Santa Maria Valley Vineyard Buds

Late March and early April are exciting times for Santa Maria Valley vineyards and wineries.


Last year's vintages are being released and the upcoming season's vines begin to bud with new foliage.


Also opening this month is a new addition to the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail. The RiverBench Vineyard and Winery has been founded and is being managed by a seasoned team of Central Coast vineyard veterans. We'll be visiting their new tasting room and sampling their newest releases sometime in the very near future. Stay tuned for our review in a future post.

Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove

Once a year, migrating monarch butterflies find their way to a grove of trees in Pismo Beach. The monarchs spend the winter nights and cooler days huddled together and hanging in clumps from the trees in this special grove.

On warmer days the butterflies will take periodic flights to drink dew and nectar from nearby foliage.
This monarch butterfly population has been migrating to the Pismo Beach grove each year for several decades. They begin arriving in November and leave sometime in February. Up to 150,000 butterflies have been counted in some years. Last year, the population counted was 22,000. There are other monarch groves on the Central Coast in Monterey, Morro Bay and the Ellwood grove near Santa Barbara but the Pismo Beach monarch butterfly grove is the largest grove in California. The monarchs that come to Pismo Beach have a lifespan of 6 months.
The Pismo Beach monarch grove is located on Highway 1 just north of Grand Avenue and just south of the Pismo State Beach North Beach Campground. The grove is open daily and docents provide guided walks at 11AM and 2PM. Group tours may be arranged by calling 805-773-8919. There is a volunteer-run trailer/office on the site which is staffed daily from 10AM to 4PM. The office is a handy source of information about the monarchs and how we can help nurture and protect their endangered populations (here's a hint: Got Milkweed?). There is also a nice selection of gifts available. Remember to bring your camera and/or binoculars. For more info, visit: The Monarch Butterfly website.

American Flatbread Pizza in Los Alamos

The American Flatbread restaurant is yet another reason we love living on the Central Coast. American Flatbread is a wonderfully unique dining experience. During the week, American Flatbread is a full-scale production bakery making thousands of frozen pizzas. Each pizza is hand made from the finest ingredients, baked in a wood-fired earthen oven and then flash-frozen for shipment and sale in upscale groceries and health-food stores throughout the Western States. The production facility converts to a restaurant on Friday and Saturday nights from 5PM to 10PM. After about a 45-minute wait at the wine bar (no worries, Mo serves up an excellent glass of local wine and there are literally about 100 to choose from!); we were seated "in the front row" right by the earthen oven.

Our table was about 15 feet in front of the oven and good grief, that fire is hot! It was pretty warm there but we were entertained by Jay who was tonight's flatbread chef. Jay had his hands full; the restaurant was filled to capacity and he was constantly being bombarded with fresh flatbreads ready to be baked but he was always smiling and every pizza was baked perfectly. This man enjoys his work and his pride shines through in the high quality pizzas he bakes!


We started off with a couple Evolution Salads: Organic Sweet Leaf Lettuces, Mesclun, and Arugula tossed with Organic Carrots and Celery, Pacific Ocean Arame Seaweed, Toasted Flax Seed, with our fresh Fresh Ginger and Tamari Vinegrette flavored with local Raspberrry Vinegar. Yes, the salad is as tasty as it reads.

We usually order the Punctuated Equilibrium pizza (Kalamata Olives, Stone Oven Roasted Sweet Peppers, Feta Cheese, Fresh Rosemary, Red Onions, California Whole Milk Mozarella, and Garlic) but tonight we had a taste for something a little different. The Central Coast Sausage pizza caught our eye so we gave it a try and were pleasantly surprised! The Central Coast Sausage pizza is made from Naturally Raised Pork in a housemade Nitrate-Free Maple and Fennel Sausage, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Onions, Mushrooms, Cheeses and Fresh Garden Herbs. Wow! Baked with a hint of natural oak wood smoke flavor. Pizza Perfection!

As we were enjoying the pizza, Jay leaned in close to give us his dessert tip: "Try tonight's homemade apple pie." One of the Flatbread prep chefs also specializes in baking homemade apple pies. HUGE slices of apple in a crisp crust, warmed in the earthen oven and served with fresh vanilla-bean ice cream a la mode. Heaven on earth. This was the best apple pie we've ever tasted!

American Flatbread is a must-visit if you're hankering for a pleasant, upscale but casual and unique dining experience. Don't be in a hurry: dinner will take a couple hours and it's always best to get there early.

Port San Luis and See Canyon Apples

Let's keep this secret between ourselves: Weatherwise, September and October are a couple of the most beautiful months of the year here. The temperatures are often warm during the day and cool at night, the skies are clear and the summer vacation crowds have disappeared. In celebration of our "Indian Summer", we hopped in the Mustang for a cruise up our coast to Port San Luis and See Canyon.

Port San Luis adds a rich history to the Central Coast. This natural habor was used by Spaniard and Portuguese explorers many centuries ago. In 1873 John Harford built the original wharf which helped establish the port as a major shipping center for retail goods, passengers and mail. In the 1880's, the the Pacific Coast Railway ran all the way from Los Olivos to the Harford Pier.

Today, commercial and sport fishermen use the pier as their base of operations and many pleasure boaters tie up in the harbor year-round. Local fishermen may be seen cleaning their catch at the base of the pier and numerous pelicans can be spotted in the area just waiting to tussle over the remnants.



There are several fresh fish markets on the pier which sell wholesale to local restaurants and retail to the general public. The Old Port Inn Fish Market is probably the largest and is certainly our favorite. The Old Port Inn restaurant (right next to the market) at the end of the pier is also one of our local favorites for a fresh seafood dining experience.

Today we stopped into Fat Cat's Cafe (at the base of the pier) for a quick lunch on the patio. I'd been hankering for a bowl of their great clam chowder ever since I'd tasted a sample at the Pismo Beach Clam Festival last year. The chowder was as excellent as I'd remembered and certainly satisfied my craving. Ann had a crab cocktail which was loaded with fresh crab and perfectly seasoned.

For "dessert" we drove up See Canyon to sample and buy some freshly picked apples from the Gopher Glen apple farm. See Canyon provides the perfect climate for growing apples: it's cold enough for frost in the winter and warm and sunny in the summer. There's enough fog-shrouded mornings and moisture in the summer that many of the apple farms don't need to irrigate their orchards.

We've been buying Gopher Glen apples for about 20 years now. There's always a large selection of apples and today there were 12 varieties to choose from. These apples are crisp and delicious..they've got to be the best in the world!

Gopher Glen also presses and sells their own cider which is available in container sizes ranging from 16 oz to 1 gallon. Apple season usually runs from late July to early December. This year though, the See canyon apple season is running about 3 weeks early so most varieties will trail off around the end of November. Better hurry!

The Murphy Auto Museum

The Murphy Auto Museum in Oxnard, CA is a great collection of 50+ autos. Dr. Donald Murphy has established this nonprofit museum which serves as a public showcase for many different collectors. The museum has recently been expanded to over 45,000 square feet in size. The huge selection of autos on display range from early classics to street rods, sports cars and muscle cars. In the "Packard Palace" section, there's a large collection of Packards from 1927-1958.
The unique aspect of the auto museum is that many different collectors display their classics here for the public to appreciate. The museum even has its own mechanic who's available for vehicle repairs and restorations.

We certainly enjoyed our visit. The large size and pleasant atmosphere allowed us to view and enjoy every vehicle at our own leisurely pace. The museum is open every Saturday and Sunday from 10AM to 4PM and is also available for special group or corporate functions. The suggested donation is $6 for adults and $3 for children (12yrs and under). The museum is located at 2230 Statham Blvd, Oxnard, CA; phone 805-487-4333.