A Day in Morro Bay

The evening after the Farmers’ Market Debbie and Dallas came to stay with us for a couple of days. Did we mention we love having people visit? Since they are big game-players, we taught them to play mah jongg. That set has come over 3,000 miles so it’s nice to get to use it! We also made cake and pie. It was a choice between blueberry muffin cake and apple-blackberry pie. In the end, we couldn’t decide and so made both! Both were really good.

One of the days they stayed with us we went over to Morro Bay. It’s to the north and west of us. It’s a little bay as far as secluded harbors go but there is a giant rock called the morro that sits at the mouth of the bay. The rock is an ancient lava plug. There is a whole line of these plugs across San Luis Obispo County and they are known as the Nine Sisters. Morro is a Spanish word meaning “pebble” or “crown-shaped” depending on whom you ask. The southern part of the bay turns into an estuary. It’s suppose to be “one of the last unspoiled estuaries” in the U.S. There are also about five different parks that overlap around the edges of the bay so there is a lot of scenic beauty to be seen.

We weren’t there for that though. We went for the little shops and such. That, and the fish n’ chips. Well, Maya didn’t go for the fish n’ chips but that’s what Dallas wanted. There’s a little restaurant called Giovanni’s that mostly serves out of a outdoor counter. The customers line up down the block. The guy in front of Dallas picked his own crabs out of a huge tank next to the front of the line and has them cooked up. Proof of California’s progressive stance on conservation and climate change #15: Even a little almost-a-hole-in-the-wall place like Giovanni’s has separate waste cans for trash and recyclables.

We didn’t hang around for the fish. We went elsewhere looking for something made without seafood, or even near seafood. That’s no small task in the fishing town! We passed places offering seafood pizza, seafood tacos, fresh seafood, seafood and steak, seafood and barbeque… We eventually found a women’s clothing store that also had a deli in the back (no joke). So we got sandwiches. Maya got a some kind of tomato and mozzarella thing and Matt got a sandwich called “The Kraut” that was tying to be a ruben (but not succeeding).

After lunch, we checked out the shops. It is the same kind of tourist-trap mixed with really expensive art items that we have found on the main drag in all quaint little towns, except with a sea theme. One shop featured vintage and vintage-style metal signs advertising all kinds of sentiments. There was also a few clothing stores that were neat.

We also went into the Morro Bay Aquarium. This was not a large-scale, high-class place. There was just one large room with maybe 10 tanks. Also, they had sea lions in some pools outside. The fish, eels, crabs and one octopus on display were all neat to see. All the animals come out of the bay and the tanks serve as something of a rehabilitation facility for sick and injured animals. They also had a display case with preserved bits of very large animals, like the eye of a squid and the jaws of a great white shark. It was fairly neat. Admission was only $2 so it was good for that price.
The last adventure of the day was the trip on the Sub Sea Tours. We had wanted to rent a little electric powered boat and just cruise around the bay for a couple of hours. Debbie and Dallas had done this before and it’s fun. Unfortunately, they had no openings. So to get out on the water we tried the Sub Sea Tours. It’s not an actual sub but the boat is painted yellow like a certain famous submarine. The boat just has a very deep draft and there are windows under the water line. This is not actually as cool of the trip as you might think. The boat tools around the bay a bit and the guide points out some of the sights such as Morro Rock and the Thangorodrim-esque triple smoke stack of the local power plant. We also saw sea lions and sea otters. That’s nice. The “sub sea” part of the tour turned out to be really weak. We motored off near the Morro and threw some fish-bait overboard. From the windows below one could see the fish swarming around to get the food. It was all interesting to see, but not worth $14 a person!
And that’s Morro Bay. We came home that night and had pasta, garlic bread, pie and cake. Thanks Debbie and Dallas for staying with us!