By Susan McDonald

When you're antiquing on the North Coast, there's something for everyone - from Vargas girls to toy trains to vintage lunch boxes to Victorian wedding cake toppers. Sometimes all in the same shop.

Besides the thrill of bargain hunting, regular North Coast antiquers know it's just a heck of a lot of fun hunting for that special something to take back home. "We come down here a lot," admits Jaci Ray of Monterey. "Cambria is my old stomping ground. This brings back a lot of memories."

Ray was shopping for old dolls, books and jewelry at Antiques on Main in Cambria's historic East Village. As a child, she visited the area during the summer when she came to stay with her grandparents -- who worked for William Randolph Hearst.

Dolls from the 1950s with porcelain faces and bendable arms are at the top of her list. They're real finds, she said. "They have to be kept away from sunlight," she explained, "or they just crumble away. It's astounding to find one in a shop."

Ray wasn't successful in her doll hunt that day. But for shop owners, every day offers a different story, according to Antiques on Main owner Sue Patchen. "One day you don't have enough white painted furniture and the next day you can't give it away," Patchen said.

Cambria: 8,000 Square Feet of Antiques

	It's hard to miss the antique shops on Cambria's Main Street

Antiques on Main is a big place - 8,000 sq. ft. on two floors, with at least 50 different vendors. Though it seems bursting with merchandise from many decades past, the store is also clean and tidy, brightly lit, well-organized and very friendly. Wide plank wood floors add to the historic ambiance of the venerable building, and music from previous eras - the '50s on this day - sets the mood.

So what's really hot in North Coast antique shops on most days? Hand tools, kitchen items like rolling pins, painted furniture, old hats, anything painted red or green, and anything 'shabby chic,' said Patchen. "A lot of furniture went out today. Old lamps are really going out the door. Deco stuff is always good. So are old linens."

Dealer Deborah Berk sells what she calls "girl stuff," like dresser jars, vanity trays, and fine china. She loves her job. "It's great because I'm able to help someone find something really lovely," Berk said. "Mostly they just want a memory to take home. A lady just bought a Haviland cup and saucer, but what she was most excited about was buying it here in Cambria."

One of Berk's favorite sales was to a young man from out of town who was getting married the next day at the historic Santa Rosa Chapel, high on a hill just across the street. "He bought this beautiful jack-in-the-box with a horse that pops up," she said. "He bought it as a special gift for his bride. That was so romantic."

A very popular section with many repeat customers is the large bookstall on the second floor run by George Kaster. His specialty is military books, but he also has just about every subject covered.

The Bridal Museum

Bridal gowns on display at Ellie's Dream

At the other end of the Cambria antique spectrum is Ellie's Dream, a tiny shop featuring the private collection and artistic sensibilities of owner, Judith Larmore.

One of the most unusual finds there comes from the owner's recent trip to France. It's a "money sock" from the 1940s, explained store employee Marcia Smith as she held up this long. jet-black silk stocking that closed at the top like a change purse. "Just a joke, I guess," Smith said.

The tiny items housed in wood and glass cases at Ellie's Dream are worth closer looks. There's the Lady Flora paper doll set handmade in 1871 for Agnes Munson Rowley of Brooklyn, NY. A history of the creation of these beautiful dolls for their original owner and where the dolls went in later years is detailed on cards that accompany the collection. The dolls have an assortment of elaborate pastel-colored dresses made from paper, fabric, lace and ribbon, and the entire collection comes with a handmade paper horse and a box labeled "Lady Flora."

Scattered around Ellie's Dream shop are jars of scuffed pink ballet slippers, embroidered linens, antique ribbons and laces, tiny candy molds and, most interesting, the Bridal Museum.

Years ago when she opened the store and Bridal Museum, Larmore held a wedding reception, complete with wedding cake and all the finery. Mannequins now model Victorian and Edwardian wedding clothes, and the display cases are filled with paper invitations, fancy shoes and cake toppers from weddings past. The cake toppers really catch the eye. The largest antique cake toppers are very convincing Jackie and John Kennedy dolls. The smallest are encased in a tiny walnut shell.

"What did we do with our cake topper?" is a question Smith often hears couples ask each other as they browse through.

Cayucos: Antique Hunting in the Old Dance Hall

	Downtown Cayucos offers a wealth of antique shops

Rich Man, Poor Man is one of two large antiques malls about 15 minutes south of Cambria, on Highway 1 in downtown Cayucos. It's a three-story affair housed in a turn-of-the century building that was once a mercantile, dance hall saloon and even a church.

Lots of people - "especially men" - come in looking for the 'train man' Digby Williams and his collection of Lionel train sets, said antiques dealer Rayda Bankhead.

The Lionel trains are located on the second floor. Nearby are shelves and cases filled with dozens of old lunchboxes - another big draw for this store. And there are lots of old toys and framed black-and-white glamour photos of movie stars like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe.

"We sell big pieces of furniture, but a lot of people take home small gifts for the house-sitter," said Bankhead. "And we get lots of foreign visitors."

A woman from Australia who owns a cookware shop there came in recently and bought as many spatulas and pots and pans and other cooking stuff that she could carry. "She shipped home her clothes and carried the cooking stuff with her," said Bankhead.

Remember When? antiques in Cayucos.

A couple blocks north on Highway One in Cayucos is Remember When? This is another three-story emporium housed in a 100-year old building. There's even a former ballroom on the top floor.

The store has a kitschy atmosphere, complete with vintage Hawaiian shirts and wise-cracking owner. Remember When? even serves wine to its customers on weekends. "Remember, we're the most fun, and we're right across from the pier," said owner Francine Esposito.

Remember When? has a good selection of highly collectible Roseville and McCoy pottery and the very popular Bakelite plastic jewelry and poker chips from the 1930s and 40s. They also sell a lot of shabby chic furniture and have cases full of beautiful rocks and crystals.

Customer Laverne Caldwell of San Luis Obispo found more than she wanted at the shop when she asked if there were any prints by famous airbrush artist Alberto Vargas. "There's a bunch over there," said Esposito, pointing across the room on the main floor.

The grandmotherly Caldwell explained that she and her sister, who is an artist, are fans of Vargas, a painter known for his "tasteful" nudes featured on calendars in Playboy magazines of decades past. In fact, Caldwell carried a little notebook in her purse that detailed the artist's life history. "He worked for Warner Bros., and he painted stars like Shirley Temple and Dorothy L'amour," said Caldwell.

Alas, the prints at the shop were a "little more racy, more nude than I'm used to," Caldwell said. She decided she'd look for some a bit more modest. On the other hand, her husband found a beautiful piece of malachite that he bought for a good price.

Perhaps wisely, he refrained from comment on whether the collection of Vargas Girls prints was "too nude" for him, too. Now that man knows how to antique.

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Susan McDonald is an award-winning journalist who has lived on the Central Coast for more than 20 years.