April 3rd: Lucia Lodge to Salmon Creek Falls

We started the day with breakfast and overcast skies, but as we climbed out of Lucia Lodge, the weather improved steadily. The traffic was frequent but not terrible, since construction would batch up the traffic and then we'd get long breaks without it.

Unlike on Old Santa Cruz highway, the drivers on this stretch had rarely seen a cyclist, and many would slow down so the passenger could take a picture of us on the triplet. Even the giant ass trucks carrying huge stones for construction would give us a thumbs up as they passed, granting us lots of room. One car driver even rolled down his window on a long climb and yelled: "Best Dad ever!"

By the time we reached Salmon Creek Falls, however, the kids were ready for a break. The long climb, while somewhat gentle, wasn't interrupted with many places to stop and play, so we took a short hike to the Salmon Creek falls, but after that hike the kids didn't want to keep riding, despite my telling them that this was the last hill before things became easy. Van-supported touring sounds great in theory, but in practice, given the chance to be lazy, even Bowen can get lazy and decide to ride in the van instead of riding on the bike.

Past Big Sur and into San Luis Obispo county, the road suddenly became flat and gentle, and we pulled into the San Simeon Elephant Seals viewing area for a look at the giant creatures.

There, I pulled out my smartphone and discovered to my surprise that hotels were far cheaper than AirBnBs in the area. We ended up picking the Sands Hotel, which had great facilities, including a swimming pool with hot tub, and an extensive outdoor play area which Bowen and Boen enjoyed using.

Dinner was at the Madeline's a French restaurant in downtown Cambria which served rabbit, much to Bowen's chagrin.