Another beautiful view of SD & return to Supannee House of Thai

I told Cathy we could kill time before lunch looking for that postcard perfect vantage point in them thar hills of Point Loma...

I knew it was a side street near Talbots, which was still closed to through traffic, but we ignored the signs anyways and drove through...

Return to Krua Thai

A few weeks ago Bert and I returned to Krua Thai, a small "hole in the wall" place in CV...

We wanted to see if we would be lucky this time...

Summer Road Trip: Day 2 - Top Dog Coffee Bar

Enshrouded by the cool coastal mist, we made the short trek from our charming beach side motel to our breakfast destination...

located in the Cape Cod inspired Pier View Plaza.

The top floor of this complex was the Pier View Suites, a more upscale hotel/vacation rental boutique hotel. We were interested in the businesses below...

Deja vu - Raki Raki & Paris Baguette with CAB

This the post that I thought I did but didn't...

The last time I saw CAB, we went here as well as to the same dessert spot. The only difference was, TC was with me this time. It was the last week of my vacation before heading back to the busy school year...

Catalina Offshore Products & Specialty Produce

Our planned lunch destination wouldn't be open 'til 12 noon. We had lots of time to kill so Cathy drove us to San Diego's premier fishmarket, Catalina Offshore Products...

which is located near the train tracks and in an industrial part of town...

Peachy Keen Donuts from the Donut Man

This will a short post...

Last Thursday Cathy and her husband went up to Glendora on the first day that peach donuts were offered at the iconic Donut Man shop...

De Mi Cafe Cafe

After dropping off my car at the Mission Valley mall parking lot, we headed over to a coffee place that Cathy recommended...

I hadn't driven by this place in awhile and there were lots of new buildings going up.  I was also glad that my car wouldn't be out in the hot sun! It was supposed to be in the high 80's that day...

To my delight, the coffee place De Mi Cafe Cafe, was next to the funnily named "Rocking Tanuki". In fact, TC and I tried going there a few years ago, but it was closed so we went to Smashburger instead.

This little area is at the bottom of Via las Cumbres and Friar's Road, near Fashion Valley...

The Not Glendora foodcrawl - Stop 1: Donut Panic

Cathy and I originally planned to drive up to Glendora this Saturday for peach donuts. She ended up going on Thursday and brought me home a box. The weekend traffic would have been quite craptastic plus it's over 80+ degress back east as well! So...in lieu of the Glendora trip, we did a local version.

Our first stop was Donut Panic over in Grantville, where we saw that they now added a club chair and a corner seating arrangement next to the record player...

Recent gifts, some food related...

This summer I was able to enjoy the company of good friends in various settings...

Earlier today, we met up with Wandering Chopsticks, after a three year hiatus...

Dinner from the Cayucos Super Market

Across the street from the surf shop, at the northern end of Ocean Ave is the Cass House (nicely obscured by a big trailer). It was the home of Capt. James Cass, the founder of the town of Cayucos.

It is now a fancy restaurant...We noticed that the Brown Butter Cookie Company which used to be next to it had moved...In fact it was up the street in a big red building...

We would end up going there before leaving town a few days later...In the hillside are homes with what has to be million dollar views of the Pacific Ocean....

Even though we had been out and about ALL DAY, we still had energy to check things out...

Siem Reap

[Update - Closed as of last year, but there was a recent yelp review dated 2.12.17 so what gives]

Even though we did not have a chance to explore the Venice canals on foot due to the horrendous parking, we knew that we would still have a great end to our day by having Cambodian food in Long Beach. The original plan was to have it at Phnom Penh Noodle House.

Unfortunately, it was already closed by the time we arrived.  They closed early at 3 pm dagnabbit. Of course, I had a Plan B...

Duckie's Chowderhouse + the return to the Cayucos Candy Counter

A few steps away from the Cayucos Pier is a chowderhouse and a candy store...

Although we did the candy store three years ago, we skipped out on Duckie's...

Welcome Back to Cayucos!

After more than nine plus hours with lots of stops in between, we were finally back to Cayucos...

known as "the town that time forgot"....

Return to the Elegant Truffle

After our amazing lunch at Supannee House of Thai, we saw that the Elegant Truffle was literally a few steps away...

We had to give it a another try...

Return to Katy's Cafe + new flavors from Oasis

Rather than dealing with beach crowds on the day OF July 4th, we headed to IB the day before...

TC and I liked this place so much, we wanted to go again, but this time with Bert...

Nitt Witt Ridge

Cambria is one of those towns that we normally drive past and never stop. It being an Artist'scolony doesn't seem too exciting to me.

Not that I am uncultured or anything, but it didn't have anything to entice us enough to stop...until I read about this crazy house in my "Weird California" book...

The Elephant Seals at the Piedras Blancas Rookery

On our way to the elephant seals rookery, we had to pass Cambria...

We would be making a quick stop there on our way down...

Ignacy Paderewski & Powell's Sweet Shoppe

Centennial Park, located in the heart of downtown Paso Robles features the historic Carnegie Library which is now the home of the Paso Robles Historical Society...

It was closed the day of our visit, but it would have been nice to have stepped in and learned more about the town.

In front of the library is a statue which we were also curious about...

Au Coeur de Paris, the new location

Just a few minutes away from the Mall of Fortune was the newest location of a Vietnamese French Bakery...

I didn't even know they had a new location so of course, we just had to stop by before making the drive back to good ole San Diego...

The Brown Butter Cookie Company in Paso Robles

Downtown Paso Robles was lovely and charming with several blocks of historic buildings...

One of the most noticeable buildings was this one...

The Acorn Building was once known as the Blackburn building, named after James and Daniel Blackburn, the town's founders...

The Snowflake Factory

Curious we were about this place...

Seems like more and more of these shaved snow/snowflake/snow ice places are opening up all over the place...

85C Bakery @ The Mall of Fortune

This will be a short and sweet post...

Luckily for me and Cathy, there was a relatively new 85C in the Mall of Fortune. Located on the front part of the mall, you can also walk to it from Brodard's on the other side...

Supannee House of Thai

Yesterday Bert and I were in the Shelter Island area for a meeting which ran longer than expected. It was already 1 pm and I was getting antsy for lunch, which was down the street and around the corner...

Supannee House of Thai is located at a Cape Cod looking strip mall on the corner of Scott St. and Shelter Island Drive.

They have their own lot but what sucked was that all of the parking here was timed green spaces (either 5 minutes or 30 minutes) so we ended up doing street parking...

The trifecta at Brodard's

Cathy and I continued our food adventure and drove down from LA over to Little Saigon for our next stop. She had never been and I was excited to be there once again.

Remember to park in the BACK of the Mall of Fortune if you want easy access to Brodard's. Just look for the maroon awnings that say "Nem Nuong Restaurant"...

Amsterdam Coffee House

This bridge part of the 46 seemed " new"...

Paso Robles would be our next stop...

We liked the license plate, which matched the truck's cargo!

Having all of these little stops was getting to be quite fun. It was nice not being on a tight time frame and taking the time to do a little bit of sightseeing...

Filter Coffeehouse

Before going our respective ways, Dennis and I made the sort walk up the street...

to Filter Coffeehouse's new (to me) location....

Krua Thai

Last week,  Bert and I had some time to kill. TC was dropped off for dance practice. The troop would be going to LA the next morning and thus, needed to practice their set before the trip...

As we drove down Broadway in Chula Vista, we mulled over our choices and decided on this new'ish Thai place (which replaced a previous Thai restaurant) which is in the shadow of La Querencia and a few doors down from a barbershop....

Micho'z Fresh Lebanese Grill

It had been awhile since I last saw Dennis of A Radiused Corner...

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of sharing lunch with him at Micho'z Fresh Lebanese Grill (formerly known as "Off the Sajj) on University...

Jack Ranch Cafe & the James Dean Memorial

Soon after our little stop at Blackwell's, we kept heading west...

where we knew we would pass by a certain sign...

Pho Broadway

Across from the Broadway Gate in Chinatown was a row of businesses featuring upturned roofs...

We wanted one last snack before going home...

Return to Chinatown (Chego, Queens Bakery) & the Velveteria

Cathy and I were able to find parking in the lot across from Velveteria (lots are usually $4 or $5). She made the keen observation that the "fourth" parking spaces were empty (the number four is unlucky for Chinese because it has the same sound as the word "death").

We wandered a bit on Broadway before hitting up one of the plazas in LA's Chinatown...

There are two gates in Chinatown; This is the Golden Dragon Gateway towards the southern end...

Return to Blackwell's Corner

If you head west on the 46, you will end up at the coast, but we planned to make another stop before our next leg...

I believe I was driving during this bit since Bert was a bit tired from earlier...

It's nice when the roads aren't crowded but man, it's a bit boring out here with long stretches of farmland...

Scenes from Chinatown

During our visit back in late May, I snapped a few shots while on our way to see the Bruce Lee statue at the Cultural Plaza, passing by interesting signs such as this...

I bet "United Foods" looks really cool at night time...

One of the coolest things I saw was a giant rooster..

Summer Road Trip 2014 - Day 1: Central Coast here we come! But first...Cream Pan!

It seems like we can't take any kind of road trip unless we pass by Cream Pan in Tustin...

They're open super early and we got there a few minutes after they opened their doors...

The smell of freshly baked bread and pastries filled the air...

Lunch & Dessert @ Nijiya & V French Bakery

The last week before I went on break, TC and I went out. Earlier that morning we had a late breakfast at The Swell Cafe and did a bit of thrift store browsing in OB.

We were a bit hungry again so we ventured into the Convoy area. There's always something good in Nijiya's deli section...

Coffee Fix - Return to Cafe Moto, a visit to Donny's Cafe & back to Better Buzz Drive Thru

Ever since I had that iced coffee from Cafe Moto, I've been wanting it again...

Bert and I were out and about very early one weekend after having dropped off TC for a dance related event...

Return to Station Tavern, Cardamom Cafe & Moosie's

Last weekend we had the pleasure of meeting up with the Horns in South Park...

Station Tavern was chosen due to it's dog friendly outside patio.

TC was excited to see "The Doctor" once again...

Bruce Lee Statue @ the Cultural Plaza

During our recent road trip to LA in which the main goal was to visit the newly reopened Velveteria, I had a list of places to see and or/visit...

As you can see, we pretty much hit up most of them. Anal much? Why yes!!!  That's how I roll...

Wandering Chopsticks mentioned that there was a Bruce Lee statue somewhere in Chinatown so of course we wanted to check it out...

Blackwell's Corner - James Dean's last stop

Tired of seeing road pictures yet?  Well too bad!

We took the advice from the insurance dude at the coffee house and took the 101 South to the 46 West...

He said it was a much more scenic route than taking the 5 straight down. Since we hadn't taken the 46 before, we did just that...

First Street Coffee House

With our donuts safely in their box, we made the super short drive to this strip mall...

where there was a popular (if the reviews were to be believed) coffee house...

Day 5 - Gilroy Donut House

We awoke to the sound of thunder and rain that morning. Breakfast consisted of leftovers from Arizmendi and Sheng Kee but it still wasn't going to be enough.

After checking out of the hotel and going across the tracks, we made a quick stop at the local donut house...

Sam's Chowderhouse and heading to Gilroy

Our trek down brought us to Half Moon Bay where we thought we could check out the beach even though it was rainy.

The park ranger at the beach parking lot told us that there was a $15 fee (yikes).  She waived it when we told her that we just wanted to use the restroom facilities....

Return to E & Drink & Ice Blast + new mac flavor from Big Joy

[Update - E & Drink closed as of late 2017 and Ice Blast closed as of late 2015]

Last week I took TC and one of her friends to PB to go thrift store shopping...

We went early enough so parking was easy to find. In fact, several thrift stores were within walking distance from where I parked so that was quite convenient...

Return to Aunt Emma's Pancakes

Earlier this morning Bert and I were out super early, like waaaaay early.

We dropped off TC with the dance company in the wee morning hours. They would be traveling to LA for festival performance. The night before our neighborhood had a scheduled power outage and the electricity wouldn't be on 'til 8 am...