tenth anniversary trip, coastal central california
our 10th anniversary was friday and we went on a trip down to coastal central california.
thursday we drove down 101 through the salinas valley into san luis obispo and arrived just in time for the thursday night farmer's market, which is insane. wall-to-wall people and bands on five different corners, and 80 kinds of BBQ. we ate pulled pork and giant grilled artichokes and watched the sky light up flaming orange and pink. we ewwed and giggled at at the gum wall [there is this little walkway downtown, both walls are completely covered in ABC gum, it's the most disgusting thing EVER.] and marvelled at the jacaranda all abloom on the corner.
we stayed in cambria, which is a little town near Hearst Castle [spoiler: we did not make it there, again!], and it turned out check-in ended earlier than i thought so we were very, very late and the host had already gone to bed. luckily, he'd taped our keys to the front door. cambria is that kind of town.
friday we had coffee in town, stopped into some excellent little shops -- there is one that is the SWEETEST, MOST DARLING antique shop imaginable. it's all lovingly and painstakingly organized, the corner of antique ribbons and the case with the butterfly collections and the big jar of old Vegas matchbooks.
drove over to morro bay [a nice picture of the rock] and thrifted for awhile, waiting for the fog to burn off. we walked around the rock then looked for sand dollars along the beach until we were hungry. we thrifted some more in SLO and ended up in some pub-type place where it happened to be happy hour and we gorged ourselves for about $10, incuding booze. mo|tav, if you are there. the kahlua shake or whatever it's called is amazing.
somewhere in there i stepped on a huge glob of tar and had to toss out my favorite flip-flops.
i'd wanted to go to shell beach to look for sea glass [and shells NUR] at low tide but we were late -- shocker -- and stopped in avila beach where we'd been told there were more sand dollars [not that day, though there was a farmer's market happening. that seems to be the main big event that happens down there, every little hamlet has a farmer's market that the entire community seems to attend]. by the time we got to shell beach, the tide was most of the way in and we clambered down the "locals thisaway"-tagged path just so we could get sneered at by some vet who was fishing and acted like chad's asking "what are you catching today" was the stupidest question ever -- no one ever fishes for anything!
the sunset was unspectacular, it sank behind a huge bank of fog without any kind of fanfare for our anniversary. when we came back up to the park, the lawn was strewn with petals, apparently a wedding had occurred.
NOT MINE, ESTHER.
we headed into pismo beach and wandered around the downtown boardwalk area for awhile. it is full of shrieking tweens and has the most depressing arcade you can imagine and a candy shop that sells chocolate-coated worms. yum! we did not eat any clams, apparently they have been harvested nearly out of existence there. we watched the full-moon surfers from the pier. then it was really late and nothing was open for food so we ended up at a coco's [which is like marie callender's, i guess. one of those chain diners with a lot of pies and insanely salty food] and it was vile.
saturday the ocean was SPECTACULAR, the deepest azure on one end graded into nearly white over by morro rock. we had breakfast in SLO, did some more thrifting -- chad was irritated by the lack of men's thrift clothing, or rather the lack of men's thrift clothing that he would be caught dead wearing -- then went back to avila beach, swang on the swings, bought shaved ice [tiger's blood/cotton candy and vanilla/orange] and walked the length of the beach twice. avila beach is this freakishly new beach town -- there are half a dozen beach shacks that look mid-century but everything else seems brand new, i meant to look up the story on this.
[the story is avila beach has a nuclear power plant and had a massive oil spill in the 90s, which i assume is what ruined my flip-flops. not sure what that has to do with the late over-development but whatever, i am too tired to delve into it.]
we made it to shell beach just after low tide and went to the spot the angry veteran had suggested and played redneck horseshoes with some new friends and found lots of little shells but no sea glass. a wedding happened at the far end of the beach, the bridesmaids were dressed like buttercups and the groomsmen wore beige. there was a group of cadets in full dress uniform peering down at us from the bluff, i believe there was another wedding up there, too.
for dinner, we went to McLintock's in Pismo Beach, which had been recommended by several people and we agreed was the place we would take visitors if we lived there. it's an old steak house, the walls in the foyer and walkways are covered with polaroids of folks on their birthdays and anniversaries and other occasions. we sat in the bar to wait on a table, admiring the many animal heads and ordered the mushroom appetizer, which turned out to be a full skillet.
the moment we were seated, we were presented with a giant basket of onion rings and a bowl of salsa. this is part of your meal. you also get salad, rice pilaf, and limitless garlic bread, ranch beans, and roasted potatoes -- they just kept bringing out bowls of food. it was ridiculous. i had the filet mignon, it was the best steak i've ever had. whatever chad got was good, too, but mine was better. finally, you get dessert or liqueur, so we got vanilla ice cream with caramel and the house special, which was kahlua, bailey's, cream over ice. something like that. a day late, but an amazing anniversary dinner and we are going to try to forget coco's ever existed.
we stopped at the madonna inn on the way back to cambria, it is still a pink wonderland. we drove up to san simeon to check out the karaoke and met a trio of strapping scandinavian lads on a 6-month tour of whatever the hell they wanted to see. chad totally hit it off with the tallest, blondest, most strapping specimen, they're both policy geeks and we are supposed to show them a thing or two when they arrive in SF later this week.
sunday we woke up to blue skies for the first time on our trip, but the fog had rolled back in by the time we'd packed up and headed out. i meant to remember the name of the place where we had breakfast, because not only was it exceptionally unremarkable, but i am pretty sure we had an exceptionally unremarkable breakfast there on some other trip and i would like to not go there again, but i've forgotten.
we spent a few hours at moonstone beach and met a lovely older lady who regularly gathers things and she told us about limpets and slipper shells and her collection of sea urchins and after we said goodbye, i was telling chad how jealous i was of her urchins when we heard her calling after us -- she'd found a small one and wanted to give it to us as a souvenir. it is green and the size of my pinky nail.
toward the end of our walk, an older man about to head into the waves looks at me, says, "let me guess. BRAZILIAN!" and i say, "no, oakland." his wife rolls her eyes at him and makes a clucking noise, then he says, "what? they *do* look foreign!"
i'm not sure what that was about, but i'd like to think we just look especially sun-kissed and happy.
[this is just an aside to mention that on our drive home, we went from high 50s windy fog into the crotch of the salinas valley where it was well over 100 then up into monterey where it was in the 70s and gusty and here it was allegedly -- i don't even know but everyone was talking about how hot it was so it could've been anywhere from 70 on up, but if they'd felt what we felt in paso robles they wouldn't mention a thing. crazy california.]
thursday we drove down 101 through the salinas valley into san luis obispo and arrived just in time for the thursday night farmer's market, which is insane. wall-to-wall people and bands on five different corners, and 80 kinds of BBQ. we ate pulled pork and giant grilled artichokes and watched the sky light up flaming orange and pink. we ewwed and giggled at at the gum wall [there is this little walkway downtown, both walls are completely covered in ABC gum, it's the most disgusting thing EVER.] and marvelled at the jacaranda all abloom on the corner.
we stayed in cambria, which is a little town near Hearst Castle [spoiler: we did not make it there, again!], and it turned out check-in ended earlier than i thought so we were very, very late and the host had already gone to bed. luckily, he'd taped our keys to the front door. cambria is that kind of town.
friday we had coffee in town, stopped into some excellent little shops -- there is one that is the SWEETEST, MOST DARLING antique shop imaginable. it's all lovingly and painstakingly organized, the corner of antique ribbons and the case with the butterfly collections and the big jar of old Vegas matchbooks.
drove over to morro bay [a nice picture of the rock] and thrifted for awhile, waiting for the fog to burn off. we walked around the rock then looked for sand dollars along the beach until we were hungry. we thrifted some more in SLO and ended up in some pub-type place where it happened to be happy hour and we gorged ourselves for about $10, incuding booze. mo|tav, if you are there. the kahlua shake or whatever it's called is amazing.
somewhere in there i stepped on a huge glob of tar and had to toss out my favorite flip-flops.
i'd wanted to go to shell beach to look for sea glass [and shells NUR] at low tide but we were late -- shocker -- and stopped in avila beach where we'd been told there were more sand dollars [not that day, though there was a farmer's market happening. that seems to be the main big event that happens down there, every little hamlet has a farmer's market that the entire community seems to attend]. by the time we got to shell beach, the tide was most of the way in and we clambered down the "locals thisaway"-tagged path just so we could get sneered at by some vet who was fishing and acted like chad's asking "what are you catching today" was the stupidest question ever -- no one ever fishes for anything!
the sunset was unspectacular, it sank behind a huge bank of fog without any kind of fanfare for our anniversary. when we came back up to the park, the lawn was strewn with petals, apparently a wedding had occurred.
NOT MINE, ESTHER.
we headed into pismo beach and wandered around the downtown boardwalk area for awhile. it is full of shrieking tweens and has the most depressing arcade you can imagine and a candy shop that sells chocolate-coated worms. yum! we did not eat any clams, apparently they have been harvested nearly out of existence there. we watched the full-moon surfers from the pier. then it was really late and nothing was open for food so we ended up at a coco's [which is like marie callender's, i guess. one of those chain diners with a lot of pies and insanely salty food] and it was vile.
saturday the ocean was SPECTACULAR, the deepest azure on one end graded into nearly white over by morro rock. we had breakfast in SLO, did some more thrifting -- chad was irritated by the lack of men's thrift clothing, or rather the lack of men's thrift clothing that he would be caught dead wearing -- then went back to avila beach, swang on the swings, bought shaved ice [tiger's blood/cotton candy and vanilla/orange] and walked the length of the beach twice. avila beach is this freakishly new beach town -- there are half a dozen beach shacks that look mid-century but everything else seems brand new, i meant to look up the story on this.
[the story is avila beach has a nuclear power plant and had a massive oil spill in the 90s, which i assume is what ruined my flip-flops. not sure what that has to do with the late over-development but whatever, i am too tired to delve into it.]
we made it to shell beach just after low tide and went to the spot the angry veteran had suggested and played redneck horseshoes with some new friends and found lots of little shells but no sea glass. a wedding happened at the far end of the beach, the bridesmaids were dressed like buttercups and the groomsmen wore beige. there was a group of cadets in full dress uniform peering down at us from the bluff, i believe there was another wedding up there, too.
for dinner, we went to McLintock's in Pismo Beach, which had been recommended by several people and we agreed was the place we would take visitors if we lived there. it's an old steak house, the walls in the foyer and walkways are covered with polaroids of folks on their birthdays and anniversaries and other occasions. we sat in the bar to wait on a table, admiring the many animal heads and ordered the mushroom appetizer, which turned out to be a full skillet.
the moment we were seated, we were presented with a giant basket of onion rings and a bowl of salsa. this is part of your meal. you also get salad, rice pilaf, and limitless garlic bread, ranch beans, and roasted potatoes -- they just kept bringing out bowls of food. it was ridiculous. i had the filet mignon, it was the best steak i've ever had. whatever chad got was good, too, but mine was better. finally, you get dessert or liqueur, so we got vanilla ice cream with caramel and the house special, which was kahlua, bailey's, cream over ice. something like that. a day late, but an amazing anniversary dinner and we are going to try to forget coco's ever existed.
we stopped at the madonna inn on the way back to cambria, it is still a pink wonderland. we drove up to san simeon to check out the karaoke and met a trio of strapping scandinavian lads on a 6-month tour of whatever the hell they wanted to see. chad totally hit it off with the tallest, blondest, most strapping specimen, they're both policy geeks and we are supposed to show them a thing or two when they arrive in SF later this week.
sunday we woke up to blue skies for the first time on our trip, but the fog had rolled back in by the time we'd packed up and headed out. i meant to remember the name of the place where we had breakfast, because not only was it exceptionally unremarkable, but i am pretty sure we had an exceptionally unremarkable breakfast there on some other trip and i would like to not go there again, but i've forgotten.
we spent a few hours at moonstone beach and met a lovely older lady who regularly gathers things and she told us about limpets and slipper shells and her collection of sea urchins and after we said goodbye, i was telling chad how jealous i was of her urchins when we heard her calling after us -- she'd found a small one and wanted to give it to us as a souvenir. it is green and the size of my pinky nail.
toward the end of our walk, an older man about to head into the waves looks at me, says, "let me guess. BRAZILIAN!" and i say, "no, oakland." his wife rolls her eyes at him and makes a clucking noise, then he says, "what? they *do* look foreign!"
i'm not sure what that was about, but i'd like to think we just look especially sun-kissed and happy.
[this is just an aside to mention that on our drive home, we went from high 50s windy fog into the crotch of the salinas valley where it was well over 100 then up into monterey where it was in the 70s and gusty and here it was allegedly -- i don't even know but everyone was talking about how hot it was so it could've been anywhere from 70 on up, but if they'd felt what we felt in paso robles they wouldn't mention a thing. crazy california.]