The Wonderful World of San Luis Obispo, California, San Luis Obispo, California

While I travel a fair amount, I don’t always feel a kinship with the places I go. But sometimes, there’s just this jolt, this realization that this place is somewhere magical. Somewhere I could be. San Luis Obispo (let’s just call it SLO, shall we?) is one of those rare places for me.

Ready for another girl’s trip, I grabbed my compadre, Lori, and headed once again up California’s coast. We were excited to get away for a long weekend…until we hit mega traffic in LA. Ugg. It’s the only thing stopping me from going to Central Coast more! After spending two hours in miserable traffic, we sped up and made it to our new traditional stop: Figueroa Mountain Brewery in Los Olivos. We discovered it on last year’s trip to Central Coast, so now it’s an indicator that we only have about another hour on our journey.

Lucky me for being a travel blogger: The City of SLO hooked us up with a comped room at Apple Farm Inn (in exchange for media coverage). This place is right off of the interstate and couldn’t be cuter with its quaint country charm. We were greeted with a glass of wine (hello!) and chocolate chip cookies, which ain’t a bad way to start a vacation! The room exceeded my expectations: it was enormous and didn’t feel like a hotel at all. It even had an electric fireplace for instant ambience, as well as the beautiful croaking of bullfrogs in the nearby Millhouse to lull us to sleep. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).