A weekend in SLO

 

Slowly but surely I’m getting caught up on all my Summer posts…

The second weekend in July I was asked to train a Dental office in Atascadero which is 15 minutes from San Luis Obispo, one of my favorite places to go.  Poor Maddie was in the middle of her Tech week for her show (more to come on that soon!) so Grammy gladly kept her and took care of her while we took the boys and Libby on a weekend getaway to the central coast.  I say this all the time but I would love to retire on the central coast or at least have a vacation home there.  First of all its beautiful, and life is just slower paced there.  The people are genuine and down to earth.  It’s a far cry from LA and Orange County.  You haven’t seen California until you’ve been to the central coast.  Every season is beautiful up there, in the Summer the hills are golden speckled with huge beautiful old oak trees that could tell many stories.  

We started our trip at our favorite little beach right near San Luis Obispo, Avila Beach.  It is a very small beach in a nice little cove.  The waves are small and its usually not very crowded.  Apparently it is a much more popular beach since the last time we came because we couldn’t believe how many people were there. 

We decided to take a walk down the pier and Sawyer was so hilarious.  The gaps between the planks were about 1/2 to 1 inch apart and he was scared to death that he was going to fall in.  See him walking so carefully not to step on a crack!

It was a beautiful sunny day and the water was clear.  We enjoyed the beautiful view. 

Back on the sand the boys enjoyed some time on the swings.  There’s nothing like swings at the beach.

We headed down to the water to dip our feet in.  Libby wasn’t quite so sure about the water.

She decided she was much happier playing on the sand. 

Carter however loved playing in the water and getting his feet wet.

After checking into our hotel we enjoyed one of our favorite restaurants in SLO, Firestone Grill.  They have the best Tri-tip sandwiches that melt in your mouth.  We had forgotten that it can get quite chilly in SLO and didn’t bring our jackets.  In the middle of July it was downright cold outside. 

We stopped at the famous gum alley which the kids always get a kick out of.  Gum has been stuck here since the ‘50s and there is quite a collection.  Pretty nasty.

The next day we decided to go exploring.  We first stopped at the big Tank the kids always enjoy seeing.  They are amazed at how large it is and love to climb on it.  The kids have been coming to visit the Tank since Chris started coming up to SLO for work about 5 years ago. 

There’s also a very old cannon that is made of steel and wood.  These are located outside a Veterans Museum in SLO.

We headed out on Pacific Coast Highway and ended up in a small beach town called Cayucos.  Chris had read in AAA magazine about a little bakery called “Brown Butter Cookie Company”  We decided to try it and they were DE-licious!  Not a soft cookie as you might expect, a hard cookie like shortbread but made with brown butter so it has a very rich flavor and it is generously sprinkled with coarse sea salt. LOVED them, and we will definitely be back. 

We fell in love with Cayucos, a small old fashioned beach town like something out of a movie.  The kids played on the sand and we took another walk down the pier.  This time Sawyer was a bit braver and the cracks weren’t as big :)

My little stunt devil

After we spent some time in Cayucos we decided to head further north to the area of San Simeon and visit the Elephant Seals.  On our way up there we saw a group of cars pulled over on the side of the road and people with their cameras out.  We noticed 6 zebras grazing in the field right next to Hwy 1.  We pulled right over and took a gander.  These Zebras (or at least their grandparents) belonged to William Randolph Hearst who owned an enormous area of land in San Simeon.  He built a huge Mansion as well as group of guest homes known as Hearst Castle at the top of the mountain overlooking the pacific ocean that now belong to the State of California. If you haven’t been there it is quite a spectacle.  He also had the worlds largest private zoo and these Zebras are what remains.  We were at least 6-10 miles from Hearst Castle and these zebra must roam quite a large area.  We thought it was quite a treat to get to see them up close and living in the wild (sort of).

After driving another 30 minutes or so we went to see the Elephant Seals.  There is this one area just north of Hearst Castle where all the Elephant seals come to mate, give birth and at this time of year they were coming to shed their skin.  It was quite a sight to see them lying there and once and a while you would see a new one swim up.  I think Libby thought they were rocks.

On our way back we made a short stop in Morro Bay and admired the huge rock jetting out of the water. 

We always seem to have a bit of a mishap whenever we travel with kids.  This time it was Libby.  She was playing with her stroller in our hotel room and climbed up and tipped over.  She got a large gash under her eye and gave herself a frenectomy.  Poor baby, at least we didn’t need to make a visit to urgent care like on past trips.  We did however visit the Pedodontist to make sure all was well once we got home.  We went to dinner that night at another favorite place, Tahoe Joes.

The next day I had to work :(  It wasn’t until 1 o’clock though so we spent some time together in the morning.  We stopped at a delicious bagel shop and had some yummy breakfast, went to my favorite, Splash Café for lunch and stopped at 7-11 (since it was 7/11) for our FREE slurpees.  (Can you tell we like food?)  I just love this picture of the kids (I wish Maddie was in it)  Libby looks soooo grown up!

We drove up to Atascadero and Chris dropped me off at work and played with the kids.  They went to Charles Paddock Zoo first.  It is a very small quaint zoo which I love.

Then he called up an old friend from Odwalla who works up there and went to visit him in Paso Robles on his farm.  The kids had so much fun feeding chickens looking at pigs and petting the Turkey.  Sure is different than Southern California living. 

Then they headed back to pick me up and we drove all the way home.  We had a great time and I can’t wait to come back!