Weekend Escape: Central California : Country Comfort : The eclectic rhythms of a back-roads B&B;, sushi and musical theater, a dune-filled preserve

Discovering California 154, also known as the San Marcos Pass, is like finding a side door into paradise.

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While there is nothing shabby about the main route out of Santa Barbara, U.S. 101, the San Marcos Pass has the advantage of being one of the loveliest legitimate shortcuts in Southern California. It shaves nearly 20 miles and as many minutes off a trip to Central California, assuming no wide-load trucks or overflowing minivans get ahead of you on the two-lane detour.

The pass commences at the edge of the city, a couple of blocks from the State Street off-ramp of 101. It then cuts sharply into Los Padres National Forest, skirts along its edge past Lake Cachuma and the rolling ranchland of Los Olivos before meeting up again with the main highway 35 miles later.

Finding interesting spots along that stretch has been the challenge of a yearlong courtship involving the writer, a Southern Californian, and her companion, a Northern Californian. The most recent three-day weekend found us meandering through the pass just as the hottest season was bearing down upon us. The more muted shades of summer--flowers in dusty white and gold, dun-colored hills--dominated the scene.

Five miles after reconnecting with 101, we took the Los Alamos exit. The Skyview Motel in Los Alamos ($49 plus tax) is a step back into the ‘50s. With palm trees lining the driveway, a wonky three-prong carport and a giant sign boldly proclaiming its motel ness, it was as if the Jetsons had visited Tahiti before settling here in the country of cows, a number of which were grazing outside the room window. We settled in, noticed the absence of air conditioning and went for a dip in the pool.

Soon we were back on 101 for the 16-mile trip through rolling hills to Santa Maria, a farm town with a series of suburban tracts squeezed between the fields, lots of malls and two marvelous secrets: a sushi bar and PCPA--the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, home of some of the best musical theater to be found on the Central Coast.

First, as always, the food. Atari Ya, where we had a pre-theater meal, is undistinguished in most respects. Located in Stowell Center Plaza, a strip mall, it has a kitschy decor and a largely down-home local clientele that seem to like elaborate and bizarre seaweed rolls (my personal choice for most revolting combination was the Santa Maria Roll with barbecue chicken and avocado). It is owned by master sushi chef Naoki Hongo, who, in Santa Maria and his new place in San Luis Obispo, serves up some of the freshest, most delicious raw fish between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

After stuffing down about $50 worth of sushi we were ready for the pomp and populism of “The Music Man,” playing a mere three blocks away at the Marian Performing Arts Center on the campus of Allan Hancock Community College. PCPA, now in its 30th year, is part of the college curriculum, and part of the students’ training is their involvement in PCPA Theaterfest, which offers productions year-round in two theaters in Santa Maria and one in Solvang.

(“The Music Man” has completed its run, but “Forever Plaid” will play through Sept. 23 in Solvang; “The Pirates of Penzance” plays in Santa Maria until Sept. 23 and Solvang Oct. 5-Oct. 22.) In the morning, we got on California 135, connected up with California 1 and 27 miles later were in the coastal farm town of Guadalupe. After a brief breakfast at the Far Western Tavern, a well-known steak place, we were ready for the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Preserve, part of an 18-mile stretch of dunes that extend from Guadalupe to Pismo Beach, migrate inland for several miles and seem to be one of California’s best-kept secrets.

After asking several people around Guadalupe, we got back on California 1 for another three miles and turned off on Oso Flaco, a straight ribbon of road that cuts through fields. The entrance to Oso Flaco Lake Natural Area is dusty, reed- and mosquito-infested. Inside it is heaven. A short walk through the dirt and reeds leads to an enchanting marshy pond surrounded by dunes and filled with duck families and the skeletal remains of duck blinds. A wooden bridge transports you across the lake and to the dunes. The bridge continues as wooden walkway, providing wheelchair access and protection for the dunes and their fragile ecosystem.

It was becoming clear that if we didn’t tear ourselves away, we would never get to our next destination, the Country House Inn, a B&B; in the town of Templeton, which sprouted up along the railroad in 1886.

Along the back roads, cultivated ranches, vineyards and walnut groves compete for space with wild-growing scrub oak and parched grass. Lacy moss, like shawls on an old woman, drape the gnarled and knobby limbs of trees bent over the road.

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Templeton these days wears both its history and modernity. A quick drive down the three-block Main Street reveals a collection of frontier-era buildings now housing restaurants, bars, a hardware store and a poker parlor. For those of us who want to belly up to a bar of the caffeinated kind, there is the Weedwacker, which dispenses coffee, cappuccino and lattes . The dominant piece of architecture downtown is the Templeton Feed and Grain, a working granary built as a garage in 1913. At the north end of the street is the lovely Country House Inn. Unlike most B&Bs;, children are welcome here; one of the rooms has a separate sitting room with a daybed, and portable cribs are available. There are lovely gardens, a comfy living room where port is served in the evening, and owner Dianne Garth cooks up a fabulous breakfast.

We spent the next two days touring the wineries, with occasional stops for cider tasting and herb picking. And there were a couple of real culinary surprises. One was Salsitas, a modest, but delicious Mexican restaurant specializing in the food of Guadalajara. It is located in a nondescript shopping center in downtown Atascadero, six miles from Templeton on a lovely back road. The other was McPhee’s Grill, in the middle of Templeton on Main Street. By the second day in Templeton we were getting into the back-roads pace of country life. We watched cowboys and cowgirls do figure-eights and chase cows around a dirt field at the Working Horse Competition at the edge of town, took an afternoon nap and argued the merits of driving the six miles back to Atascadero to eat at the Village Caffe, the Italian place everyone had told us about.

On Sunday we parted company and my companion headed north, while I went south. Seventy-nine miles after getting on 101, I was making the left-hand turn onto the San Marcos Pass and secretly hoping I would get stuck behind a wide-load truck.

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Budget for Two

Gas: $30.00

Dinner at Atari Ya: $60.74

PCPA tickets: $31.00

Skyview Motel, one night $53.90

Breakfast, Far Western Tavern: $17.32

Nipomo Dunes fees: $4.00

Country House, two nights: $207.10

Dinner, McPhee’s Grill: $74.97

Lunch, Salsitas: $15.42

Dinner, Village Caffe: $48.12

FINAL TAB: $542.57

Country House Inn, (805) 434-1598 ; Skyview Motel, (805) 344-3770; PCPA, (800) 549-7272 .