Pismo Beach

Friday we headed off for our weekend getaway to Pismo Beach.  We left around 3:30 - traffic was bad, but not as bad as we expected, given that it was Halloween and a Friday.  The drive down was uneventful...we debated Tuesday's election a bit, and just generally caught up about what happened during the week.

Around 6:45 we got to our hotel - The Cliffs (www.cliffsresort.com).  It was super nice.  Checked in, dropped off our luggage, freshened up and headed out for some dinner.  We wandered down to the pier area where all the restaurants were.  By "all" i mean about 4, maybe 5.  They were all little hole in the wall places - we picked one with outside tables and settled in with some beers as our first course.  After dinner, followed by a stroll on the pier, we decided to call it a night a little early.

Saturday, we laid in bed debating what to do that day...a short hike/walk or go to Hearst Castle?  We opted for the walk to Cave Landing.  Headed out there, parked in the dirt lot and set off on foot..the fork to the right was the caves, the fork to the left was the nude beach.  Careful navigation was critical here...

After our outdoor excursion, we decided it was time for some wine tasting.  TomTom led us to San Luis Obispo for the nearest wineries.  Hit up a couple of places and managed to control ourselves and just buy 1 bottle. 

Tired of driving, we decided to move our wine party back to the hotel.  Luckily there was a Trader Joes on the way back to the hotel so we stopped off for a bottle of Malbec, some cheese and crackers.  Back at the hotel we found our way to a table outside overlooking the beach (and a wedding).  We enjoyed our wine as the sun set (or what we could see of it through the clouds, at least).  That night a super nice dinner was followed up by cocktails at a nearby bar.  It was the perfect day.

Sunday was uneventful...just woke up leisurely and drove back up in the afternoon.  Overall a fun weekend!

The weekend's highlights:

- A lady stuck her thumb in my beer

- When we told the girl at the winery we were from San Jose, she said "Oh wow!  I've never been to a place like San Jose before.  My friend just moved there, is it amazing?"

Good times...