Sunday July 21, 2002 – We got up today around 8:30 and had a mini-continental breakfast in the hotel before packing up and heading south along US 101 to San Louis Obispo. It was a relatively short drive and after a snack in the car we arrived in San Louis Obispo and stopped at the Chamber of Commerce. We picked up some brochures on things to do in the area, most of which took place in Grover Beach, down 101 about 15 minutes. It took us a while to find the right beach but when we did we encountered a nice seaside town with lots to do. Everyone except Mom was interested in riding ATVs on the sand dunes so we found one of the local rental shops, got our gear and headed down onto the state beach where we got our ATVs and instruction. Unlike our east coast beach experiences here they had us drive right on the beach and park in the sand, in fact Mom got the suburban stuck in the sand and had to get some help getting it out when she got a bit too far off the beaten track, it was definitely a new experience. We spent an hour cruising about up and down over the sand dunes; I think it’s a great way to see the dunes compared to our experiences climbing them in Indiana. At four our one hour rental was up and we returned our ATVs the owner of the rental company was nice enough to take a family photo of us on them first though. When we went back to the shop to return our equipment and pick up our deposit we asked where the best place for some Mexican food in town was and they recommended Old Juan’s Cantina which was a great spot for us and served us some pretty good Mexican in a fairly authentic atmosphere. Mom and Josie had horseback riding (on the beach) reservations for 5:30 so we hustled and got them to Pacific Dunes Ranch where they got set for a two hour ride that they said they really enjoyed, although it did make them a bit sore. While they were riding we drove back to San Louis Obispo and checked into the hotel, then drove back to pick them up. We stopped at Marie Calendar’s to get a pie for desert, they had no seating left so we were able to agree on chocolate cream and bought a whole pie which we all ate once we got back to the hotel. I was not personally impressed with the pie, I much preferred Baker’s Square French Silk. We were all pretty tired from the beach riding so we all got to sleep fairly quickly and planned to sleep in a bit the next day before heading down to Malibu.
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