San Luis Obispo 2010 - Hearst Castle

I welcome you to the last stop of the SLO trip. Are you tired of SLO by now? Do you want to read about something else already? Well be thankful I'm bringing San Luis Obispo to the comfort of your own home, minus the hellish ride on Highway 1. NEVER, EVER, EVER take the 1 anywhere. Anyways, let's proceed to this dead rich guy's crib.

Hearst Castle requires purchasing tickets at the visitor center, where we found this lovely piece of art. Must be a lost Michaelangelo sculpture of a mythical sea creature.

And then we took the bus up a winding road because rich people like to live in inconvenient places.

Take that, Michael Phelps!

You know the saying, small man, HUGE...house.

I don't know wtf happens when you save pictures from shutterfly to your own computer, but I assure you, this is supposed to be a good pic.

Executive board room/library.

Majestic indoor swimming pool. Fun fact: Employees of Hearst Castle and the local San Simeon Parks and Recreation (?) and their families, are allowed to swim in either the outdoor pool or this pool one day out of the whole year. Usually they get the outdoor pool unless otherwise stated. ONE WHOLE DAY!

I'll leave you with this picturesque sunset view from one of the top floors of the house.

Hearst Castle Tour - $24

Time Spent - 1 hour 45 minutes ish.

Being told by some lady that "we don't touch the marble at all, miss." - priceless. Actually it's not priceless. It cost $24 effin dollars is what it costs.

But I liked it. Hearst Castle is cool. I felt like I learned a bit more about California history by going here. Pretty sure I won't look at my pictures of old rooms and books and clothes years from now but the experience will not be forgotten.

Hearst Castle on Yelp

Mo's Smokehouse BBQ and Linn's Bakery - San Luis Obispo 2010

I don't know how to lump these two restaurants together. It's just sort of a miscellaneous of eateries from our SLO trip. Let me first get you in the mood with this picture below from a candy store in downtown SLO.

San Luis Obispo 2010 - Mo's SMokehouse BBQ - Linn's Bakery

I don't know how to lump these two restaurants together. It's just sort of a miscellaneous of eateries from our SLO trip. Let me first get you in the mood with this picture below from a candy store in downtown SLO.

Yummy Creme Brulee gelato ice cream from the candy shop. Candy shop also had huge gobstoppers and tiny gobstoppers. Wish I had taken a picture.

We had dinner at Mo's Smokehouse BBQ which is supposed to be good according to yelp...NOPE! Just another forgettable bland meal. I forgot to take pictures of the food but its ok because its shitty anyway.Think of it like Armadillo Willy's in San Jose or San Mateo, but worse.

 Rotisserie pork, anyone?

 Our last meal in the area was brunch at Linn's Bakery in Cambria, best known for its ollalaberry pies.

 mmm, jiggly eggs benedict boobs. I was tempted to put ketchup dots for nipples but the food looked too good to wait. And it was pretty good.

Fish and Chips special. His only complaint was that the portion was too small.

Khanh's crab omelette. She liked it alot.

The hamburger, which looked delicious, and as I recall, My seemed satisfied.

Infamous ollalaberry pie. It was just alright. I think the pie crust was a little off. Seemed like they used a chicken pot pie kind of tough crust for a fruit pie. Didn't really match. But the berry filling was good. Pies aren't really my thing but I had to try because the place is known for it.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:

I was disappointed with most if not all SLO food except the lunch from Costco. Linn's Bakery was good but it's in Cambria so technically, SLO still fails. What's most disappointing is that we chose mostly highest rated restaurants on yelp and they sucked. Maybe people in SLO have a different set of taste buds, maybe there are slim pickins and this really is the best of SLO, but the group was one minded in our decision to give SLO food a thumbs down. Maybe if I'm ever in the area again, I'll make sure to ask for personal recommendations from people who know the area. I call this Yelp Fail!

Powell's Sweet Shoppe on Yelp
Mo's Smokehouse on Yelp
Linn's Bakery on Yelp

San Luis Obispo 2010 - Wolff Vineyards - Central Coast Brewing

Two things I looked forward to most from this trip turned out to be disappointing, in taste at least. We went to Wolff Vineyards which is one of Yelp's higher rated wineries in the area. Though the tasting and the picnic were enjoyable, the wines were not.

Chyeah, Costco picnic with our wine. Cheapest and best meal ever of the trip!

The fruit salad lasted til the next day.

 

Although the wines were disappointing, the scenery was fantastic and the service was great. The experience was memorable, despite the small ignorant racist comment we received from another wine taster, but you can't really fault the vineyard for that.

After wine tasting and our picnic lunch, we went to Central Coast Brewery for beer tasting, something I had never done before and was very excited to try.

Oh look, three blondes at the bar.

Phil sure likes blondes.

Espresso Porter beer.

"Funny" comments aside, these beers were no laughing matter. They were awful. We tasted about three beers each and they were all bad. Each of us tried something different on the menu so we could all have a taste. It was a unanimous opinion that Central Coast beers are not tasty. However, the espresso porter beer wasn't too bad. I would say it was the best of the worst. The worst of the worst was this India porter(?) beer. It was speechlessly gross. But the taste of Central Coast Brewery has not spurned me from beer tasting. The experience is quite unique. Unlike wine tasting, each beer is $1 for a glass the size you see in the pictures above. You can choose whichever beer to taste and are not obligated to taste an entire flight. I would definitely do this again except at a better brewery.

Wolff Vineyard on Yelp

Central Coast Brewing on Yelp

Eating a Chocolate Covered Cricket - San Luis Obispo

When I last left you, we were walking around Pismo Beach, which turned out to be kind of a dud. The walking and picture taking was short lived and we moved up to browse the shops along the beach. And that's when we found this little gem, HOTLIX. I like how the name could also have been used for a sex toy shop.

The front of the store had an open window, which reminded me alot of the lunch line in highschool. There was a crowd gathered round and we had to see what it was. Turns out, this is what Hotlix sold.

There were also chocolate covered earthworms. But I guess if I were to eat something nasty, I'd rather bite into something crunchy than soft and squishy.

Feeling a wave of inspiration from my hero, Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods (pictured below) I decided to try the chocolate covered cricket for only 25 cents!

Here's a video of the moment I ate it.

What does it taste like? Well, not like chicken. At first it tasted like chocolate but then like shing shang fish. I wish I could describe what this tastes like to people who don't eat dried, seasoned, headless fish snacks but this tasted just like shing shangs. Salty, crispy and delicious. But unlike shing shangs, the cricket wings and antennae don't go down easily so I had wing and antennae bits stuck in the back of my throat for a while. And I love shing shangs so yeah, I guess I liked the cricket.

Hotlix on Yelp

Margie's Diner and Avila Beach - San Luis Obispo 2010

Margie's Diner is what you get when you don't do research before vacationing and go off the hotel concierge's recommendation. We had brunch at this diner right by our hotel. Literally a stone's throw away.

I bet this could feed a starving family of 5. By the by, there's a whole lot more scrambled eggs under those Paul Bunyan pancakes. It's your standard breakfast food. Nothing notable or impressive or particularly bad about it. Yet again, another place I won't remember.

Then off we went to the beaches. Ah, beaches, a first for this blog, but hopefully not the last.

At Avila Beach with these beaches, we did such activities like:

Posing as pirates

Walked down the long pier that extends into the ocean

Going underneath the pier to where we could almost touch the water

Learned how to fly

Went on the swings

At the infamous Pismo Beach, we walked along the beach, taking more pictures again.

So in conclusion, today we had brunch and took a walk.

P.S. Here's a teaser for the next entry.

Margie's Diner on Yelp
Avila Beach on Yelp
Pismo Beach on Yelp

Sumo Sushi - San Luis Obispo

Excuse my short absence. I've been busy and also waiting for pictures from the SLO trip to trickle in. I know San Luis Obispo is not part of the Bay Area so maybe it shouldn't go in this blog, but you're gonna take what you can get and you're gonna like it!

The gang headed down the 101 S and after 3 short hours of driving, BAM! there we were in SLO at the Courtyard Marriott.

We arrived late for dinner so our dinner option was limited to (whatever-the-fuck-is-open) Sumo Sushi! You can tell the authenticity of an Asian restaurant when all of its patrons are not Asian, and Sumo Sushi was as authentic as the white kid who plays Goku in the Dragonball Z movie.

California Roll

Teriyaki chicken, salmon, veggies dinner combo

Red Red Roll, stay close to me...red red roll you make me feel so fine...all of the time

Pokky Tuna (I swear, this is supposed to be spelled poke)

But to it's credit, the food wasn't bad. I've just had better. Of those dishes, the one I had was the pokky tuna. It comes with lettuce at every other restaurant except this one. The sauce was a bit oily but it wasn't bad. In general, I felt Sumo Sushi was bland and unimpressive. Not gonna remember this one.

Sumo Sushi on Yelp