This past weekend I took Amaleah and Shayley to San Luis Obispo and we had an amazing time(slideshow above)!! SLO is where I spent about 5 years getting my Nutritional Science degree and so it was a great time for me too to reconnect with some "old roots" ;-). We arrived safely on Friday night in a downpour of rain and the girls were so excited to check into the hotel . After a good night's sleep we had breakfast and then jumped in the car to head to Cal Poly SLO, just up the road. I gave them a mini tour of the campus (Rec Center, School of Agriculture, student housing/dorms, University Union Square, Dining Halls, football stadium), with the sneaky hope that they would fall in love with this place and want to apply to college here someday, haha ;-). Then we drove into downtown SLO and saw the San Luis Obipso Mission. Ama is studying California missions right now so she was particularly interested in seeing it. We took a tour through the mission and spent time reading about how the indians and the early settlers lived back then. What a beautiful place with so much rich history of our state! We headed downtown and crossed the creek which was roaring b/c of all the recent rainfall. And what would a trip to SLO be without seeing the famous Bubble Gum Alley?! This is a long narrow passageway behind one of the shops in town that's literally covered in gum. People have written messages in gum, drawn pictures in gum and it's been there for over 20 years, I'll just leave that one to your imagination ;-). We went in a couple shops and then grabbed some lunch at a cafe with delicious 'natural' foood. Ama and Shayley really had their hopes set on going in the jacuzzi at the hotel so we went back and changed into bathing suits for some wet fun. That afternoon we spent time in our Mother-Daughter memory books i had bought them for Christmas. We had fun writing down some special memories, our 'firsts' and 'favorites'. We'll continue to work on them as they provide time to bond and create some really special memories together. Finally, we walked down to the famous Apple Farm and had dinner and did some shopping at their fabulous boutique shop(s). They have a Mill House on the property too that was fun to visit while we tasted their homemade ice-cream and apple cider, mmmm. It was a beautifully scenic drive home to L.A. with the green hills and wildflowers coming into bloom, breathtaking. The girls continually thanked me throughout the trip for taking them on a special weekend and asked if they could come back, that makes me smile :-) and we shared so many great moments together that will last a lifetime. We're already planning our next trip.... San Fran maybe??
