Two Days in Pismo Beach

Last week I got to spend a couple of days in Pismo Beach. I love the Central Coast in general and try to go up there whenever I get the chance, but I had never spent any time in Pismo. I loved every minute!


My fiancé and I stayed at the Best Western Shore Cliff Lodge, which, as the name implies, is perched right on the edge of a cliff overlooking the water. Our room was really nice and big too. Best of all we had a balcony with views of the ocean, beach, and the pier. The views were gorgeous. There was a lawn with a little gazebo perched right at the edge and the sun was shining in rays down onto the beach and pier. Seagulls were everywhere calling out to each other. Total seaside bliss!

After we got situated we walked around the part of town down by the pier and also walked up and down the pier itself. There are all kinds of shops down by the pier here in Pismo. Lot’s of restaurants, ice cream and coffee shops, surf shops, and for some reason a proliferation of tattoo shops. Must have something to do with all the surfers. There were quite a few of them in the water and we spent some time watching them catch waves. I’ve never tried surfing before. I think boogie boarding is more my thing. Something about trying to stand up on a moving surface and then falling smack down into icy cold water over and over and over again… I’m not sure it would suit me. I think the gear is cool though and I dig the lifestyle. The weather was cool but like I said, the sun was out and it was really beautiful. Some brave souls were swimming but they must have been completely numb and no longer able to feel how cold the water was!

That night we had one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time. We ate at a place called the Cracked Crab. It was awesome! Truly foodgasmic. We shared a salad bursting out with fresh veggies and topped with crab. You could tell it was the real deal not that neon pinky looking stuff. Then we had the crab cakes. OMG. You know how most crab cakes you get are lots of breading with some crab mixed in? I don’t think there was any breading in these crab cakes at all. It was all succulent, yummy crab with some herbs and they had a little seasoned sherry cream sauce drizzled over them. I’m sure it was fattening and therefore delicious. For our main course we stuck with a beach staple and ordered the fish and chips. These were not your run-of-the mill fish and chips though. The fish was halibut and it was lightly breaded in big, flaky chunks with no greasiness at all. The fries where also not greasy and they still had some of the peel on them which I love. I have to admit I was so full after all this good food I barely touched the generous portion of coleslaw that came with the fish and chips. The bite I had though was good. With this amazing meal I had a glass of white wine and I’m sorry but I can’t remember what it was, but it was just what a nice glass of white wine should be.

I also got a kick out of the wait staff’s t-shirts. Some of them said, “I got crabs in Pismo Beach.” Awesome. Of course I had to take a picture of that.

Later we rolled ourselves back to the Shore Cliff Inn and took advantage of their hot tub. Their hot tub and pool are situated right near the edge of the cliff, so you can hang out in the pool and almost look out at the water. It was a bit windy by then. It was so refreshing to sit in the hot tub with a jet positioned right on my lower back and have the cool salty breeze blowing in my face. Right on! I never wanted to go back to Los Angeles.

Tomorrow I’ll fill you in on my second day in Pismo Beach and tell you about the cinnamon roll I wanted to run away with and marry. Below are some web addresses for your information.


Best Western Shore Cliff Lodge

www.shorecliff.com


The Cracked Crab

www.crackedcrab.com


Pismo Beach’s Official Website

www.pismobeach.org

What to make: Spinach & Strawberry Salad

This light, delicious salad is a favorite of my friends and they begged me to share the recipe.

I apologize for the picture quality. I think I need a new camera!

Ingredients:

Fresh spinach leaves
Strawberries
Feta cheese
Walnuts
Red wine viniagrette

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and eat. It's really that easy. Actually I like to slice the strawberries. You can use any amount of each ingredient depending on your taste. When it comes to the red wine viniagrette my favorite brand is Brianna's. You'll recognize it for the picture of a strawberry on the front. Bon appetit!

Camping at Lake Perris

Weekends are a great time to go camping. There are lots of camping areas within easy driving distance of Los Angeles and San Diego. To find one that suits you best go to the California State Parks website at www.parks.ca.gov. From there follow the links to the descriptions of each park where you can find plenty of information on the park and even book camping reservations online. Now is a good time to visit California’s parks because they are becoming quite endangered. The state government is proposing cutting back on park funding and the National Trust for Historic Preservation just listed California’s State Parks to their yearly list of 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.



Recently my friends and I went camping at Lake Perris. We wanted to go somewhere that was not too far of a driving distance from Los Angeles but far enough and we wanted a place that was on a lake. Lake Perris fit the bill nicely. It was not too crowded and the camping sites are not too close together. Of course if you get a rowdy inebriated bunch next door you probably will think the sites are much, much too close together. At least our next door inebriated bunch was a friendly inebriated bunch. Then again maybe we were the inebriated bunch. There are parts of this trip that will forever be hazy in my memory. You could suffice it to say we had a good time.

We did all the usual camping activities. For one of my friends this was his first camping trip and we indoctrinated him in all the rituals. He has never been the same since discovering the gooey gorgeousness that is a s’more. Really, who goes through childhood without eating a s’more cooked over an open campfire? Blasphemy! Might I recommend that when you are buying your s’mores supplies, you check out the marshmallows that are a chocolate/vanilla combo? Yes they have flavored marshmallows now. Total. Heaven.



If you have a boat you’re going to enjoy this lake. I bet in the summer that lake is a nice cool dip on a hot day. In fact I might need to visit this place again now that summer is here. Happy camping!

Newport Beach's Back Bay

A couple weekends ago my fiancé and I went down to Newport Beach to check out what’s called “The Back Bay”. This area, as the name implies, is an inland waterway “in the back of” regular Newport Bay. It’s also known as Upper Newport Bay. It’s a great wildlife sanctuary for both water and land creatures. In spring and summer it is full of wildflowers. Most of the flowers I saw were yellow, which is my favorite color. They must have known I was coming.

There is a visitor’s center there called the Muth Interpretive Center. There they have information on the ecology of the area and maps of all the hiking trails. There are lots of great trails around the Back Bay area. Some are paved and are popular with cyclists and others are dirt but graded and wide. There are smaller trails leading off these main ones and these are great for exploring.

We took one of these smaller trails and it led us down by the water. I have to say that as pretty as the water is there, it smells bad. Actually let me correct that statement, it’s the mud there that smells bad. At first I thought my fiancé had eaten, uh, something that disagreed with him, but no it’s the mud. According to the information at the visitor’s center this is because the mud is decomposing which is apparently a good thing. Just to warn you though, the occasional whiff is a bit putrid.


While on this fun little stinky side trail we saw one of the coolest flowers I’ve ever seen. I actually thought it was fake until I noticed that there were a bunch of them. I thought, “Okay there’s no way someone stuck that many fake flowers down here so it must be real”. There’s a picture of it below. There were lots of cute little ground squirrels everywhere too and they looked like miniature kangaroos. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of those though so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

We concluded that Newport’s Back Bay is a great place to get out into some nature and go for a great hike. Next time I think I’ll take my bike and check out the scene from the bike paths. You could also take a boat or kayaks out on the water and see it that way. The only downer is that the flight path from John Wayne International Airport goes right overhead, so while it might look like you’re in nature, it don’t sound like you’re in nature.

For more information on Newport’s Back Bay area check out this website:

http://www.newportbay.org/