I have been in San Luis Obispo for several weeks. It is a special place. I can see why the students of Cal Poly want to stay when they graduate.

I arrived on Greyhound from Santa Barbara at 11:00 am. A nice smooth ride with only two very short stops. Once here it was a really short walk to the Hostel. Thank goodness cause, as I found out at the SB station, my two pieces of luggage weighed 49.5 and 56.2 lbs. I am supposed to be lightening my load, but seem to be getting more. I will change that while in SLO aka San Luis Obispo.

Once at the Hostel all the staff were waiting for me and we headed off to my welcoming luncheon. We walked with the Hostel dog in hot pursuit. About four blocks later we were at the Bistro, Buona Tavola: http://www.btslo.com/. Delicious. Northern Italian Cuisine. Most all had the specials. And we shared a wonderful bottle of red wine. It was such a cool way to get to know one another. We sat outside in the courtyard laughing and eating. There are pictures, but they are currently on a camera in Portland, Oregon. I will post them when they come back south.

I didn’t start working for a couple of days to give me a chance to acclimate. Nice.

There are three general shifts here:

The breakfast shift: Homemade sourdough pancakes made fresh daily with organic free-trade coffee. This shift includes starting the loads of sheets from the previous nites guests and taking any incoming calls.

The cleaning shift (this is the one everyone starts off on for the first couple of weeks): All beds remade with clean sheets. The wash hung….I had never hung the was on clothes lines before that first shift here – getting back to basics and all. Bathrooms cleaned and floors swept. Of course being the anal retentive person that I am I also have spent much time cleaning the corners and oiling the furniture.

The Hostel is closed btwn 11 and 4:30 so after the cleaning shift everyone is about their own business of other jobs or play.

At 4:30 the Hostel reopens and that shift consists of getting the sheets off the line and folding them. Checking in guests and making sure everything runs smoothly during check-in time.

Here are a few pictures of the Hostel…

There is so much to do in SLO. There are several beaches all within 15 miles of the Hostel. Avila, Shell Beach and Pismo are for laying out and surfing. Morro Bay and Montana de Oro are more majestic and full of nature. So far my favorite central coast place has been Montana de Oro. I have always loved Big Sur more than any place I’ve traveled. BUT Montana de Oro may have replaced it if not tied with it. I will write about it in my next post.

On the other side of SLO are the foothills. Lots of easy and moderate hiking. These peaks are called the Nine Sisters of San Luis Obispo County. http://santalucia.sierraclub.org/ninesis.html.

One of the hikes is called Cerro San Luis Peak. It has a concrete “M” on it, sorta like the HOLLYWOOD sign, and people hike to the top of the top of the letter and sit or take photos. They can see hawks and such flying below them. It is a very SLO thing to do. I have not done this, because of my very weak ankle (but I have played volleyball in a vineyard, so maybe it is just an excuse, hmmm, maybe I will analyze that later or maybe not).

Of course there is plenty to do in San Luis Obispo…

The town was built around a creek that runs through it. There are bars, novelty shops and restaurants that run along the river. Children go onto the rocks and play in the flowing river while their parents watch or join in. There are many people who go there to read or to do homework. It is a fun and serene place to hang out with many benches and rocks to sit or lay on.

There are concerts, much like Knoxville’s Sundown in the City, every Friday nite at the creek. Also every Thursday there is an evening Farmer’s Market downtown. This is NOT your usual Farmer’s Market, but a party/festival. It goes from 6pm till 9pm and fresh farm food purchasing is just one of the activities. There is music, all kinds of food vendors, and all the townies out for an evening of meet and greet.

I have been riding one of the Hostel’s bikes around town quite a bit. One of my co-WWOOFers has taken me on several exploring rides. Here are a few of those pictures (oh and I’m volunteering  painting sets while I’m here at the Community Theatre that is in this collage)…

Well that is about it for tonite.

My next post I will show pictures of Montana de Oro State park and several of the beaches around SLO…