Amy, our youngest daughter, was selected to attend the prestigious California Scholastic Press Journalism Workshop, an annual event for promising young writers started 57 years ago by William Randolph Hearst, who of course lived nearby in his castle in San Simeon. It gave Julie and me an excuse for a road trip north. With the price of gas over four dollars a gallon, plus hotels and meals, I can't say that it costs any less per day than a nice cruise, but we were headed in that general direction anyway, so what the heck?
In San Luis Obispo, we arrived in time to enjoy a delicious stir fry meal at Flaming Bay, a wok restaurant across the creek from the mission which you may remember from one of my previous blog posts. A guitarist playing songs made famous by Gordon Lightfoot and other artists that only someone of my age could fully appreciate historically nonetheless received applause from the mostly college-aged crowd of diners.
About halfway through my meal, Amy stood up and said, "I don't want to be late." I definitely appreciate the fact that she wants to be punctual, so with tears in my eyes (did I mention my meal had lots of curry?), I took the rest of my food with me to the car, dropping a tip in the basket for the singer along the way.
Against her wishes, we tagged along as Amy got checked into her dorm, which had a nice design with rooms back to back so that instead of opening to a stale hallway, the door opened into the outdoors. Within a few minutes, Amy was off on her first assignment, discovering which individuals matched each of the 25 one line description supplied by the workshop based on their bios.
Deserted in the dorm room, Julie and I headed out to the car. We finalized our plan to go to Santa Cruz, even though it was a little out of our way to the ultimate destination of the Napa Valley. Jay's band had played there in June, and Julie and I always wondered what it was like there. The boardwalk by the beach was crowded with families, teenagers and others. It reminded me of Long Beach's Pike in its heyday, although I don't recall the Pike having such great ocean views. We escaped the crowd to the pier, eventually coming to Gilda's, a restaurant recommended by the desk clerk at our hotel. Instead of getting in line for the main restaurant, we took a peak into a half full little bar with a capacity of about eight customers. Behind the bar was a tall window that went the length of the bar, providing an awesome view of boats sailing in the water, the coastline, and a little islet inhabited by sea lions.
"Do you serve food in here?" The affirmative answer brought us in. Stefan, the bartender, recommended the crab cocktail, which he assured me the restaurant must lose money serving. I had that, and Julie ordered fried zucchini. The drinks were inexpensive and good, and before he brought us our appetizers, Stefan gave us a cup of Coney Island clam chowder and a small shrimp salad to try. Soon, I was hawking the place to other diners who looked in, and Stefan made quite a few sales to people who left to go next door to dine.
A burly chef with a King Tut beard and a tee shirt that read "Pizza My Heart" came in to join us, drinking boilermakers or something that looked like that to my untrained eye. We enjoyed a great conversation with Stefan and King Tut about everything from scuba diving in Mexico to Chef Ramsey's BBC Kitchen Nightmares, laughing and carrying on like old friends. I highly recommend this bar at Gilda's to anyone who makes it up this way.
The next morning, we checked out the lighthouse area, which was much more peaceful than the Boardwalk, and then headed up to UC Santa Cruz to scout the campus in case Amy or Jay might be interested in going there. 
We were pleasantly surprised to find the campus is buried in the forest. It has that wonderful smell like Big Bear, with modern buildings popping up among what appears to be an old growth forest. When I strolled off to find a cup of coffee, I returned to find Julie taking pictures of mule deer next to one of the dorms. If I were a kid, I would definitely put this on my short list of campuses to consider.
We were pleasantly surprised to find the campus is buried in the forest. It has that wonderful smell like Big Bear, with modern buildings popping up among what appears to be an old growth forest. When I strolled off to find a cup of coffee, I returned to find Julie taking pictures of mule deer next to one of the dorms. If I were a kid, I would definitely put this on my short list of campuses to consider. There's still time to take a drive up the coast to catch an Alaska cruise this summer, or you can get an early start on planning an Alaska cruise for next summer. The drive north could be a great addition to your cruise.
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