The Conejo Valley Guide "Welcome" blog covers a wide range of topics, local information, highlights of local things to do, compilations and other items. Focus is on information relevant to Ventura County and surrounding areas, including Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Newbury Park, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Malibu, Simi Valley, Camarillo, Moorpark, Somis, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ojai, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Barbara and Moorpark.
The Conejo Valley Guide® "Welcome" blog covers a wide range of topics, local information, local things to do, holiday event compilations, announcements and more.
I could watch this all day...flocks of pelicans hovering together above the waves in Malibu. These particular pelicans were flying at El Pescador and La Piedra State Beaches, which, along with El Matador, form a triage of "pocket beaches" along the west end of Malibu that constitute Robert H. Meyer Memorial State Beach.
More on these and other beaches in Malibu, stretching to Oxnard, at THIS LINK.
Conejo Valley Days Parade 1970 with auto promoting Sizzler.
Some of you may remember the Sizzler restaurant on Moorpark Road that is now a Hooter's. Well, before that, there was a Sizzler at 1259 East Thousand Oaks Boulevard, in a space that today (thanks to a generous donation from Thousand Oaks Storage) is the home of affordable housing non-profit Many Mansions.
Thousand Oaks Sizzler on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, just east of Rancho Road, in 1970
Many Mansions moved in Spring 2015 at the long ago former home of the first Sizzler restaurant in Thousand Oaks.
Sizzler was directly east of the Enco gas station at the corner of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Rancho Road.
Enco was a short-lived brand name from the Humble Oil Company, which is now part of ExxonMobil. Apparently it translated into "stalled car" in Japanese.
Conejo Valley Days Parade 1970 at intersection of Thousand Oaks Blvd and Rancho Road.
Notice the Shell gas station across Rancho Road in the above photo. Today of course a different kind of fuel is served there at the first Thousand Oaks Drive-Thru Starbucks. I also notice the gas price at that time was 28 9/10th cents a gallon.
Today, there is a Chevron station located at this former home of Enco. It is the exact same building shown above! But instead of "Happy Motoring!" there's a sign on the building that says "Food Mart."
This Chevron station is the former home of the Enco station pictured above.
And this last photo shows a 23 North sign west of Rancho Road. Partially hidden behind that sign is a Chicken Delight that was located at 1165 E. Thousand Oaks Boulevard. Today, the closest Chicken Delight is in Winnepeg, Canada.
Studio Movie Grill, including our local Simi Valley location at the Simi Valley Town Center, offers Special Needs Screenings on designated Saturdays at 11am.
Special Needs Screenings are shown with the lights on and volume lowered. Children are free to move around, talk, even dance in the aisles during the movie.
These special sensory friendly screenings are free of charge for children with special needs, as well as their siblings. Accompanying parents pay the “before-noon” price.
For upcoming shows, visit studiomoviegrill.com/movie/film-series/special-needs-screenings.
Nicholas Canyon County Beach is 1 mile east of Leo Carrillo State Beach at 33850 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. This is a nice beach where you can hang out, fish, picnic, surf and go for a great walk in about 25 acres. There's a decent sized parking lot with 150 spaces available, as well as parking on PCH. Parking costs range from $3 to $10 (as of July 2019), depending on time of the year. There are also portable restrooms on hand as well as showers and picnic benches. More information at beaches.lacounty.gov/nicholas-canyon-beach.
LA County beach rules at https://beaches.lacounty.gov/la-county-beach-rules/ - as an fyi, animals (including dogs), alcohol, smoking, fires/BBQ and amplified music are allowed.
View from the top of hte staircase near the parking lot.
Bench yourself for some nice views of the Pacific Ocean.
View looking northwest towards Leo Carrillo.
In a recent drawing on the CVG Facebook Page, we asked followers to name off their favorite family restaurant in the Conejo Valley. There were over 300 responses in the two day drawing and of course we would love to share them with you here, in alphabetical order. Some of these eateries are not technically in the Conejo Valley, but hey, that’s ok.
Listed below are the restaurants noted, and the number of times they were noted. The most mentioned eateries were Lure Fish House, Stonefire Grill, Toppers Pizza Place and Country Harvest.
Agoura’s Famous Deli
Ali Baba’s Kitchen 3
All About the Burgers Simi Valley
Alpine Deli
Ameci Pizza
Bad Ass Tacos 2
Bangkok Avenue 2
Bandits BBQ 9
Brent’s Deli
Cactus Patch in Moorpark
California Pizza Kitchen
Carrara Pastries in Moorpark 2
Casa Nostra Ristorante
The Cheesecake Factory 5
Chi Chi’s Pizza Simi Valley 2
Chili’s
Cici’s Cafe 2
Cho Cho San 2
Cisco’s 2
Country Harvest 9
Cronies
Dave & Buster’s
Don Cuco Simi Valley 2
Draughts
Eggs N Things 3
Eloong Dumplings
Figueroa Mountain Brewing
Fusion Grill 5
Habanero Mexican Grill
Holdren’s
Islands 4
Janchi Korean BBQ
Jinky’s Cafe
Junkyard Cafe Simi Valley
Lakeview Garden Chinese Restaurant
Latigo Kid
Lazy Dog Cafe 5
Little Calf Creamery and Cafe 5
Los Dos Amigos 2
Love Pho Cafe
Love Sushi
Lure Fish House 11
Made in Italy
Marmalade Cafe 2
Mandarin Bistro
Marcello Ristorante 2
Mendocino Farms
Mika Sushi
Minato Sushi
Mission Burrito
Mouthful Eatery
Natural Cafe
Nonna
Nori Japanese Grill
Olive Garden 2
P&L Burgers
Plata Taqueria in Agoura Hills 2
Poke U and Me in Camarillo
Pokeland
Pookie’s Thai
Ranch Hand BBQ 2
Red Robin 4
Roma Deli
Sake 2 Me Sushi Simi Valley
Sesame Inn
Sharky’s 6
Side Street Cafe
Snapper Jack’s
Social Monk
Soom Soom
Stacked 6
Stella’s II
Stonefire Grill 10
Sumo Sushi 3
Sushi Oaks
Taqueria El Tapatio in Moorpark
Taqueria Jalisco Mexican Food in Moorpark
Tavern 101
The Habit Burger
The Original Pizza Cookery 5
Thousand Oaks Fish and Chips
Thousand Wok
Toppers Pizza Place 9
Vegan Thyme
Wood Ranch BBQ 6
Bunnies pondering their Father’s Day plans.
In a recent drawing on the Conejo Valley Guide Facebook Page, we asked folks what their Father’s Day weekend plans were. The response was outstanding and of course we’re going to share some highlights of these responses right here for future reference!
CVG Facebook Fan Selected Responses:
All the ladies in my family are going to cook for the amazing dads in our family. We are going to cook a traditional dish. Of course all of us are going to enjoy.
Chores at home and spending time together ❤️
My daughters and I will spend the morning baking my husband's favorite cake 🤪😊
We are going to church in the morning and then lunch with my husband's parents. Hopefully a relaxing day.
Both our kids will be over, we have not had any quality time since Christmas as we have been so busy with work, school, fixing house up and new puppy!
Channel Islands Harbor vintage boat show!
Church and family BBQ! (BBQ and lunch was a recurring theme).
Our Fathers Day plan is to bbq and play games with family and friends who have become family. Family is what my husband loves.
My husband and I are taking a Sunday drive along Mulholland and having dinner at PF Chang’s (lettuce wraps)
We have planned a family hike through Wildwood Park and then home for waffles!
We will be spoiling my husband with Fathers Day gifts and taking him out for lunch at Cheesecake Factory, one of his favorite places to eat. Not a bad day at all.
Going to the beach😎
Finney’s with my family, and seeing my father in law after!!
Going to the Channel Islands car show in the morning followed by bbqing at home with family 💙
Dinner at Bandits tonight. Miss the crowd!
BBQ swim party with family
My three boys and I are surprising my husband by making an omelette bar (*which is huge, cause I don’t cook 😂) and then we are all going bowling! 🎳
Spending time together as a family, and letting dad sleep in!
Taking my dad to breakfast then for a walk in Oak Canyon Park!
We don’t have plans for this Sunday for Father’s Day as my daughter's father (my hubby) is serving overseas. But he will be visiting later this month...so we will celebrate then ❤️ Happy Father’s Day to all you wonderful daddies out there, near or far xoxo.
We are going to church and then out to a Fathers Day lunch at my favorite place. Then a nap 💤.
Here are some more ideas for future Father’s Day or any day for that matter plans:
Barring additional changes in California minimum wage laws prior to 2023, here is the schedule for California minimum wages through that year from the State of California Department of Industrial Relations:
The federal minimum wage for 2019 is $7.25, a rate that has stood frozen in time since it became effective on July 24, 2009. Politics aside, if a federal minimum wage is going to exist and serve any purpose, why would it not change for 10 years? For it to have any meaning, perhaps apply an inflation factor to the rate. Cumulative price changes from 2009 to 2019 were about 19%, which would render a federal minimum wage rate of $8.63 in 2019. Otherwise, perhaps eliminate the federal minimum wage rate and leave it to the states.
I digress. In addition to the state and federal minimum wage rates, many cities and counties have their own minimum wage ordinances, including our neighboring Los Angeles County and City of Los Angeles:
Note that as of July 2019, employees at companies with 26 or more City of Los Angeles based employees will receive a minimum of $14.25 per hour, $2.25 more than the rest of the state, including Ventura County. But if your LA based company only employs 25 employees or less, the minimum is $13.25.
Employees in unincorporated sections of Los Angeles County also receive the above noted rates.
As of July 2019, the County of Ventura and cities in Ventura County have not established separate minimum wage rates.
Now if you’re really looking for a high minimum wage, move to San Francisco, where the current minimum wage is $15.59 per hour as of July 1st.
For local area jobs in Ventura County and nearby areas that pay more than the minimum wage rate, visit THIS LINK.
Conejo Valley Guide covers events, activities and things to do throughout Ventura County and surrounding areas.
Conejo Valley Guide® covers thousands of events, activities and things to do throughout Ventura County, California and surrounding areas.
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