Finally…A Place To Call Home

As I mentioned in the previous post, we finally had a place to hang our hats. We are living in the little wine town of Lompoc, California. We are both really excited to be living here. Santa Maria is nice, but it isn’t really our sort of town. Chrysa and I have gotten used to living the small town life. Santa Maria is just a little too big for us. It also seems to lack focus. It seems that Santa Maria, as a town, is really just a jumping off point to do other things.

Happily, Lompoc isn’t like that. Lompoc seems to have a well-established identity with plenty of things to do. First and foremost is the Wine Ghetto. In most wine centric areas you take a driving tour to the various wineries and tasting rooms. Lompoc has done something a little different. They have put all the tasting rooms in one industrial park. It’s a weird concept, but it really works. You can do multiple tastings in a much shorter amount of time. Each winery has space to do what they want. Some places go for the more industrial, stripped down look. Others have much more elaborate décor. At least one winery, Montemar, has an outdoor space that they made into a party patio.

Chrysa and I went to the Wine Ghetto for an open house wine tasting weekend. It was a lot of fun, and it’s the way we learned about Montemar. We stumbled into the place because it looked like they had a fun vibe. Our intuition was correct. The tasting room is spacious, and very pretty, with funky décor. The bartenders were a lot of fun, very informative about the wines, and the area. They even recommended a place to eat.

We were having so much fun that we decided to get a bottle of wine, grab a plate of snacks, and hang out on the outdoor patio. We listened to the live music, drank our wine, and played some darts. It really was a great way to spend the afternoon. When we move to an area we always like to find “our place” to hang out. Montemar is certainly a contender.

We ended up taking the bartenders recommendation and went to Industrial Eats for dinner. It was amazing! The restaurant is in the little town of Beullton, about 20 mins away. We were surprised and excited by what we found inside. The restaurant is a wide open space dominated by a wood fired pizza oven in the kitchen. Everything is farm to table and the menu features some pretty weird and interesting stuff. Chrysa went with one of the hipster pizzas and I went with the beef tongue reuben. Both of our meals were great! The tongue was supper tender, and very delicious.

Lompoc has a lot to offer other than the Wine Ghetto. Happily, we have beach access about ten minutes from our apartment. Surf Beach is accessed by driving down Ocean Avenue to the end, parking, and crossing the train tracks onto the beach. I have found that this beach is best for running and not necessarily swimming. There have been multiple shark attacks! From what I understand there is a trough off shore that the shark swims along. I’m thinking we will go else where if we want to take a dip. In addition to the beach, Lompoc has a bunch of little restaurants and bars. All of them must be pretty good. Every one of the parking lots are jam packed on Friday and Saturday nights.

It looks like we are going to be pretty happy here in Lompoc. We are finally settled and ready to explore the central coast. It looks like there are several state parks near us. Let’s see how they stack up against the others we have visited.

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