Renaud's Patisserie

It was quite a warm and lovely day in Santa Barbara...

Fresh from obtaning a boxful of treats from Spudnuts and Bagels, we headed over to State Street for lunch...

Spudnuts & Bagels

All that ostrich and emu feeding was tiring, ha ha.  We headed south to Santa Barbara for lunch...

but first, we stopped by here for some donuts of the potato persuasion...

Arroyo Grande Bridge

Finally, we were here...

A small coastal town in San Luis Obispo County...Did you know this is the hometown of pretty boy Zac Efron?  Well, now you do! Onward...

Windmill Farms

Just before hitting the town of Arroyo Grande, we went here first...

it's a farm on the outskirts of Arroyo Grande, near the Nipomo border. You can see the giant rooster off the 101 freeway.

(pay no attention to the craptastic window glare)

The place is called Windmill Farms and I just HAD to see that giant rooster up close...

Avila Beach Pier

Just look at this beach...

it was one of the most pristine beaches we'd ever seen...

Summer Road Trip 2014 Day 4: Avila Beach, the VoG & Hula Hut

Finally, a return to our Summer Road trip from nearly two years ago...

We left our hotel to head over to Avila Beach, which is a tiny bit south of Pismo beach.

Even though there was fog along the coast, it eventually burned off by the time we arrived...

A Deli & Pieman Pies twice

Earlier that morning, we had breakfast next door at Top Dog Coffee Bar and took a peek next door...

We picked up a small pie and then ended up coming back later to get a few pies for dinner...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...