I was walking Wilbur down the uneven, puddle-ridden dirt alley behind the Cayucos Tavern, antique emporiums, and real estate offices on the main drag, a kind of no-mans-land, when this officious looking guy around 30 popped out from behind a wooden fence like a jack-in-the-box to ask me in a truculent manner if I was picking up the poop when my dog shit in the alley. I was somewhat flummoxed by the immediacy and stridency of his demand, and at first could not find the usual words of protest at such an accosting. Read More …

Editor’s Note: The following series, “Life in Radically Gentrifying Cayucos by the Sea,” to be posted biweekly includes the notes, thoughts, and opinions of an original American voice: author Dell Franklin.  Read More …

Editor’s Note: The following series of tales from behind the bar, “Happy Jacks Saloon: The Last Morro Bay Fisherman’s Dive,” to be posted bi-weekly includes the notes, thoughts, and opinions of Read More …

Sunday evening in Happy Jack’s Saloon in Morro Bay and they’ve been at it all day in the murky crumbling grotto, sharks and barracuda and minnows swarming in the cavernous, dank, dark tank. Some in this crowd have been up for days without sleep or nourishment, and are engrossed in babbling conversations or playing pool in the area off the back door Read More …

Cayucos Coffee is ensconced right in the middle of our one-block-long downtown beside Cafe Della Via. On beehive busy weekday mornings it is a different, more esoteric kind of headquarters for who’s who than what one might find in the Schooner’s Wharf (which is also next door) during Happy Hour. Read More …

When I first moved here back in 1989, Skippers, which is directly across the street from the Cayucos Tavern, stayed open early evenings and did a consistent stop and start business. An old fashioned-diner or cafe, one could call it a greasy spoon. Read More …

Editor’s Note: The following series, “Life in Radically Gentrifying Cayucos by the Sea,” to be posted weekly includes the notes, thoughts, and opinions of an original American voice: author Dell Franklin. Read More …

The Pirate has his own stool in the Schooner’s Wharf in Cayucos with his name engraved on a brass plaque that reads “Patron of the Year.” But everybody knows he is beyond such a meager title and is actually at the very top of the pantheon of who’s who in Cayucos, and should have the engraving changed to “Citizen of the Century.” Read More …

The middle school built this state-of-the-art gym a few years back and later replaced the outdoor basketball courts bordering Birch Avenue with schoolrooms. As a long time basketball player, I relished the idea of a gym in Cayucos. I could go down there and shoot around, and a few of us grown up locals could start games with the teenagers in town who loved the sport. Read More …

Visitors at the Charles Paddock Zoo may catch a romantic relationship blossoming at the Flamingo Habitat, between a pair of Crested Screamers. A female Crested Screamer recently came to the Charles Read More …