Morro Bay, California

So we meet again, was my thought when my mum and I drove into the city of Morro Bay late at night. Exhausted from our days at Kings Canyon and feeling slightly sick after having to take a very very curvy and what seemed to be endless road, we were excited to be finally arriving at our overnight stay. Last night's motel was cold and uncomfortable so we decided not to take any risks for tonight. I booked a room at the motel I stayed at with friends months ago on our highway #1 trip. It has the best unlimited view of the town's biggest attraction: Morro Rock.  A 177-meter high volcanic plug that is somehow still connected to the shore. Climbing it is not only forbidden by law but also highly dangerous and there is a way of walking half way around it anyway.

Once checked and settled in, we paid the local Italian a visit and tasted the marinara pasta. On our way back to the Inn we were reminded again about Morro Bay's fishing industry and listened to sea lions bark in the dark until it scared us at some point. The room I had booked was Audrey Hepburn themed and had HBO. So, needless to say, we had a great night at the Bayfront Inn.

In the morning we made ourselves some hot coffee and acted out a scene from breakfast at Tiffany's with the old timely phone. Unsatisfied with this performance we converted our coupons to homemade cinnamon buns at the diner next door and walked to the Rock. It was quiet and still a bit foggy. The locals were up and training for the marathon next month (as I was able to make out from the shirts they were wearing proudly). As we walked down to the Rock the people who were passing us were wishing us a beautiful morning, pointing to the rock and telling us about the group of sea otters swimming closely to the shore. With the buns in our tummies we took a faster pace to make sure to see them before they take off. There were six of them, swimming closely by the rock and getting all the attention from morning visitors. Right at that moment sea otter became my new favorite sea animal (days later I switched back to whales having seen now four grey whales on the open sea - unbeatable!). They are so peaceful and playful, it was hard to watch all that cuteness after our gigantic sugar treat for breakfast. We spend half an hour trying to count them and even spotted a couple of sea lions in the distance. Further at the back of the rock there were brown squirrels, grey pelicans and a guy who was looking for a hawk (the hawk itself was not in sight). Breathing in the salty sea air we made a turn on our way back and found a great spot for surfing which was crowded, indeed. Taken by the simple but oh so pretty life my mum and I started to come up with ways for us to settle down in this town. Creativity was not our strenght that morning as all of our business ideas revolved around baking and we did not come very far except how a day at Morro Bay would look like (it goes like this: wake up, go surfing, bake pastries, sell them to neighbours and local tourist and finish day with a barbecue party). Morro Bay is really something. In my head it will remain that magical low-key place that I discovered with my travel buddies in the summer and the place I made some nice monring memories with my mum, drinking coffee and dreaming about the simple life.