San Luis Obispo

I have to say the San Luis Creek Lodge was a bit over the top for me. It looked good on the Internet. When I saw the fake Tudor and the suit of armor out front I started to wonder. Tassels on the shower curtains were bad enough, but tassels on the night light definitely seemed like overdoing it.







And do I really need a copper tub of firewood for the fake (gas) fireplace? It wouldn't have been so bad if there was any kind of conceptual integrity, but it just seemed to be a random assortment of embellishments. Reminds me of some software I know. To me, if you want to be elegant and classy you need to give at least some thought to simplicity and clean lines. Not that it has to be so Spartan that it's sterile.

They list it as a bed and breakfast, but it's really just a small hotel that happens to include breakfast. The name is also a bit misleading - the creek might be around somewhere but I never saw it.

Don't get me wrong, it was a nice place. The room was good. I'm sure some people would like all the doodads.

San Luis downtown is nice enough. The high end shops don't do much for me. And as far as I'm concerned, once the garden gnome stores and interior decorating shops move in it's all downhill from there. Not to mention shops like "EcoBambino" - supposedly environmentally friendly crap, I mean stuff, for kids.

I wandered through the Apple store. The only thing I hadn't seen were the new Shuffle and Nano. Interesting that they reverted to buttons on the Shuffle. The Nano is slick, almost like a piece of jewelry. No tassels on Apple products!

Past the shops, the mission and the walkway along the creek are very nice. That's where I'm sitting now. Very quiet and peaceful. A world away from Apple and Victorias Secret. (Do they put those side by side intentionally?) Of course, I'm typing this on my iPhone so it's not like I've left that world.

For lunch I went to Novo. I picked it because it had a wonderful outdoor patio overlooking the creek. The sun was shining, the creek was burbling, the food was good and I was sipping on a California Chardonnay. Sweet.