Katy's Cafe & West Coast Cafe 3x plus return to Seaside Candy, Star Dust and Niederfrank's...

During the last week of vacation, KDD spent a few days with us...

She and TC have been friends since they were born and KDD's mom and I are both thrilled that they are still friends...


What's cool now is that they both attend the same high school and have each other for a couple of classes. It's always nice to spend time with good friends...

The waves were plentiful that day and there was a rip current warning on the beach. A couple of teen girls got swept out but were able to make it back to shore with lifeguards prompting them. TC and KDD just stuck to the shoreline while I was hunkered down under an umbrella with our beach chair...



If the waves weren't so rough, it might've been nice if they had gone boogie boarding, but we were boardless that day.

Lunch was next on the agenda at  nearby eatery that we really like. Drinks would also be around the corner and yes, these would be used.

Katy's Cafe had a really cool vibe and if you ever go, you are sure to run into Katy herself. We love the surf and mermaid themed decor. This time, we chose to have our lunch outside...


Can you spot Katy in the painting?

Our sandwich trio:

I stuck with what I had my first visit, the Classic Fowler (named after a customer), a breakfast sandiwich with sausage patties (plural, yes), eggs and cheese on a toasted and flaky croissant.

KDD's IB Bill - a tuna pesto melt sandwich with sprouts, tomatoes, and pepper jack. This was quite a different twist, using pesto with tuna (at least for me it was). She really liked her choice, which made me happy.

This, now THIS was a very popular sandwich. While waiting for our order, we heard at least three other North Side Surf Club orders being called out for pick up. This had turkey, ham, bacon, avocado, cheese, sprouts, mustard and mayo on a bread roll. TC let me have a bite and it was quite tasty.

All of our sandwiches were great and so was the service at this humble beach side eatery.

Before getting our real dessert in another part of town, we got some cold drinks here. TC was hoping to see the notorious Nicholas the cat (see post linked at the end). Alas, Nicholas was nowhere to be found the day of our visit. I noticed that the local art pieces were changed out as well.


KDD chose the Tropical Fruit Breeze,  TC the Orange Whip while I had the Mocha Breeze.


Although we were planning to still have ice cream later that afternoon, I felt that I had enough after a few sips of my frappe.

The girls, on the other hand, are bottomless pits and sugar fiends. Just down the block, west on Palm is the local candy store in IB, SeasideCandy. I'd missed out seeing it last time we were out here so this time, I had a quick looksee...



Like Powell's Sweet Shoppe in Paso Robles, Seaside Candy also had a candy themed movie on an endless loop, but this was the Tim Burton version of Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (Paso Robles played the freaky original version with Gene Wilder as the candy man himself, Willy Wonka, no Johnny Depp there)...

It was cutely decorated inside and thankfully, had A/C!


Their spoils - assorted gummy and sour candies as well as Jelly Belly jelly beans and M&M's...

On our way out of IB, I simply had to check if Star Dust Donuts was open...and fkg A, it sure was!!! And there was no line too!

Here's a sneak peek in one of the waxed paper bags...

The donut photo shoot below was taken later after we arrived home; this is just three out of eight...

Old Fashioned (I really liked this version even though it didn't have the outer edges that I like breaking off)...

A half dozen of their famous cinnamon rolls (shared with KD and her family)...

while the German Chocolate Bar was for Bert who liked it so much last time. I don't know of any other donut place that makes this. It's one of those donuts where if you see it, you better get it because it won't last long! Same thing with the cinnamon rolls...


Over in National City was the final destination to satisfy our sweet teefs.  Amazingly enough, I threw in the towel and did NOT get any ice cream while here....


As much as I wanted to, my "off switch" was already activated, ha ha.  KD enjoyed the Lemon Custard while TC, still on her Acai kick, got the Acai sorbet...

With the exception of Star Dust and Seaside Candy, we used a coupon at each of these places...Score, score, and score!

Previous visit to Katy's Cafe:
July 2014 where we enjoyed a pre-July 4th breakfast...

Previous visit to West Coast Cafe:
October 2013 where we witnessed a "staring showdown" between a territorial cat and a dog!

Previous visit to Star Dust Donuts:
June 2014 where I noticed they changed their sign to one with "regular hours"...

Previous visit to Niederfrank's:
October 2012 although we've had the ice cream as recently as last year at The Mabuhay Festival...

Can you believe it...when I got home, I crashed but when I woke up from my nap, I was greeted with the sights and aroma of these beauties:


Those two are always baking something fun...They called these "tie dyed" cupcakes. They didn't want to frost them because they liked the way it looked plain!

Anyhow, it was a long, tiring, but fun day and I'm glad the girls got to spend time with one another during the Fall Break....