Merv Corning’s Pacific Coast Railway (this trestle was near the Hwy 154/101 intersection). It was April Fool’s Day. The man on the phone was describing his ride on the narrow gauge steam train that once dead-ended at Mattei’s Tavern in Los Olivos. Early on, passengers switched to stagecoaches there. Skeptics could be forgiven for raising an […]

On the mountain the flowers come and go, outdoing Michelangelo, amidst garish spurs of kryptonite-green serpentine from the spreading centers of the deepest sea, and prickly, sap-dripping, pineapple-size cones, laid out on a quilted carpet of dried needles so thick you could ski down the steep slopes on them. This year’s crop of blossoms on […]

Renton Mitchell was my dad-in-law, and his stories inspired me to get a license. He began his real estate career in 1970 at E. David Davis’ Los Olivos office, just down the street. “If there’s another world, he lives in bliss; If there is none, he made the best of this.” -Robert Burns “I’ve always […]