Birthday Road Trip

I turned 30 last week and to celebrate I decided on taking a family road trip to the San Luis Obispo area (about 4 hours south of SF). It was a great way to mark the occasion, and it felt appropriate to do a final special something as a family of three.

The central coast of California is beautiful! We were fortunate to have good weather and get a decent hotel room in Arroyo Grande through priceline.com ($70/night for a 2-star place--not my finest hotel deal, but it was fine). My Boy hadn't been in a hotel room since he was around a year old and had a great time jumping back and forth between beds. He also noted the hotel had a "yard" (=open areas with grass). Sorry City boy--some day!

We stopped in Monterey on the way down to check out the Dennis the Menace playground:







Here we are at Avila Beach near San Luis Obispo. It was a little windy, but that didn't stop us from spending nearly 3 hours there:



At the San Luis Obispo Children's Museum. My Boy told us he wanted the fire truck and police motorcycle pictured below (among other things) for his birthday:

We stopped at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on the way back. My Boy was fairly brave about the kiddie rides, especially the helicopter that went up and down. He rode it 4 times, making me feel confident a trip to Disneyland in the next year or so wouldn't be a waste; at least he'd like the Dumbo ride:

Eating highlights:

-Mo's Smokehouse BBQ in Pismo Beach--maybe the best ribs My Husband has had and a great shredded pork BBQ sandwich for me

-Ate twice at a McDonalds...with a Playplace!

-Taco Temple in Morro Bay seemed full of promise, but my giant chicken burrito was mediocre at best

Other stuff:

-Morro Bay Aquarium: a very dated, sad little place with a couple of retired performing seals and about a dozen tanks with local sea life. The all-seashells, all-the-time store across the street was quirky and very amusing

-We enjoyed just driving around and seeing what was up at Cal-Poly University, downtown San Luis Obispo, etc.

Happy birthday to me!