During the second week of March I realized that I had a week of Spring Break coming up the following week. Time was wizing by, and I had been hoping to make it down to a friend's wedding in Florida. Unfortunately, between time and funds that trip was not going to happen.
So it was on March 11 that we decided that we would take a short weekend trip to start off my Spring Break, then come back, work on homework and James would go to his classes. We chose Paso Robles as a destination because of the wine county. We have not yet made it over to Napa, so this was our wine country warm-up.
On Friday morning we realized that while we had a destination we had no plans. And since we were traveling over the weekend we knew we needed to make arrangements for a place to stay. Since it is only March, which apparently means it is still cold many places, we chose to stay in hotel. My task for this trip was to find and book a hotel. I had about an hour to look at our options around San Simeon, Morro Bay and Paso Robles area for anything cheap, but not skeezy. This was a large area, and before James had left to class he suggested Motel 6 and said, "Honey, I know you'll find somewhere nice."
So the pressure was on to make this a nice trip, and the proper location of the accommodation was key to this. I decided that we could probably do a little better than Motel 6 and broadened the budget to $100. After looking at Google maps I realized that staying by the ocean would be a real treat. I figured it would be expensive, but also knew that it was the off season, so there were probably deals to be had. I made several calls, looked at the maps, and finally found a great little, independent hotel.
Bayfront Inn was the little gem that I found. It's an older building, but updated and clean, and right across from the bay. At $83 out the door, this was a steal. And on top of that when we arrived to check in our room was upgraded to the king-size bed, with private jacuzzi.
Morro Bay is a lovely little town to visit. That weekend there was a Chili Cook-off that was so popular they ran out of food and drink. We meandered around and found a lovely Farmer's Market where we picked up some snacks for the room. We head back toward the bay to find some food and found a great lunch spot called Hofbrau Restaurant. This is where we took this photo.
Later that night we watched the sun set over the ocean and walk around Morro Rock that you see in the photo.
The next morning we woke up and knew that we had to get over to Paso Robles to check out at least one winery. Before leaving we had breakfast at Frankie and Lola's, which had amazing, original, vegetarian selections. Our destination was Pipestone winery. A sustainable and organic, family-owned operation. This is one of the far-out wineries, meaning its not on the main drag, but totally a great find. We were the only ones there, which allowed us to try many wines and have a great conversation with our host.
It was 5pm already and we were hours from home. We knew that we would be driving through the dark, but were lucky that clocks had just rolled back that morning for Day Light Savings Time. On the way back we saw some amazing flower patches and drove for miles without seeing anyone else. The final last hour was of course the hardest and coldest, but we pushed through it and made it back to LA by 9pm. This trip was a major success.
Next weekend we'll be heading to Anza-Borrego to catch some more amazing wildflower patches.
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