Flying Flags Resort and Avila Beach are SO freaking beautiful we were reluctant to leave our campsite at all. A month staying in a deck chair looking out at that view wouldn’t have been enough!
But we had work to do that night – we needed to hit the bars (and of course the Barnes & Noble!) on Higuera Street, San Luis Obispo.
Why would we need to do that when we’ve already written the scenes set there and the book would be out the very next day? Because one of our missions for this road trip was to bring these locations to readers - and anyone else who might be interested in these iconic but largely off-the-radar California settings.
San Luis Obispo, or SLO, or just “Slow” – dates from 1772 and is halfway between LA and San Francisco, a “Spanish” mission town – meaning built on the backs of Native Americans enslaved by the Catholic padres. It is part of the California Missions Trail, and a whole lot of California schoolkids have visited it as part of the “Let’s go see all 21 missions this summer!” road trip that educationally-minded parents like mine subjected – I mean treated – us to.
It’s also known as a hell of a party town, thanks a lot to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (my Huntress Moon hero FBI agent Matthew Roarke’s alma mater). Higuera Street was quiet (on a Monday night, after students had left for the summer) but we had no trouble imagining it on a packed Saturday night, where a college girl could disappear without anyone noticing…
The Spanish architecture is gorgeous, the towering, fairy-lit ficus trees create a stunning canopy over the pedestrian-friendly downtown, the boutiques are arty, funky and fabulous, and the bars are themed –and many of them have back decks overlooking a sylvan creek.
It is a visual kaleidoscope and we took so many photos there I don’t know where to start, but hopefully these will give you enough of a taste to put it on your list, if you ever take that California trip.
We were taken around by local longtime friends for a perfect night out – and we truly hope we’ve done the experience justice in the book!
We returned to Flying Flags for a dreamy night’s sleep lulled by the Pacific Ocean.
Well, we would have been lulled if not for this guy, who started yelping when we were on the pier for lunch…
And proceeded to yelp all night long. Avila Bay apparently is a natural sound conductor and I’m sure they could hear Boris all the way down to the Mexico border.
But you know what? There are worse things than being serenaded by a sea lion.
All part of the RV adventure.
— Alex
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