We started our day in Ojai, waking up at the Blue Iguana and meeting Sharron (Kim’s sister) & Woo at the Ojai Valley Inn for breakfast. All the times that I’ve been to Ojai, I’ve tried to book a room at the Ojai Valley Inn and never found a vacancy. Today was actually the first time I’ve ever driven up to and been within sight of the place and I must say that I understand why it is such a special place that seems to be forever booked well in advance. It’s a beautiful resort and it is understandable why Anthony Hopkins spends his winters there and it’s frequented by lots of quintessential Californians of means. Everything about our breakfast, from the table setting and the atmosphere to the service and, of course, the food, validated the quality of the place and tells me that this reputation for excellence is well deserved.
After a leisurely breakfast, we headed up the coast past Santa Barbara and up to what many of us have come to know as Sideways country. I’m referring to the 2004 movie with Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church that takes place in Buellton and Solvang. The two old college friends go up to this well-known wine region to enjoy a boys week in lieu of a bachelor party since Church’s character is about to be wed. It’s a story about success and failure and learning about what it takes to be happy with your life. I’m not sure what the locals of this area think of the movie, but it certainly put the towns on more people’s map. I imagine that many people who come here for the first time immediately think of the movie when they come since it was filmed on location here and everything from the windmills to the Hitching Post bar seem familiar. We came here with Gary & Oswaldo back in December for the Christmas markets and we thought that it would be a pleasant stop on our way up to the Central Coast because Carolyn is a big fan of Christmas and John is a big fan of anything and everything Nordic (his last name is Lundholm). You see, Solvang is especially famous for its Danish/Nordic heritage and is considered to be the Danish capital of America.
Right now, I am sitting in the car waiting for the family to finish a walking ghost tour of Solvang. These tours are becoming a popular thing to do in places that attract a lot of tourists, probably for a combination of reasons including the ever-present fascination with the occult and the need to have alternative nighttime activities in a world where fewer people drink. I started with the gang on the tour, but after testing out the paranormal divining rods outside the most haunted house in Solvang and watching those divining rods spin around wildly when I held them (nobody else had that happen to them), I decided I had better go get the car and be done with chasing ghosts. To be honest, it’s 64° right now in Solvang and my blood isn’t as thick as it used to be, so I’m happy to be sitting in a warm car waiting to pick everybody up after the tour. Having experienced Ostrich Land in the afternoon, that’s about all the excitement I can handle in one day.
Tomorrow we will wander up the Central Coast on the 101, first skipping Los Olivos and its quaint shopping, then heading to the famous Madonna Inn, just south of San Luis Obispo. The Madonna Inn is a kitschy pink and green motel and tourist attraction that was built by a wealthy developer in 1958 and has become an iconic roadtripper stop in this Central Coast region. It’s known for its quirky and unusual rooms, all of which are unique and thematic. It’s also known for being extremely pink. I was first introduced to the place in 1980 when I came out here with my first wife for an unusual visit with my father. He had recently come into some money and I think wanted to show off his new-found prominence. He drove us up through the Central Coast on our way to Visalia, where he was creating a development empire to build hundreds of homes at a time for migrant farm workers who were starting to get year-round employment in food processing plants. We visited Hearst Castle, ate Andersen’s Pea Soup and stayed at the Madonna Inn during what was likely its heyday. Given that the granddaughters tend to like anything pink and Carolyn is totally into American kitsch, it seemed like a logical place to stop on our way up to our final destination tomorrow in Paso Robles. It did not disappoint.
San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles are both located in the Central Coast region of California, which sits roughly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco along the Pacific coast. San Luis Obispo County, where both cities are located, is considered central part of the region alongside neighboring counties like Santa Barbara, Monterey, and parts of Ventura County. The Central Coast is known for its Mediterranean climate, rolling hills, wine country (particularly around Paso Robles… hence the Sideways setting), and coastal access, making it distinct from both Northern and Southern California.
We are heading to Paso Robles as our northernmost destination in order to see something called Sensorio. Sensorio was created in 2019 as a destination for entertainment, exploration, meditation, adventure, and delight, honoring the natural topography of the landscape. The idea for Sensorio came from the the originator’s travels to Australia, based on Munro’s Australian Field of Light in Uluru, near Aires Rock, the famous central spot on that continent. Sensorio opened in May 2019 with Field of Light, by internationally acclaimed British artist Bruce Munro, who created a sensory experience that goes beyond visual artistry to offer visitors a walkthrough kinetic adventure . This dreamscape walk-through light exhibit stretches across the rolling hills of Paso Robles, illuminating the natural beauty of the countryside on a grand scale. Composed of more than 100,000 stemmed spheres lit by fiber optics fully powered by solar energy, this is British artist Bruce Munro’s largest installation internationally .The Sensorio Mercado was added in 2022 and adds an outdoor event space to make viewing a more pleasant experience. Munro’s latest work to be added to Sensorio is the Fiber Optic Symphonic Orchestra exhibit, or FOSO, which just opened in April 2025 and features 32 colorful, carousel-like columns lights set to a musical score. Since its installation, Sensorio has become one of Paso’s most popular attractions for visitors. Acclaimed nationwide and internationally, Sensorio was featured in The New York Times as #6 in “50 Places to Visit in 2020” and referred to as “stunning” by Smithsonian Magazine. The Sensorio property spans over 386 acres though the exhibit is focused on 15 acres strategically positioned so that the sun sets directly over the heart of the exhibit .
I once wrote a story about Uluru and its spiritual significance to the Aboriginal people of Australia. As a testament to that sacred place, Sensorio represents a unique intersection of art, technology, and nature in Paso Robles wine country, transforming it into one of California’s most celebrated immersive art destinations. We have the perfect weather for the experience…not too hot at sunset and not too chilly in the early night. I do recommend the civilized terrace experience rather than just an Aboriginal walkabout. The visage is spectacular and captures much of the essence of all aspects of California life, the beauty and majesty of the countryside, the technology that inspires the state’s northern commerce and the performance art that has made Southern California the hipster capital of the world. It is all truly the heart of the pink and green of California and perhaps America.
You are a regular James A. Fitzpatrick!