sherm363: Saturday at the Solvang rally

Was blown away by all the changes in this little beach town that I lived in 50 years ago! I was the Eng. Petty Officer out at San Luis Obispo Light Station. This is how a busy tourist town, with all the modern things. Half a Century can sure make a difference.

Motorcycle parking didn't hole all of us, but we managed to get the others close. After Bill and Ray rode around the block several times.

Madonna Inn. A nice waterfall in the men's room. The water starts flowing when you stand close enough to trigger the switch with a photocell.

Large shells are used for the sinks. I first saw this facility back in 1962. It was very elegant then, and hasn't changed much inside.

Lots of dark wood carvings throughout the place

Several dining areas, this is a dance floor

Because of the bright light from outside sunshine, pictures were hard to take

Cozy little fireplace for Winter days

Surprisingly, it's been a long time since that sign has been upgraded

Now we're on the edge between Pismo Beach and Grover City Beach. Cat and Jim chose Mongo's for the Saturday night clam chowder feed. Since we were all seeing different things, it ended up being 3 different groups eating a different times. The food was GREAT! A good plan that worked out for everyone.

A warm day, but the Marine Layer hung close to the beach most of the day,

Mongo's is a large club. 3 dining areas, big dance floor and stage. The bar is separate, but adjoins one of the dining areas. The service was good and friendly

Skid with ONE QUARTER of his sandwich. Portions were generous!

Different camera. Back at Avila Beach. When I lived here, there was just a one lane road, a few bars, one grocery store, and that was about it.

In 1962 if there was 5 or 6 people on the beach, it was a crowd

I waxed nostalgic all morning after seeing this

If only the old 4 man crew from the Light House back in 1962 could see this! And some of the shop keepers from back then................

The town is only about 3 long blocks long, but they have packed a lot of things into it

In door and out door artisan shops. This design is in the wide sidewalk

Somewhere in this block, is where the "nice" bar used to be. It was called "Barbara's By the Sea". Long gone

This used to be a small market with wooden floors. In the back corner was the Post office, where us Locals came to get out mail out of little "cubby holes". Since we were a Government agency, our box was on the bottom shelf and was a little larger than the other private ones :-)

On this corner, was a small wooden house that had been converted into a Beach Bar and grill. Only sat about 10 people total. It was called Frenchy's. That was sometimes the lunch stop for which ever one of the 4 men that lived at the lighthouse came to get our mail. It was a family station. 2 very comfortable Duplex homes housed our families out at Point San Luis Obispo, just to the North of town. There was no road. You walked, or for household items and groceries, we had a boat that we took from the 3rd pier

Prices were high! But. We're in California, EVERYTHING is expensive!

Jonee, this one's for you :-)

I'm wondering if any of our old crew has come back to see this.

Old VROC riders look a little out of place among the the upscale young yuppies!

Except for Sandy, she fits right in

Russ and Ray

The line up. We walked out a ways on on the first pier

I'll finish this when we get back to Kingman. We're ready to go for the fresh Danish and coffees to go. Skid and Sandy will be heading back to Canada, after a night with us and a visit with the Forees in Holbrook.

The 3rd pier. This used to be a fish buying location, the fish were iced down and left out of here on trucks several times a day to a processing plant down near Santa Barbara

Now a restaurant, and some vendors inside, this was pretty much open, and is where we parked our private vehicles. Thee was an apartment with a big kitchen where the person in charge out here lived. It was mostly a party and eating place for the fisherman

This side was open, and where the restaurant is was the parking lot inside the building

There is some construction workin going on now, probably will look different again soon

That's Coast Guard Beach over there. When the Light House was manned, thee was a pier that went out far enough to deep water to lower a boat. Thee was a crane powered by a small Buda Diesel that we used to lower and raise the boat. It's how we got groceries, household items and families back and forth. There was no road, only a narrrow, steep, walking trail to get out to the lighthouse

End of the 3rd pier

This is as far as Skid and Sandy got, then they turned around to get back to the parking lot. I had to spend some time letting this all soak in ard recall old memories