Scarecrow Festival in Cambria, October 25-26

When I was researching things to do and places to stay while Patrick's parents were visiting, I stumbled across a cute cottage-like hotel in Cambria, just across from the ocean on Moonstone Beach. I decided it would make the perfect romantic overnight spot for a future weekend. With Thanksgiving coming up, I decided to re-investigate the prospect of staying at the inn, and while doing so I saw an ad for the Scarecrow Festival during the month of October.  Something about that jogged my memory- while in Europe earlier this year, a couple seated with us on the train to Scotland told us they had traveled to California once and one of the places they vistied was a charming town with scarecrows posted all throughout it! It all seemed like fate to me; we'd do something else for Thanksgiving- we had to go to Cambria during the festival!

Most of the scarecrows aren't of the traditional straw stuffed clothing type. There were many uses of media and space- the businesses and individuals that entered them were so creative! The businesses often made the nature of their scarecrows relevant to their names or services too; for instance, Felix was stationed outside the "Black Cat Bistro". The picture next to it has one of my personal favorites, "Rosie"- I wondered if she's supposed to resemble the robot maid on The Jetsons, because that's who she reminded  me of anyway!

 

 

Our stroll along mainstreet brought us to many niche shops and eateries too. We did several wine tastings, bought a few Christmas presents, enjoyed the most-expensive meal ever purchased on our own dime (the menu at Robin's Restaurant was phenomenal- so difficult to decide what to order!), and I got to fawn over a few interesting flowers and a store's mascot cat curled up sweetly in a wreath of flowers on a bench. By the way, the scarecrow below is the Invisible Man. :)

 

These glitzy purses (the VW bug & the coy pond) caught my eye while window shopping. They were a few hundred dollars, which is definitely beyond my price range, but thinking of the bead-work that went into it, I'd probably not want to accept any less if I was the designer!

After a night-time soak in our jaccuzi tub, falling asleep to the glow from the fireplace in cozy fresh-smelling sheets, and a breakfast in bed of fruit and homemade pastries, we spent the morning walking along the ocean clifftops down to the beach. The weather was gorgeous and there weren't too many people out yet.

Highlights from our beachwalk: misty air cast a mystical haze around the silhouette landscape; I thought Patrick was joking when he told me not to pick up seals, until I turned around and saw he was reading a sign for not-so-bright people; and washed up giant ocean vegetation that looked like a Kraken tentacle.

 

These sandpipers didn't seem phased at all by the big waves coming in with the tide; it was funny to watch them causally dart away at the very last minute like pros, while I squealed and took off.

I love the ocean; it's so mesmerizing! (Below is a short video to try to share that feeling.)  We had to take off earlier than I'd have liked because of hotel checkout, but Cambria is going on the list for places we'd like to return to.