Today we wanted to explore locally in San Luis Obispo and not spend too much time in the car so another day of walking.
When heading down to breakfast we locked our room (without a key it meant we resorted to using a quarter coin). Hans demonstrates below. It feels like a safe place so its a good thing we are not relying on too much room security.
The hostel in San Luis Obispo is a nice old building in a quiet nice neighbourhood.
Beautiful red leafed trees in the streets nearby.
We set out on foot for Laguna Lake on the other side of the freeway - we figured about 3-4 Kms - an easy stroll but a bit chilly (about 3 degrees). Frosty morning and some areas looked a bit slippery.
We passed the Amtrak railway station where we saw this guy carrying his bicycle across the tracks. He probably does it every day but it reminded us of Hanoi.
We met a man walking his dog and asked for directions to the lake and he pointed us to a path through a park parallel to South St, where we met a woman with a talking (read howling) dog, which we think was a husky.
By the time we got to Laguna Plaza we definitely needed a coffee. Of course, the usual suspects were available and not an espresso cafe in sight. So Di chose IHOP - International House of Pancakes.
We ordered bottomless coffee, which was quite good, and the smallest breakfast on the menu to share, which here means 2 eggs, 2 strips bacon and 2 pancakes. We could not finish it (it being our 2nd breakfast and really quite unnecessary but an interesting experiment).
After that we definitely needed more walking and Laguna Lake was nearby. Here is Hans next to Laguna Lake, a nice area where people cycle, jog, walk or take their dogs.
On the way back, we passed Madonna Inn, a place that looked right out of Las Vegas in the 70s.
The colour of the interior is predominantly pink. Even the guy doing maintenance had a pink ladder (at the right of the photo).
The story behind Madonna Inn - basically it's been in San Luis Obispo for 55 years and is still quite popular. Even John Wayne has stayed here. There was a photo inside with Mr Madonna and Mr Wayne.
Here is an overview of Madonna Inn...
Walking back towards town, we first followed a bike path then ended up following the creek for a short while which ended at Mission Square and the San Luis Obispo mission. Some background below...
San Luis Obispo mission is a beautiful old spanish style mission (of course) established 1772 as one of 21 missions between Mexico and San Francisco. King Carlos of Spain was trying to ensure a strong spanish foothold.
The main church building has 3 mission bells as per below.
A bit of story around the mission bells...
The interior of the mission church...
The walls inside were beautifully painted. Di really liked the painted birds, which were all different, some in flight.
Lunch was soup and salad at a local cafe before picking up the car for a drive towards the coast and Avila Beach at San Luis Obispo Bay.
We parked the car by the pier (actually 1 of 3 piers there) and wandered out to have a look and were met with a barking noise... seals, we thought. No, bigger. Sea lions and at least 6 of them. Some of them were lying in the sun on a part of the boardwalk that was lower and close to the water, with steps up to the actual boardwalk.
Here is Di halfway down those steps. The sea lions did not appreciate anybody too close to them. They emitted a barking sound and a threatening fast movement with their heads if you do. Oops, Di found out and jumped about 3 steps at once.
This guy was a bit of a poser...
Another lovely place, San Luis Obispo Bay. Here is a photo of the bay and some fishing boats taken from the boardwalk. They have about 30 commercial fishing boats here and a few people on the pier were sorting fish and seafood. Looked yummy but we think a whole flounder would have been too much of a challenge in the Hostel kitchen.
We then drove to the other side of the bay where we saw some shops and hoped for some ice cream. And boy, did we find it. The ice cream parlour had the most interesting flavors, Raspberry Tuffle Merlot, Blueberry cheese cake and motor oil!! Known as Dr Bernsteins Ice Cream lab. Hans had motor oil (best name we ever heard for an ice cream), which was lots and lots of chocolate and coffee with chocolate. Very very nice indeed. Being America, there was also lots of it. Di had a "tiny scoop" (ha!) of Raspberry Truffle Merlot. Good too.
Here is Hans outside the strip along Avila Beach
On the way home, we went via Ralph's to buy some groceries for making a pasta at the hostel and at the same time, we became Ralph's customers which means getting a Ralph's card and then discounts for future purchases, around 10% or more but it's still not cheap. Eating out seems to cost the same as eating at home but we missed home cooking.
We also filled up the car gas tank for the first time. Good discounts if you pay with cash rather than credit so that's what we did. A full tank for the Nissan is $40, or about A$1 per liter, a bit cheaper than Oz. Pay first at the register, fill up the tank afterwards.
The hostel had many more guests this night compared to last night. In fact, it was buzzing when we arrived. We also moved to our new private room, $5 more expensive per night, but with 4 beds including 2 bunks and perhaps twice the space of the room from the first night and a proper mattress and base bed we are very happy. All good. Another great day.
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