SLO: Week Four - Wrapping up January

Fifteen years ago, Carol and I talked about where we would move after retirement to escape the harsh winters of Minnesota.  No place was ever good enough.  If winter was warm enough for Carol, summer was too hot for me.  We no longer talk of moving away from a place we love, from our children and our grandchildren and from the many friends who grace our lives.  But if we did consider it, this month we found where we'd move.

The San Luis Obispo Museum of Art is a tiny gem that you must not miss if you visit here.

San Luis Obispo is a small city where you can look up at the night sky and see the stars.

After walking downtown for lunch and a visit to the museum, I said to Carol, "I always look at my watch at the beginning of a walk or a bike ride to see how long it will take.  Then I always forget to check my watch at the end."
"There's a lesson in that," she said.
"What?" I said.
"Don't look at your watch the first time.  Save a step."

On Monday, we took a fabulous hike on the Reservoir Canyon Trail (Look for Central Coast Hikes, then scroll down to Reservoir Canyon Trail for a good description of what we did.) It was perhaps the best hike of our stay.  It was without doubt the hardest, five miles round trip, much of it a very steep uphill and downhill.  The views at the summit were worth it.  Below us lay the entire city of San Luis Obispo.  To the west lay the Pacific, glittering in the sunlight.

 Just the beginning of the climb out of Reservoir Canyon

 No one knows how these sculptures got here,

halfway up a rugged climb.

 I think students from California Polytechnic Institute

(Cal Poly) had something to do with it.

 Unusual for a wilderness hike?  Yep.

 Reservoir Canyon hike, near the summit of Murray Hill

 At the summit, the Pacific glittering in the distance.

 A stone bench for a casual lunch 

and a break from the brisk winds at the summit.

 El Cerro San Luis and Bishop's Peak frame

the city below and the Pacific in the distance.

 A view from the peak of Murray Hill

The funny part of this outing was that after driving a few miles north and east out of town to reach the Reservoir Canyon trailhead on the eastern side of Murray Hill, when we reached the summit we faced west and saw our neighborhood almost directly below us.  Talk about taking the long way around!

Later in the week, we hiked the Bowden Ranch trail, which is essentially hiking to the peak of Murray Hill from near our neighborhood, which meant the trail just went straight up the hill.  It was quite demanding, and we didn't get very far.

Bowden Ranch:  Straight up...

 ...and straight down.

This morning Carol and I did something we have not done in many years.  We played tennis together.  I play more or less regularly, but Carol hasn't picked up a racquet in a long time.  It didn't take her long to get her stroke back.  We played outdoors, of course, surrounded by eucalyptus trees and dramatic hills.

On Wednesday, we put on our hiking shoes again and were out the door early.  We were to take a docent-led hike along the hilly Pecho Coast Trail to the Port San Luis lighthouse.  The trail is on property owned by Pacific Gas & Electric, and the only access is through these guided tours.  There were ten of us, plus our two volunteer docents, Ken and Paul.  There was spectacular scenery, as there always is, but the best stuff was the small world at our feet and around us on the trail.  Ken and Paul did an excellent job of drawing our attention to the beauty that passes you by if you don't know what to look for.  They knew the native (and non-native) vegetation, the local wildlife and local geology and were both enthusiastic and entertaining as they shared their knowledge with us.

 

Pecho Coast Trail

Port San Luis Light House

 

Lighthouse Keeper's View of the Pacific

 Lighthouse Living Room

 

The Fresnel Lens that 

guided ships to port.

Tank Farm Road
Ken and Paul were also well-versed in local history.  We learned that early in the twentieth century, there was quite an oil drilling industry to the east of the area, around Bakersfield.  Pipelines ran from the oil fields to San Luis Obispo and neighboring towns, where it was stored in hundreds of tanks until it completed its journey to Port San Luis, where the crude was loaded onto tankers.  So many oil tanks were clustered in an area just south of San Luis Obispo that the road running past them was given the name of Tank Farm Road.  Carol and I have driven Tank Farm Road almost daily while we were here and wondered more than once about the peculiar name.

Unical

Ken and Paul provided some further insights on the oil years of the region.  Unical was the oil company working the area and their approach to the job was a cautionary tale for why government regulation is and always will be a necessity.

In building a pipeline, you need to seal the joints where pipe section meets pipe section.  Unical didn’t bother with that.  Their flippant attitude was that the oil came from the ground, so some of it returning there was no big deal.

It was a big deal for the residents of Avila Beach, where after a while a barefoot stroll along the coast would leave one’s feet coated with black sludge.  It was common as late as the end of the twentieth century that local residents had a container of turpentine at the entry of their homes and you were expected to clean your feet before entering.

There was a lawsuit, which Unical fought mightily, and lost.  In the late 1990’s, the entire town of Avila Beach was razed to the ground.  A giant excavation project was undertaken to extract the oil from the ground.  When it was completed, they rebuilt the town from the ground up.  Today it a charming seaside village with sidewalk cafés, shops, a boardwalk and a wide, inviting beach.

Our Last Night in SLO

Friday night in downtown SLO was "Art After Dark" night.  The art museum and several local businesses and galleries feature exhibits and the opportunity to meet local artists.  There's wine and cheese (and chocolate!).  Everyone turns out, and downtown is alive with activity.

And finally...

Village Host Pizza & Grill

We both succumbed to an optical trick.

Do you see a hidden word?

January is past.  It's time to leave the Central Coast, time to head for home.  What I will miss most about San Luis Obispo (the climate being a given) are the hills, the wineries and the blue skies.  I'm ready, however, to trade them in for our own home, our family, our friends and our neighborhood.