SLO and easy

Every year when we visit Jon's parents for Christmas, we always end the trip with a few days in San Luis Obispo. There's nothing truly special about the town, but we both love it, and its become "our place."

Normally we stay at the Garden Street Inn - its in downtown and has the best breakfasts and cutest rooms with teddy bears on every bed. Unfortunately, they're not dog friendly - and we were really excited to introduce Ringo to one of our favorite places. Instead we stayed at a little place that hardly bears mentioning - really. It was just a place to sleep.

It was a little chilly while we were in SLO, but Jon and I were prepared. Ringo wasn't. We had to get him something to keep his little Southern Californian body warm. I've always wanted to get him a GAP hoodie, but Jon has always vetoed the idea. As he watched his little boy shivering, Jon finally relented. How cute is our little prepster?





Our favorite SLO tradition is attending the Thursday night Farmer's Market. Besides the fresh produce there's always amazing dinner food! I grabbed a bite from F.McClintock. The line proceeded allllll the way down the street.


F.McClintocks specializes in Barbeque, but that's not the only reason the crowds flock to the show. There's singing, yelling, and some of the best lemonade you'll have!


I had the #2, which consisted of barbeque pork, a beef rib, and a chicken kabob. There was definitely more food than I could handle!


We also love the wine bar "Taste" which has a very unique way of wine tasting which works like a debit card. You put money on your card, and then put the card into a machine which reads your balance. You are then able to push a button above the wine of your choice and taste - it's like an automat for wine tasting! We went each night we were there and brought a bottle back to the room. There's nothing like the Central Coast for inexpensive wine picks!


The last time we were in SLO we found a place called Novo, and we enjoyed it so much, we had to return.


Set upon the creek, amidst light strewn trees, Novo specializes in Tapas, or small plates. By this time Ringo was exhausted, so it was up to Jon and I to indulge.





We began with a trio of three cheeses - a goat cheese, a danish blue, and manchego. The fruit and nuts complemented the cheese and we both agreed the goat was our favorite!


Then came the mango avocado spring rolls. These are supposed to be a house specialty, but were only ehh in our book.


We rounded out our meal with Malaysian Chicken and Toasted Coconut Curry - but by this time my soju cocktail had kicked in and the camera was forgotten - I really must learn to take better drunk pictures. Sufficient to say the chicken was excellent and we greedily fought over the last mouthfuls.

We brought home some chocolate mousse cake for later and it was heavenly with our bottle of wine. What a nice, relaxing trip!