While living in the small town of Cambria is restful and quiet, the down side to owning Cambria real estate is you must drive out of town to go shopping. This actually isn't as bad as one might think. You can choose between two destinations to do most of your shopping; either Paso Robles or San Luis Obispo.

The trip to Paso Robles requires a 30 minute drive over the coastal mountain range and offers beautiful views of the rolling hills, wine country, and a spectacular mountain top view of Morro Bay and Morro Rock. In Paso Robles you will find many local retailers and also new shopping centers including a Wal-Mart shopping center on Niblick Road and a Target shopping center on Theatre drive. Restaurants and shopping of most every kind can be found here. These shopping centers are newly constructed and were built around 1995.

San Luis Obispo offers much of the same, yet with a different atmosphere. There is newly constructed shopping center that was built in 2006 and continues to grow with Costco, Circuit City, Pet Smart, Home Depot, and more. There are also many local stores and merchants to choose from, many of them located in downtown San Luis Obispo. Traveling San Luis Obispo from Cambria is much easier on ones vehicle as the drive is mostly flat and the views are also nice as you drive along the coastal Highway 1 south.

Friday - May 19, 2007 was shopping day so we drove to SLO and ate at a little restaurant in the Laguna Village Shopping Center. (A nice neighborhood center close to where I lived for a few years when I lived in San Luis Obispo.) There we ate at a new restaurant called "The Upper Crust Trattoria". A very charming place with a nice Italian ambiance inside and out. A very nice wine selection, choice of wines and Italian food. I'm not big on Italian honestly so I just ordered the Cal Poly Mustang 8" pizza =P but my wife likes it so she had their Lasagna. Our two children got a good deal - their dinner came with a sunday and a drink with choice of pizza or spaghetti for $5.75. All around a nice little place to eat if you're in the area - everything is served of course by Cal Poly students. I'd give it an 8 out of 10.

On to Costco where the purchase of all our bulk needs are fulfilled. I feel sorry for local merchants and how good is it for the local economy, probably not very, but as a working father with a family to provide for I'd rather get the most bang for my buck. Food 4 Less is another local chain of stores that I frequent to get the smaller items that we can't get at Costco.

I'm a big box shopper for the most part just because I like to get everything I need all at once in 1 or 2 places on a given day. I value other opinions on this subject though as I also see the value in shopping from local merchants.

 
The Central Coast in Wine Country so the selection of wines are very good here. Click for map.

 - Regards 

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