With all the travel restrictions, we watched YouTube videos about staycation. We developed a staycation itch, and we did just that during the labor day weekend.
Californians are blessed with the scenic Pacific coastline, which is within driving distances from the Bay Area. The wildfire situation has complicated outdoor activities. A few weeks ago, we cancelled a fishing class in Oakland due to the air quality becoming unhealthy to sensitive groups. Over the Labor day weekend, the weather and the air quality at airnow.gov were reasonably good. We chose Pismo Beach among a few other choices of staycation off the Pacific Ocean coastline.
We left home on Monday morning, and arrived at San Luis Obispo for lunch at Bon Temps Creole Cafe. We ordered Po-Boy and Muffalettas; the sandwich portions were good, the outdoor seating was comfortable, and most outdoor tables were occupied. After lunch, we swung by CalPoly. CalPoly has this “learning by doing” approach. It has developed a good reputation of churning out good computer science students to meet the insatiable job demands of many Bay Area companies. As much as I have heard good things and have positive working experiences with the graduates, the same cannot be said about its campus which is unimpressive, and disappointing.
Pismo beach is about a 10 minutes drive from San Luis Obispo. The Inn at the Cove offers good rates during the weekdays, has spacious rooms with clean hardwood floor and a balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean. At the balcony, we enjoyed the peaceful ocean view, interleaved with an almost non-stop gliding of seagulls and pelicans; and hundreds of birds resting on a few big rocks off the Pacific Ocean. The rocks are far enough, so the brown pelicans show up as many black spots on the rocks. Bird lovers should bring their binoculars to observe them. The outdoor swimming pool is right downstairs. We had the swimming pool just for ourselves for a while and it felt great. The pool was small but still good enough to get some exercise. We felt refreshed and took our time on the pool chaise doing nothing but reading some books.
Pismo Beach Pier Plaza (downtown) is less than 2 miles away. The downtown is lined with restaurants and shops. There are a continuous rows of hotels, inns and cottages overlooking the Pismo Beach. It is very lively and quite touristy. The beach is long and scenic. The intermittent ocean waves add to its charm. Even in this pandemic time, there were a good number of people on the beaches enjoying themselves. The family, the couple, the groups looked happy and relaxed. We went to the pier area to watch the beautiful sunset over the Pacific Ocean. Many seagulls and pelicans flew “in front of” the sun, but we were not able to freeze the scene with our camera. Pismo Beach seems a good place for beginner surfers, and there were a few of them on their surfboard waiting for the right waves to come. It was a nice walk to the end of the pier, which left us ready for dinner. We had a good dinner deal at a BBQ place afterwards.
Our hotel rates include breakfast in the morning. The breakfast is nothing extraordinary, but has a good variety and everything one would expect for breakfast. It gave us a good level of energy to stroll along the Pacific coastline, visiting Shell Beach, Dinosaur Caves Park and Pismo Beach. We saw more pelicans, there were so many of them that it actually smelled when we got too close to those rocks.
Watching the few travellers strolling on the soft sand along the beach, hearing the ocean waves, and appreciating the clams, oysters, mussels that get washed ashore, Pismo Beach is a beautiful place to be. We make a mental note that if we return for another staycation, we will pick a place with a balcony facing the ocean, and we can easily walk to the beach.
We took another dip at the hotel swimming pool before checking out. We stopped by at San Luis Obispo one more time and had lunch at Novo on Higuera Street, the busiest street in the town. The chicken satay and the wrap were pretty good; what we enjoyed the most was the spicy margarita with jalapeno and pear; we will be ready to return just for the drink. The waitress was very friendly and recommended us to visit the nearby Morro rock, formed 23 million years ago. Morro rock is quiet with fewer people, but does not leave a strong impression.
Pismo Beach is a great choice of staycation and a place to enjoy the ocean, the beach, the hotel and the food.
oliviatamccue 
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