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Welcome to the sixth edition of the Slo Coast Journal. Published online monthly, the Journal is here to bring you information specific to our part of the Central Coast. So jump in! Browse, read, smile. Then come back next month for more. Want a reminder? Check below for information on how to receive an email or tweet letting you know about updates and the newest issue.
Photo & Text by Mike Baird
Early winter, twenty-foot ocean swells and sleeper waves battered the Central California Coast today, November 7. I went out to shoot (photograph) surfers, but it was too wild for surfing activities at Morro Rock. Instead, I observed many visitors at the Montana de Oro State Park playing dangerously at the water's edge on steep slippery rock outcroppings in Spooner's Cove. These people do not recognize the danger in which they are placing themselves and their children. Every year some few die doing just what I am showing in this snapshot. Venturing out on wet rocks at the edge of an ocean rage means that the water has already been where you are standing. When the tide is coming in, as it was here, the swells arrive unevenly and, occasionally, in violent sets out of nowhere. Death can be just a second away.
Monarch Butterflies Return to Coast
They're back and the best places to see thousands of them are at the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove or, in lesser numbers, the Morro Bay State Park. Take the kids. Prepare to be awed and bedazzled. These little critters will steal your heart and make you . . . well, just happy.
Gordon & Zoud's Excellent Journey to Maui, Hawaii
Our condo was located right on the Kaanapali Beach Resort golf course. The view was inspirational, but there were problems with being right on the golf course, as we would soon discover. This being our first night on the island, we opted for dinner at a location close by, Leilani's in Whaler's Village. Back in the day, I ran a movie theatre in this mall. At Leilani's we dined on clam chowder, Maui tomatoes, goat cheese, Maui onions, shrimp ceviche with serrano peppers, and opaka (locally caught rock fish with white flesh, very tasty), served with noodles. It was a great feast to start off our vacation. Read More
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Peregrine Falcon image on banner by Cleve Nash
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Morro Bay Power Plant - Past, Present, and Future - Part 2
by Jack McCurdy
[Continued from last month.] With great fanfare, Duke Energy unveiled its anxiously-awaited plan to "modernize" (as Duke called it) the just-purchased Morro Bay Power Plant in spring, 1999. Modernize was the euphemism Duke used - and was parroted by all its supporters - for its proposed new plant, which was advertised as a cleaner, smaller, more efficient, and better plant that the community would be proud of. But, right off the project itself turned out to be a letdown for just about everyone - it was not a full replacement, as most assumed it would be, but more of a "little new and a lot old."
Duke proposed to build two new generating units with two 145-foot smokestacks on a site just west of the existing plant, and removal of the two oldest units with their two 450-foot stacks, the first opened in 1955. That would have left four smokestacks - two new and two old - in place of the three 450-footers that had been on site since the early 1960s. Duke estimated the cost of the project at about $225 million to produce about 1100 megawatts (MW) of electricity, about 100 more than the old plant's generating capacity.
But the Morro Bay City Council refused to support Duke's project application to the California Energy Commission (CEC), in large part because the application had few details on impacts on public health from the partly-modernized plant's emissions and on marine life in the Morro Bay National Estuary - and on how both people and fish would be protected, to the extent possible. The CEC staff had similar objections and refused to certify the application as complete for CEC review. Read More
In Response to "Another Viewpoint Regarding Expansion
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Morro Heights 5th Annual Holiday Luminaries |
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Talent call: Broadway By The Bay
Talent auditions for "Broadway by the Bay," the 3rd annual Morro Bay Fundraiser Follies, will be held on Wednesday, December 2 from 7-8:30 pm and Sunday, December 6 from 2-3:30 pm, at the Morro Bay Vets Hall, 209 Surf Street. This is a variety show format so singers, dancers, musicians, comedians, etc. are welcome. Please bring a CD for musical accompaniment (Broadway numbers preferred, but not required.) Rehearsal schedules will be set for each act, but attendance will be required for the dress rehearsal on Thursday, February 25, and performances Friday, February 26 and Saturday, February 27, 2010. For additional information, call 772-4656 or e-mail Janice.
Favorite Holiday Recipes From Our Staff
From Sandra Beebe: I've been making these since our sons were toddlers. It was always so much fun to make them and cut them out with the boys. We did the traditional Santa , star, tree, bell, etc., but they loved having their names spelled out with the delicious dough. Roger always wanted some left to eat raw with his Dad, who loved raw cookie dough, too. Then there were the sprinkles on top - one son wanted them; one did not. Even today they expect them at Christmas - a plate full of cookies with red and green sprinkles; and one just plain. Read More
