Friday, October 23, 2020

Paso Robles on the Verge of a Lockdown


(
Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) It's the beginning of March, 2020, the year where spring was cancelled. As we're starting to hear about a couple of cruise ships being quarantined because of some virus originating in China, we are making our way to Paso Robles on the Central Coast of California.

At the time, there are no cases of Covid 19 either in our home county or in San Luis Obispo County, where Paso Robles is located. It's where we're driving to today.

Our home for a few days will be the Oxford Suites, a new hotel for Paso Robles, where a friend of ours is the bartender. 



The room is a king suite (a studio suite, actually) with a comfortable king bed and a fold out queen size sleeper.

The large bathroom features a roll-in shower.


The hotel serves a light dinner of soup and salad, along with a beverage of your choice or selected beers and wine. It's a good fit after being on the road for several hours. In the morning, the breakfast buffet is no longer available...a gloved server will bring you your selection (this was after gloves and hand sanitizers were being used and before universal mask wearing and shortages kicked in).



There is light rain in the area the next morning as we drive over the hill to visit one of our favorite beach towns, Morro Bay. It's been a few years, let's see how the town has changed.

The first thing we notice is that the old aquarium where we'd feed fish to sea lions is gone. Workmen are inside, demolishing the floor and some walls. I ask but they don't know what's going in to replace it.


We try to walk along the waterfront but there must be some sort of widespread project to update it. At several places, we have to detour back out to the street to get around a construction site.


Browsing a few souvenir shops, we then decide to get a drink at Rose's Cantina, a mandatory stop for us where we can sit at the great, low wheelchair accessible bar, chatting with the friendly bartenders while enjoying a great view of Morro Rock.


The aquarium might be gone but it's still easy to see sea lions frolicking in the bay. We also come upon a family of sea otters playing in a quiet area among the docked fishing boats.

They're here, I'm guessing, because it's quiet and away from predators. It's also a good place to find scraps off the small fishing fleet here.


That's what my wife wants to do so we head to the north end of town to the Great American Fish Company.

It's one of my wife's favorite places to eat. She has a grilled fish kabob and chowder special while Tim gets the fish 'n chips. Being more of a landlubber, I go with a cheeseburger.


Back over in Paso Robles, we spend a little time at the hotel's happy hour before retiring to our room. We'll head back over the hill to another beach destination tomorrow.

Darryl Musick 
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