On our way to Guadalupe

After viewing the artistic masterpieces known as the Pismo Beach clams (cough), we headed out of Pismo and made our way down south. I snapped this shot of Arroyo Grande High School from our moving car...

Did you know that Zacqueisha Zac Efron is a famous alum of this school? Class of 2006 dudes.

Efron, who is probably one of the prettiest boys I've seen (note, I said "pretty", I think he wears more makeup than I do), is the guy who played Troy Bolton in the insufferable Disney series and movies, "High School Musical". Thank goodness TC was never into those. I liked him better as Link Larkin in the 2007 reboot of John Waters' "Hairspray". I believe he was also the recipient of those infamous beaver shot photos of his then girlfriend, Vanessa Hudgens (who played his love interest in the HSM movies and in real life).

But enough about Zacquiesha!  Check out these fields! There's miles and miles of farms around here...

Workers loading up a broccoli truck. When we passed by the fields, we could smell the something in the air. I even asked Bert if he farted, but it turned out it was the overpowering scent of broccoli!

Just passing through Arroyo Grande...

Arroyo Grande once had a mayor of Filipino descent back in 1976, Gabriel de Leon (reference is from the Arcadia book, "Arroyo Grande" by Jean Hubbard and Gary Hoving). Lou Ferrigno (aka the Incredible Hulk) also lives in Arroyo Grande.

This was taken as we were going down a big hill. We were on our way to the small farming town of Guadalupe located about seven miles west of Santa Maria.

From what I was told by my FANHS Trustee friend, Guadalupe used to be predominantly Filipino back in the days, but is now largely Latino. There were once many Filipino families who settled in this small agricultural town, many of them intermarrying with the local folks as well as members of the Chumash tribe.

We were bummed that the Guadalupe Cultural Arts and Education Center (which is also next to the Guadalupe Dunes Informational Center) was closed. The curators of the GCC are Joe and Margie Talaugon. Joe is a Chumash elder and his wife Margie is Filipina American (there is a link to an interview at the end of this post). It would have been nice meeting some fellow FANHS folks.

The main street...on the side of the building on the right is a map of the town.

Here's a closer look...

This is a famous steakhouse, the Far Western Tavern (which will move to Nipomo in 2012). Unfortunately we did not make enough time to eat there for some Santa Maria style bbq. It would have been cool just to stop in and check it out.

The main drag is the 1 and we noticed some of the businesses were boarded up. Turns out that blocks of the older buildings were torn down years ago

Love the font on that old movie theatre neon sign.

The town cemetery...

We hung a left on the 166 which heads east into the neighboring town of Santa Maria.

We didn't realize it at the time, but we ended up eating here, Shaw's, for dinner later that evening.

It was such a different vibe driving through all these small agricultural towns. It's a slower pace of life. We saw first hand the hard work it takes for the farmers to grow and harvest the crops. Since it was late afternoon already and the Cultural Center was already closed, we made a mental note to stop by there the next day...

For more on the Filipino connection in Guadalupe, check out this link from the March-April 2010 issue of the South County Historical Society Heritage Press (pages 5 and 8-9)
Official website (although it looks like it hasn't been updated in awhile) of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts and Education Center.

We needed to get to our hotel to relax a bit before dinner...