firstday

The First Couple of Days

Our first surprise was the weather. I know that this shouldn’t have been a surprised; we picked this area for its cool coastal summers. But, having the conscience mind know something and having the sub-conscience accept it, is a different story. September is still summer in California. In fact, the hottest days are often in May and September. Mountain View was experiencing daytime highs in the mid to high eighties and temperatures in the mid-90’s weren’t uncommon to the east of us.

Our first exposure to Morro Bay was waking to fog. The dominant feature out our window is Morro Rock, the dormant volcano that helps to form the Harbor. The first days we never saw the Rock. As time progressed we started to experience a thinning of the fog in the afternoon. We knew that the ocean was out there but we never saw it from the flat for the first couple of weeks. The temperature never got above the low seventies.

We had vacationed in the Central Coast, usually in February, for many years and thought we had seen most of the tourist attractions. What we hadn’t really seen was what the locals see. Our flat is in the middle of town, so the within the first days we walked down to the Embarcadero. The Embarcadero is the main tourist avenue and fronts onto the protected bay itself. Most of the shops face the street and back on to the bay. Once we started walking we learned that there was a lot of life on the main streets of town (away from the water), life that had been just an encumbrance when we were tourists. Most of the little shops and stores had been there all the time; we just hadn’t slowed down enough to enjoy them. We found: bookstores, galleries, small restaurants, thrift shops (antique shops), specialty shops of all kinds, and shops that defy categorization. The number of small shops seems disproportionate to the size of the town’s population perhaps because of the large number of summer tourist.

The second weather surprise was the microclimates. We knew from our own experience that we could drive out of the fog within a couple of blocks of the house. Once outside of the fog the temperature would rise rapidly but the real magnitude of the temperature difference became obvious by watching the TV weather reports. The towns inland, by as little as twenty miles, could be in the low 100’s while we sat comfortably in the fog at the low 70’s. More surprising was the variation that the coastal cities could exhibit. Towns within a couple of miles could vary as much as twenty degrees. Some of the variations can be explained by understanding the topography.

The California coast and especially the Central Coast, from Monterey to Santa Barbara, is adjacent to a ridge of mountains. These mountains can be as high as 1700 feet. The mountains hold the fog on the seashore and allow the temperature on the inland side to rise to desert temperatures. This temperature difference produces a strong on-shore wind (from cold to hot) that enhances the temperature difference by pulling the ocean air onto the land. Barometric conditions can sometimes reverse the flow of the wind and when this happens the desert conditions can leak onto the coast. The barometric winds will flow down the low points of the mountains creating these temperature anomalies.

Showing Morro Rock in the Fog

Downtown Morro Bay - Morro Bay Boulevard looking west

Walking to the Embarcadero, about five blocks was easier than trying to drive that short distance and we soon learned that we could walk just about everywhere in town. The cars most have thought we had forgotten them.

The RV was being repaired about five blocks in the other direction from the Embarcadero, so I would walk. Once the RV was under control, I asked the same mechanics about the Corvette. It was then I learned that I had frozen the air conditioner’s compressor. The RV guys suggested that there was another shop, just down the street that specialized in automotive air-conditioners. I ended up taking the Vette to this specialist. Every couple of days I would visit both vehicles on a morning walk.

Nancy has been busy identifying the various fiber-arts organizations and shops, and is becoming active in the ones that best suit her needs. She is becoming involved with a weaving group in Atascadero, and once a week trundles up the hill to their meetings. She also has a group of friends that have moved to the Central Coast from the Bay Area. She is quickly filling her calendar and is as busy locally as she was in Mountain View. Unfortunately, she has be trying to stay active with her friends and organization with whom she was affiliated in the Bay Area. As a result, she is a little overbooked. She will have to slow down a little or she might hurt herself.

One of the first things that we noticed living in Morro Bay was that the drivers were both cautious and courteous. As a pedestrian, drivers go out of their way to yield at any time you step into the street. At intersections or close to an intersection the traffic will stop and wait patiently until you clear. Drivers are equally courteous with other drivers. At four-way stops, drivers already at the stop signs will hesitate and allow newly arriving cars to clear before proceeding – it makes me crazy. I’m not sure what causes this behavior. Maybe there is higher proportion of elderly drivers who are trying to be safe or because of the slower lifestyle people just want to take their time getting from place to place. I find myself engaging in boorish behavior - pushing through intersections rather than patiently waiting for some other driver to make up their mind that it might be O.K. to finally move.

It may take a little time, but I think we will adapt to this environment. This really is a small town and should be lived that way.

The Embarcadero - The main tourist area of Morro Bay - about 2 miles long