Hello seafood lovers, and welcome to the beautiful Pacific Ocean, where you'll find the lovely seaside community of Pismo Beach! Now for those of you who don't remember your Bugs Bunny cartoons (and shame on you if you don't), Pismo Beach was Bugs' ultimate final destination in several classic shorts, but before he could get there he always seemed to make that wrong turn in Albuquerque, and ended up somewhere completely off the map. Poor Bugs - at least the beans made it safely into town without being chased by a Tasmanian Devil or some scwewy wabbit hunter...

Anyway, let's meet the town, shall we? The City of Pismo Beach was founded in 1891 and incorporated in 1946. It is located about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and sports a population of 8,600 or so. Since it's on the beach, Pismo Beach is naturally a recreation and tourism-oriented town, and has over 30 restaurants and more than 50 hotels, motels, inns and RV parks, perfect for weekend getaways from the Big City.

Here, the beans enjoy the view of the surf and the Pismo Pier. The original pier was built way back in 1881, and has been remodeled/rebuilt/destroyed by storms several times since then. (Remember - it's not nice to fool Mother Nature.) The latest incarnation of the Pismo Pier was built in 1985-86, and with a little luck and a few non-"El Nino" years, it should stick around for quite some time.

The beans enjoyed walking along the pier, gazing at the sunset and wondering what they would do with their little lives next. Who knew that vegetables could be so introspective???

Now, you just know there's got to be a reason why the beans are standing next to a 6-foot tall clam, right? Well, you guessed it, pal -- Pismo Beach is officially known as the "Clam Capital of the World". The Pismo variety of clam is one of the largest types of clams found along the California coast. The clams can grow up to seven inches, if not interfered with by hungry clammers and sea otters. (Or curious canned beans, for that matter.) Clams take approximately five years to reach legal size; growing only about 3/4 of an inch each year. Perhaps they should cut back on the coffee and cigarettes?

Here, Mr. Clam is as happy as a...well, you know... to meet the beans, and as you can tell, he was very open to having them over for lunch. But since the beans would rather find themselves inside an oyster (where they at least stand an even chance of becoming a pearl), they decided to pass up on the offer, and instead go out for a large bowl of this big boy's steamed cousins. Sounds good to me...