dinner, shopping, fishing and people watching!

We love the pelicans!  They were all diving for fish - it was wonderful to watch.

Lovely day!

~Rancho Oso~

We have spent the last few days at beautiful Rancho Oso Thousand Trails Park.   It is right in the middle of the Santa Ynez Mountains.  This park has so much to offer - mini golf, tennis, 2 pools, hot tub, playground, hiking, horseback riding, animals etc........

On Saturday the park had a special show - they did some cattle herding, showed us how they train the young ponies, and showed us how they train the bulls for bull riding as well.   All SO interesting to watch.

They had this wonderful dog who herded the cattle very well.

A view of one of the cottages and rv's  with the mountains in the background.

As always we enjoyed the candy bar bingo and the family won enough treats to share around.

The pool was wonderful and the weather was incredible so we loved swimming every day.

Rancho Oso is a working ranch so there are many animals there.  When we stayed here 4 years ago we enjoyed seeing "Bob" the pig. We were surprised to see he was still there and even bigger than before.

The mountains are everywhere and the views spectacular.   We love it here!

~Pismo Beach~

While staying at Pacific Dunes Ranch we spent a few days at Pismo Beach.   We parked the van at Grover Beach and then walked along this boardwalk.   You can walk the 2 1/2 km walk all the way to the Pismo Beach Pier.   We walked about 1/2 way on the boardwalk and then walked the rest of the way on the beach.

It was so beautiful!

We never get tired of being at the beach.   The birds, ever changing waves and beach, seaweed, shells etc.....are always new and exciting.

The beach was long and sandy and we enjoyed the nice walk.

We were surprised to see pelicans all over the pier.  They were obviously used to people as we were able to get up nice and close to them.

We walked through the cute, little town of Pismo Beach with its restaurants, souvenir shops, seafood bars, ice-cream shops etc.....

There were lots of sand dollars all over the beach.

In the afternoon we drove to Morro Bay.  It is a quaint, waterfront town near San Luis Obisbo.

The town is famous for "Morro Rock" - a 581 ft volcanic plug.

We loved the beach so much that we headed back to Grover Beach the next day.   We spent the day "hanging out".

We had never been to Pismo Beach before but we will be back for sure!!!

~Sand Dunes~

We just stayed at Pacific Dunes Ranch RV Park in Oceano, CA.   The park was right next to these incredible and HUGE sand dunes.   They literally went on for miles and miles. Behind the dunes is the Pacific Ocean.

We started in shoes......however that didn't last long as firstly it was way too tiring to walk up and down the dunes in them, and secondly the sand was soooooo soft we just had to go barefoot  :)

As always.....we just had to have some fun with our jumping pics!

What a beauty on the beach.

That is Brad lying on one of the dunes.    We could now see the ocean - but it was still miles away.

It is hard to tell from the photos, but the dunes were SO high.    That is Pismo Beach and surrounding towns in the distance.

This is the view when looking back at our rv park from the top of one of the dunes.

The dunes were so beautiful !!