A Little Taste of SLO and Avila Beach

San Luis Obispo is one of my top five places to visit in California.  It's close to the beach, it has beautiful scenery, fantastic restaurants and bars, phenomenal shopping and is total wine country now.

If you're ever looking for a fun place to hang out for the weekend in Cali, SLO is it.  

This past weekend was the state finals for FFA.  We headed down because Dominic coaches a Dairy Evaluation Team.  Always a great excuse for the rest of us to tag along and visit our cousins/friends that live there.

SLO was experiencing record highs {in the 90's!}, lucky for us.  We headed out a day early just so we could take advantage of the warm weather.  Avila Beach is about a 20 minute car ride from SLO and is a must do, especially if the weather is cooperating.

The water's not warm but the kids didn't seem to mind....

I plopped down on the beach towel for the duration, rather than dip in the water....but that didn't keep the kids from body-slamming me with their cold, wet bodies......

The wind normally kicks up at Avila at around 2ish so this is always a prime time to crab some lunch at one of our favorite spots...Custom House, right across the street from the beach.

A nice refreshing shrimp louis salad for me...

The next day, the FFA competition took place at Cal Poly.

Here, the officials were explaining the reasons to the competitors of why the heifers and cows were placed in the order they were placed in.....one through four.  If you're not familiar with this competition, the only way I can think to explain it is, it's kind of like a beauty competition for cows....they're judged on confirmation, udder placement, teat placement, top line, etc.

During our stay with our cousins, we had ample time for peaceful walks.  One morning Paige and I decided to explore and take the resident dog, Sandy, for a walk.....she actually took us for a walk, she knew just where she was going and would trot up ahead, stop, turn and wait for us to catch up.

The only issue is that these weekends seem to go entirely too quick.

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Wedding Crashers

This past weekend, we headed down to San Luis Obispo {SLO} with family, to visit  other family.  SLO is one of my favorite towns around.  It's beautiful, near the coast, not too hot, ever, wineries all around, crisp fresh air and it's nicknamed SLO not only because of its initials, but because of its slow paced life.  

There are no drive-thrus in SLO.  Nope, not even a drive-through Starbucks!  It's a take your time kind of place and I like it.

Whenever we're in SLO, we usually stay at the Embassy Suites.  Probably one of my favorite places to stay with family.  Full breakfast is included with your stay every morning and a free 'cocktail hour' is also included every evening with snacks and cocktails, beer and wine.  It's like they never want you to leave the hotel....and they make it easy not to.

Upon arrival Saturday afternoon, they informed us a wedding would be taking place in the atrium, which is the common area that all the rooms look down on.

When my kids and their cousins caught wind of this, they were giddy with excitement.  This would be the first wedding my kids have ever 'attended'.  

Totally felt like wedding crashers.

The balcony to our room overlooked the atrium, perfect viewing.  The bride made her late entrance from the glass elevator, just above her awaiting guests.  Paige was speechless.....I think she wanted the dress.

Cousins came over from their room to watch the ceremony, patiently awaiting the big and "hopefully long" kiss.  Yep, that's all they wanted to see.  Fifteen minutes later, they were satisfied with what they witnessed.

Then it was time for our night out.  The kids great grandma, Great Nonnie, was whom we came down to visit.  So off to meet her at her home then out to dinner.

Have you ever been a Wedding Crasher?

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. I love to hear from you! Have a fantastic day!
 
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Hanging Out In San Luis Obispo

Every year for the past eight years, we've spent the first weekend in May in San Luis Obispo.  Dominic coaches the Petaluma FFA dairy judging team and this is the weekend of the state finals held at Cal Poly.

We motor homed it down and parked at our cousin's and good friend's house, the Silaccis.  Rich manages the dairy at Cal Poly and both he and Dominic are Cal Poly alumni, so our trips down to San Luis Obispo always come with good memories re-lived for them. 

On day one, we borrowed our friend's truck and drove down town to walk a bit and have some lunch.  We headed over to the San Luis Obispo Mission.  This is where my in-laws were married so it was fun to tell the kids this fact while we were exploring it.

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Cal Poly Dairy Classic Sale and the SLO Bar Scene

Another portion of our San Luis Obispo trip included the annual Cal Poly Dairy Classic Show and Sale.  This was held on Friday night at the Cal Poly Dairy and is a fundraiser for the Cal Poly Dairy Science Department. World class dairy cows, heifers and calves are up for auction.

As soon as we arrived, kids in tow, we found out Bryce and Paige's little cousins had just left to go back to their house {which is only 4 minutes away}.  Rich, their dad and Dominic's cousin is the dairy manager at Cal Poly.  You might remember Rich in one of my previous posts, 'Farmers on Summer Vacation'.  Anyway, Bryce and Paige were invited to go over to the house to play with their cousins and were VERY excited to do so.

Rich welcomes everyone to the sale and gets the show on the road.

It's always fun to visit Cal Poly because we get to say hi to our home town kids that happen to be attending Cal Poly at the time.   Here's Lianne walking up this beautiful red Holstein up for auction.

 Hi Lianne!

We also said hi to Sam,

and Kellie, both of whom were on the Petaluma FFA Dairy Judging ChampionshipTeam that Dominic coaches.

We stayed at the sale for an hour or so.

Before the sale begins, they have a BBQ dinner for everyone.  Here I am with my blogging buddy, the Dairy Goddess who was also at the sale.

After one last look at the dairy cows, we headed over to pick up the kids.  But when we arrived at the house, the kids were having SO much fun with their cousins, they didn't want to leave and begged to spend the night.  Well, they got the okay from us.

Sooo, what's a couple of parents to do with an overnight babysitter {thank you Heather!}, staying in a college town?  Yep, hit the downtown bar scene.  Off to Bull's Tavern, a bar that was frequented by Dominic and his friends when he attended Cal Poly many years ago......always good to relive fun memories, right?

 OH, and look who we ran into!  The Dairy Goddess and Kris!

And I learned something from my blogging buddy on this outing to Bull's......

That Madras are GOOD!

Talk about feeling, shall we say mature.  The mid range age of bar hoppers in this college town {or any college town}  is 23 or so.  But it was fun just the same. 

Good times in SLO!

We also ran into Jim and Jen, whom Dominic went to Cal Poly with and happened to be out and about on this Cal Poly Classic weekend.  Fun to catch up with them.

After Bull's, we walked a couple blocks to Marston's where we met Rich and friends.

Another crowded hang-out. 

And lastly, on our walk back, we walked past the infamous, Gumball Ally.  Quite colorful don't you think?   This entire ally way is covered in gum and has been this way since way before Dominic attended Cal Poly.....ahh the good memories just keep popping up.

Happy Monday!

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The Food at Firestone Grill and Farmer's Market of San Luis Obispo

If you're thinking of visiting San Luis Obispo sometime in the future, including a Thursday night within the visit might be a fun idea.  Let me show you why.

We arrived in SLO last Thursday evening and after checking into our hotel, we headed downtown for a quick dinner.

Firestone Grill is a very casual indoor-outdoor restaurant.  Definitely kid-friendly.  You order at the counter inside and wait for your number to be called when your food is ready.

Inside, there's a sports bar type feel to the dining room.  TVs all around, a bar in the center {it is a college town after all} with a loud, fun atmosphere.  We chose to eat outside in the patio area instead.

Paige wanted a hot dog.  This is the adult version {we forgot to order the kid's size} but she ate almost the entire thing.

 A few french fries to go along with it.

I think Bryce's favorite food is a hamburger.  He orders it at every restaurant we go to.

I ordered this veggie burger and it was really good.  It came with all the fixing's including sprouts, which I really enjoyed.

Dominic, Dominic, Dominic.....the Monster Burger for him.....now I know where Bryce gets it!

After dinner we walked down the street to the SLO Thursday night Farmer's Market.  This is a HUGE Farmer's Market that's the length of more than a few blocks.  We needed the walk and the kids, of course wanted a little dessert. 

Typical Farmer's Market fair was found.

Bryce spotted these right away and chose one for his treat.

Chocolate covered marshmallow.

Paige wanted a cookie.  She found the biggest one she could at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory booth.  I had a bite or two of it, and it was super sweet. Half of it was covered in white chocolate.  We didn't let her eat the entire thing {in case you're wondering}.

After every one's appetite was satisfied, we headed back to Embassy Suites for the night to try and put these two sugar high kids to bed.  We don't deprive our kids of sugar all of the time, but boy, when they eat some, we sure notice the difference!

Another fun night in SLO! 

Happy Sunday!
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My Experience in San Luis Obispo

As most of you know, this past August I was fortunate enough to attend the AgChat Foundation inaugural social media conference in Chicago with the sponsorship of Dairy Farmers of America and Dairy Management Incorporated.   This conference was held with the purpose in helping 50-80 farmers, nationwide learn skills on how to better utilize social media {aka Facebook, Twitter and blogging} to tell our farm stories.

This past weekend I was asked by Dairy Farmers of America, who is also our cooperative for the dairy, to sit in on a panel along with Barbara Martin, aka Dairy Goddess, to share with California DFA Young Cooperators how and why we began our blogging journeys. This DFA, two day classroom session was part of the Cal Poly Dairy Symposium and Cal Poly Classic Sale in San Luis Obispo - DFA was one of the sponsors for this dairy event.

We began our four hour drive down to San Luis Obispo on Thursday afternoon, with farmers still hard at work along the way.  I thought these photos turned out pretty good while driving at 70 mph. {Dominic was driving}.

 Loved this windmill with the beautiful clouds surrounding it.

So Barbara's and my presentation was held in one of the meeting rooms at Embassy Suites on Friday morning.  Around 35 or so people attended.  Here's Barbara telling her story....

Bryce and Paige tagged along also.  They did very well as they sat in on the a.m. part of the meeting.

As I mentioned in Thursday's post, I felt a little nervous about speaking in front of group.....this is more Dominic's expertise....I just take photos, blog about things and converse with people online.  I was really anticipating feeling a lot like this guy....

But, I actually kind of liked it!  Who knew?   And I didn't throw up or pass out from holding my breath like I thought I might do....phew!

 
A great, new experience for me.  I love sharing blogging information with these young dairy farmers. And one of the bonuses to this meeting was being able to meet Barbara in person.  We follow each other online and feel like we know each other pretty well, but have never met in person.  It's always great to make that in-person connection.  And the Dairy Goddess is a ton of fun to party with, but more on that later.
 

Monica, from DFA was another super sweet person that I was able to meet her in person as well.  Monica had to leave Friday afternoon to fly back home so we only had a little time to chat, but I'm sure we'll meet again in the future sometime and I look forward to it :)

Update:  my Blogger photo uploader is back on track....finally!

Happy Saturday!

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