vacation

warning: shitload of pics. my apologies to your computer.

so i just got back from an awesome central coast road trip with jesse – first to san luis obispo and then up to monterey with some pit stops in between. we cruised 101 for the most part, which was charmingly scenic with its rolling hills and roadside shacks. makes you feel like you’re in the middle of buttfuck nowhere. which is something i like.

i guess i should give a little back-story…basically, this whole trip came about because jesse and i really wanted to stay at the madonna inn in san luis obsipo and take flicks. there’s 109 hella tacky theme rooms (which are not cheap, by the way) and the whole place is an AMAZINGLY over-the-top gaudy spectacle. it’s so awesome, i can’t even explain. we ended up in the ‘misty rock’ room, which is basically like a dark cave with the baddest rock waterfall shower ever.

 

 

 

our first night was kind of a drunken blur – we had steak, we climbed the rock walls in our room, we swam, and we showered. i think we did our room proud. there are waaay more (interesting) snaps of this trip on jesse’s blog and on my flickr page, if you’re curious.

the next day we explored san luis obispo proper. went to the evening farmer’s market, which was definitely one of the highlights of this trip. lots of fresh produce from salinas and so many good food vendors! we sampled lots of cherries in search of the perfect ranier, but all were a little too sour for my taste. bummer. then we were seduced by the mini-donut maker who forced us to buy half a dozen of his freshly fried cinnamon and powdered sugared donuts. i swear.

for dinner (after our donut appetizers), we opted for vegan eats made by some woman named vraja. she hooked it up with some eggplant, lentil puree, and this delicious strawberry dessert that i’m almost positive is made with cream of wheat…not pictured here is the ginormous vegan tiramisu cupcake i also bought. yes, i had dessert three times that night.

the next day we headed out to pismo beach in search of crab boil. we found our way to the cracked crab, which was highly rated on yelp for both food and service. no complaints here! this place made my belly seriously happy. we ordered the bucket for two and chose dungeness crab, stone crab claws (?), and slipper lobster tails, which came steamed together in goodness with red potatoes, louisiana sausage, and corn. holy christ.

wow.

after gut busting on crab, we headed back up the coast to monterey. our next destination: the historic monterey hotel! this place was just recently renovated so it’s pretty damn nice. lots of tasteful victorian appointments, crown molding everywhere, and plantation shutters in every room. the only downside is that the walls are thin, so thin you can hear everything going on around you. like our neighbors peeing.

that night we went to montrio bistro for dinner, which was voted the best restaurant in monterey in 2007. jesse’s snarky comment of the evening: ‘it’s 2008 now’. rest assured though, the food was delicious, as were the drinks. intake: lamb samosas, cappellini, roast duck with sunchoke gratin and brussel spouts, manhattans, and kir royales.

 

apparently, it was our anniversary. not really, but they gave us free dessert. carrot cake bite and chocolate cherry bread pudding bite. what’s up with the martini glass?

oh, and another good feature of the monterey hotel i forgot to mention-continental breakfast, which we ate in bed, natch.

we did lots more on this trip, but i’m getting too lazy to go into detail. look at the other two sites i linked earlier. you’ll get a better idea of our shenanigans.

in closing, we made it back to SF safely and ate some crickets. did you know crickets are ‘the other green meat’?

fucking gross.