A few years later, my husband and I spent our anniversary there, and we were hooked. It became our favorite romantic weekend getaway.
Picture yourself walking hand in hand along a beach studded with pebbles that have been smoothed by the tide. An occasional large rock juts out of the ocean, sending white spray into the air as giant waves crash against it. You stop to watch an orange sun dissolve like liquid into the deep gray water. Later you cuddle up in front of a fireplace at a cozy inn and sip wine or perhaps soak in a Jacuzzi in your room. Sound like a romance novel? That's Cambria.
Tucked among pine-covered hills at the southern end of the scenic Hwy 1, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, this little paradise is one of California's most beautiful treasures. The picturesque little town is filled with shops and galleries where the works of local artists and craftsmen, some of it museum quality, are sold. While it draws tourists, it seems to lack the frantic bustle of many of California's tourist towns yet remains, somehow, sophisticated.
Cambria was first settled in the early 1860's. After about a decade of changing names from Slabtown, Rosaville, San Simeon and Santa Rosa, the name Cambria was officially adopted. (Although visitors usually pronounce it Came-bria, the locals tend to say Cam-bria or Cahm-bria.) By the 1880's it was the second largest town in the county. It started as a fishing and quicksilver mining town and progressed to a shipping, mining, dairy farming, logging and ranching center. With the establishment of the railroad lines into San Luis Obispo in 1894, there was a decline in coastal shipping. Almost inaccessible, Cambria was more than 25 years away from seeing the first improved road into the community.
Boasting clear blue skies with temperatures averaging 50 to 70 degrees, tourism is now the main industry in Cambria. The misty fog rolling in off the Pacific makes a sweater or light jacket a convenient thing to have on hand no matter what time of year you visit, especially if you intend to walk on the beach around sunset.
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