The Swiss Restaurant & Bar

After dropping off our luggage and personal  effects at our hotel, we headed out to dinner..

and since this was Santa Maria, land of tri-tip bbq, we headed to a local steakhouse...

Day 8 - Jovi's Delights

This was our last day in Santa Maria...

We stayed in the historic part of the Santa Maria Inn (the older part) as opposed to the newer and more modern towers. I read somewhere that silent film star Rudolph Valentino used to haunt the hallway near his suite (which was a few hallways down our room). Creepy! I'm glad I didn't see "The Sheik"!

Santa Maria BBQ Land

What a long day we had. From the Guadalupe Dunes, Lompoc, Solvang, and Nojoqui Falls...

This is where we picked up some dinner before heading back to the hotel...

We wanted to give Santa Maria style bbq another chance.

Shaw's Steakhouse Tavern

After settling in for a bit of rest, Bert and TC checked out the pool and the star placards on the room doors. Turns out that our hotel was a historic stop for many movie stars who were on their way up to Hearst Castle in San Simeon. There were stars like Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, Kim Novak, Walter Matthau and even Rudolph Valentino (more on him later). Bert and TC also ended up taking a quick dip in the hotel pool while I pondered over where to go for dinner.

We didn't have to go too far. The girl at the desk recommended Shaw's for dinner so Shaw's it was. Lucky for us, it was across the street from the Santa Maria Inn.

But even then, we still took our car! I didn't want to walk at night!

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).