It’s me Mr. JOC here to share a quick getaway post. If you have children attending K-12 in the US, they are likely to have their spring break these few weeks. Did you do anything fun with your children over spring break? With our young children, our typical destination is Monterey/Carmel area since it has fabulous restaurants for us and our kids love the aquarium. Last summer, we decided to take an adventure and take a short trip to explore San Luis Obispo area instead.
One of the things we love about living in the Bay Area is the variety of activities that you can do within 2-3 hour drive. You can go to Napa and enjoy the wine country, visit Tahoe and play in the snow, explore Yosemite National Park and its beauties, or go to Carmel and enjoy the beautiful ocean side sceneries. We’ve been to San Luis Obispo before but always driven past it or just grabbed a quick bite. This time we stayed for 2 nights.
Table of Contents
Where is San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo (SLO) is roughly 200 miles from the Bay Area and located halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. We chose to stay at the Embassy Suites in SLO because
- It’s located in the center of all the areas we wanted to visit.
- Indoor heated pool. Need I say more.
- Every room is a suite: separate living and bedroom. We can watch a movie while the children are sleeping.
- Free made to order breakfasts.
- Free Manager’s happy hour reception.
If you are looking a more relaxing hotel, we’ve stayed at Sycamore Spring Resort before and highly recommend it. Our family loves Onsen (hot springs) and it’s one of the few places we are aware of where you get your own private natural hot spring Jacuzzi.
Sea Venture Restaurant
After arriving in the area, the first meal we had was at Sea Venture Restaurant. Before I get into the food, I noticed during the trip that generally everything in the area cost 15-20% less than the Bay Area, including restaurants. At Sea Venture, we had quite a bit of food as we were famished. We started with deconstructed bruschetta, peach salad, and their award-winning clam chowder. The peach salad and the bruschetta were average but the clam chowder was delicious! It was creamy and really thick with large pieces of clam and goodies and what stood out for us was the strong heavy bacon kick.
For entree we had the shrimp and lobster vol-en-vent and their signature dish The Sea Venture. The vol-en-vent turned out much better than we expected. The lobster meat was tender and flavorful and matched really well with the sauce. The Sea Venture was not so memorable, I feel like our bouillabaisse recipe tastes better. For dessert we had the warm apple crostata and bananas’ foster sundae. Our kids were excited to see the sundae lit up with a ring of fire. For wine we had the Tolosa Chardonnay which was creamy with hints of peach and cranberries.
While we were at dinner, we caught an amazing sight. Seated right next to window and we were able to see Shearwaters migrating through the Pismo Beach. It was an amazing sight seeing tens of thousands of birds flying through the area and chasing the poor fish that didn’t get eaten by the dolphins. The children were super excited to see dolphins in the wild so close to the shore!
Firestone Grill
Besides Sea Venture, we also ate at legendary Firestone Grill in downtown SLO which was recommended on the Chowhound board. On our previous trip through SLO, the line was 50 people deep and couldn’t wait so we were glad we finally got to try it on this trip. Their tri-tip sandwich was juicy and flavorful and the ribs were yummy. Maybe my hope was too high so I would say it was a good meal, but I wouldn’t say it’s amazing. For dinner the next night we ate at Buona Tavola in downtown SLO. They have a beautiful heated patio in the back that is perfect for a summer meal. The food tasted pretty good, but the plating can be improved. Every dish came out looking like a mount of food with cheese spread on top.
Sausalito Canyon Winery
Besides eating, what else did we do? Well, we visited a few wineries! Central California wines are getting more and more popular so we went to Sausalito Canyon based on our friend’s recommendation. Sausalito Canyon specializes in Zinfandel and to tell you the truth, it’s the one varietal I was not familiar with. I didn’t have high expectations before the tasting but I was really surprised the wines were superb! The wines had bright fruit flavors and were super smooth. My favorite was the Muchacho, a mix of Tempranillo, Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon. While we were at Sausalito Canyon, we were recommended Autry Cellars and their wines. Autry Cellars produces very limited cases (less than 100) of each wine and tasting room is quite small. But don’t let the small size fool you, the wines are fantastic and the tasting is only $5!
San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum
Since it’s a family trip, we did plenty of children’s activities as well including visits to the San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum. It’s fun for children between the age of 3-8, children older than 8 could find the museum’s displays and activities a bit too young. The museum has a lot of hands on display that children can play with as well as an area upstairs for play and pretend. Besides the museum, we spent some time at Avila Beach and relaxed in the sun. What I really like about the beaches in the area is that parking is really close by. We were able to park practically right next to the beach so it was easy to unload and load our tents and gears. There are several small shops along the beach and we stopped by a local ice cream shop after playing in the sun.
Morro Bay
On our last day, we visited Morro Bay and walked around the area. It’s a very cute seaside town with lots of small shops and eating options. We debated whether to go since it’s a bit out of our way, but we were really happy that we decided to go in the end. The best part about Morro Bay is its beach. The waves are no more than 6 inches high because a large breakwater blocks most of the wave. We felt really safe with our little ones running in and out of the ocean not having to worry about them being swept away by currents. If you have little ones, I highly recommend Morro Bay if they love playing in the ocean.
It was a fun and memorable trip and we’ll definitely visit San Luis Obispo area again this summer! Let us know if you know great places for families to visit in California! Till next time…
Full Disclosure: Just One Cookbook was not compensated by any restaurants/hotels/shops/stores/wineries for this post.
Looks like you had lots of fun and lots of good food, look at those pictures I am envious as its so gloomy and cold now here
Thanks so much for sharing all these great pics and reviews – it looks beautiful there and so many fun and yummy places to go 🙂
How awesome!! I really need to move out of this landlocked midwest! 🙂 The Bay area is beautiful… you are so lucky to live there.
Loved seeing your family enjoy our beautiful Central Coast…so much to see and do here. You hit many of our favorite spots. We think you should consider coming back to visit during your Christmas break and join our large Japanese family in our annual Mochitsuki celebration. 3 generations of family – soon to be 4 (first grandchild on the way) joining together for this tradition makes for the most amazing day filled with family, friends, food, laughter and love. Come join us!
Hi Terrilea! You live in such a beautiful place! 🙂
You do mochitsuki!!! WOW! You have the “usu” and everything? How wonderful! I haven’t done or seen mochitsuki for more than 10 years (could be 20 years!)… I love fresh mochi just made… ahhh so good. I can eat it all day. Thinking of it makes me drool and crave to eat some. Thank you so much for inviting me. That’s so sweet and kind of you.
Congratulations on soon to be 4 generations of family! You must be very excited! 🙂
I had to laugh, because like Bobby and me, the most important part of vacationing is the food! Bobby spends more time researching where to eat than what to see. Ha ha. Looks like y’all had A LOT of food to enjoy and some great food at that. The food from Sea Venture looks amazing. What fun time! Thanks for sharing Nami!
Hello Nami and Mr. JOC 🙂 I was so looking forward to this post. We are very familiar with most of the stops in between the Bay Area and Santa Barbara and even further down the coast since one of our boys is currently attending college in SB and his brother attended college years ago in Southern CA. We’ve made several trips down to visit and lately have been exploring more areas like Paso Robles, SLO, and Pismo. Firestone Grill is a fun place to go if you have older kids. Since SLO is a college town I think it attracts that crowd (and their families!). We always stop when we are with our son. We are in love with Avila Beach and plan to go back on our next trip down in June. Thanks for the winery recommendation. Wine tasting is also on the itinerary! I love your travel posts!
Thank you for your comment, Valerie! Now I have a personal travel guide in SLO area. 🙂 I’d love to know all the good places to eat and places to visit. I’ll follow you closely on Instagram when you go there in June!
All I can say is…I miss CA with a vengeance at times, and this is one of them. I love staying at Embassy Suites…they are so very perfect for family vacations. I love their breakfast and it’s such a blessing when you can start your day on a full tummy. Less cranky kids and such a time saver. Looks like you guys had a wonderful vacation. It’s nice Mr JOC to see you so active here 🙂 Looks like you guys had fun.
Looks like a fabulous place to vacation – I’ll have to remember that for future reference. We don’t make it out to the West Coast often, but I would like to spend more time there.
What a great and informative post – [smiling] nice to have a Mr JOC doing his usual absolutely wonderful ‘job’ of the area! Have always enjoyed that particular region of California when life has taken me there and so loved to experience it now . . . but most of all loved that wistful photo of your beautiful daughter: as modern terms seem to say : ‘That is a keeper’ 🙂 !
Thank you so much Eha! Your words are always too kind! 😀
So much good food. And I love looking at your kids photos, they are so so adorable 🙂
Your hotels sound wonderful my friend, I am so glad you had a magnificent time 😀
Family time and holidays!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
You live in such a great part of the world! So much to do. I’ve never been to SLO — sounds like a delightful destination. What a fun time you had — thanks for sharing with us!
I’m glad you’ve had a lovely time away as a family and it looks like you packed a lot into your visit. I do like the sound of the hotel with all the rooms being suites – we’ve had those holidays before where you’re all in one room and then you put the kids to bed and have to spend the rest of the night stumbling round in the dark – a suite puts an end to all of that xx
Charlie, you made me laugh… We did have those times that we only booked one room (kids were small back then) and we were in the darkness. Only option was balcony (if there was) or staying quiet inside while baby and toddler were sleeping and we were so scared we would wake them up. Or else our night was over… Suites are definitely nice (but I end up working most of the time these days haha).
Here in Canada we have something called March break … a week off for grade school and high school students. A perfect opportunity to go somewhere warm while it’s still cold and sometimes snowy outside.
Looks like your little ones had lots of fun activities to enjoy and good food for the adults.
OMG I AM FROM SLO County!!! So exciting to see San Luis Obispo getting featured! Please please let me know if you visit again, I can recommend so many wonderful places to eat! And, I’m so glad you made time to visit Morro Bay. The Rock really is the best beach in the county…
Also, I wanted to share my blog with you, http://thatumamilife.wordpress.com, not as a naked plug for traffic but because your website has really played a part in enabling me to cook the Japanese cuisine I love so much, and that adds so much to my life. I recently started up Umami Life in the hopes of promoting Japanese food and bento-making amongst the 20-something clean eating crowd; there’s such a resurgence of interest in clean, healthy eating and a balanced lifestyle, and I want people to feel as strongly about the Japanese diet as they do about, for example, Paleo.
Take care, and thanks again!
Thank you Liz! I’d love to know which restaurants local people enjoy! We’d definitely go back, maybe this summer again after coming back from Japan.
I’m so happy to hear you cook Japanese food at home and make bento! I saw some of your bento and they look so delicious! Bento is a great way to re-think about portion, nutrition (it’s so obvious what’s missing) and the presentation of food. A lot of people think it’s difficult, but as long as you have some leftover, or know how to cook/prepare some dishes, all you need to do is to pack nicely. I’m happy that you’re promoting Japanese food and bento – beyond typical Japanese food people think of. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your blog and for your comment! 🙂
Thank you for responding! I think that’s absolutely right in regards to portion and balance as well as the misconception that bento-making is irreproachably difficult. Yesterday, a good friend sent me pic of her newly ordered bento from Amazon–an adorable, modern orange bento–so I think Umami Life is already doing some good in the world! I sent this friend your website so she can get started properly.
Thanks again, and do let me know when you head back down to SLO!
Hi Liz! How wonderful that your friend was inspired to start making bento by your website!! AWESOME!! It’s always hard to start something new, but your friend has YOU who can help personally. 😉 Thanks so much for referring my site to your friend!