Saturday, June 18, 2011

My Pie in the Sky

I may have set my sights a little to high when I started this writing project.

Last week, when I mentioned our camping trip to Pinnacles National Monument, I had the nerve to add, "more about that later." I shouldn't make such promises! Despite my best intentions, as long as I am blogging only one day a week (sometimes less!) there is just no way I can tell you about every fun thing we do around here. They pile up too fast.

I mean, consider last Saturday. We hiked up Cerro Alto during the day, and went to a show at the Steynberg Gallery in the evening. I'd like to write comprehensive, entertaining, well-crafted accounts of both these activities, and share some photos too. But first and foremost, I MUST tell you about what we did for lunch.



I know I mentioned the Last Stage West Barbeque in my previous post about Atascadero Lake Park. Despite having driven past this eye-catching establishment at least umpteen times, I had never dropped in. Honestly, I don't know if I would have thought of going on this day either, if I hadn't recently mentioned it here and then felt silly for not being able to say anything intelligible about it.

And if we hadn't gone...we would have missed getting our pictures taken in the hillbilly fence!


We wouldn't have been amazed by the apparently natural, authentic and un-manipulated image "Jolly Jim's" ghost in the Mystery Tree.


We wouldn't have had the chance to admire this locally built, quarter-size replica of an WWI era S-44 Submarine.


We'd have missed learning about our local history from the extensive wall display of vintage posters, maps and news articles.



And, perhaps most heart-breakingly, we still would never have tasted their homemade deep dish lemon-berry pie!



There it is, a whole post, just about the place where we stopped for lunch on a day filled with fabulousness. I didn't even tell you about the live music by a local singer-songwriter with the kind of wonderfully dark-sweet voice that makes you think of molasses and sweet potatoes. Neither did I describe the perfectly seasoned slow-cooked ribs or explain how our dessert was the love child of a lemon bar and a blackberry tart.

My original plan of turning this blog into some kind of thorough, orderly tour of Central Coast attractions was clearly just a fantasy. I knew it was going to take years to explore all this area has to offer. That is not surprise. But the cold, hard reality I'm beginning to face is this: unless I devote a lot more time to this blog, writing about all of it would take lifetimes.

If you want to hear more about our hike up Cerro Alto or the recent Steynberg show, hang in there. Those events is still fresh in my memory, I haven't given up on writing about them yet.

But, if you want to learn about the Talus Caves or the Condor Program at Pinnacles National Monument...you may just have to check out the National Park Service website:

http://www.nps.gov/pinn/index.htm

Or, come to California and see it for yourselves...but only if you make time in your trip to visit with us too!

1 comment:

  1. Well, by golly Jolly Jim, did they serve whiskey there?

    ReplyDelete