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We started the new year with a LEGOLAND vacation! I am a native San Diegan, born and raised, but have moved away after I got married. Coming back to San Diego to visit LEGOLAND California is especially nostalgic to me as I used to work in marketing and LEGOLAND used to invite me to visit them for free every year, before I even had kids!

I don't get free tickets anymore, but as a mom, I still try to find deals online to save money. We took advantage of the veteran discounts for the hotel stay and attraction tickets since my husband is a veteran. If you're a military family, make sure you check the military or veteran rates first. Sometimes LEGOLAND does offer deals on their main LEGOLAND website that is for everyone and not just military families like occasionally the $39 kid's ticket deal or free kids tickets with adult ticket purchase. I suggest taking the extra time to shop around and compare to find the best deals. If you have the DD-214 form, you can upload it to GOVX.com and oftentimes get a better deal for veterans for many different attractions. We currently don't live very close to a military base so online options is what we focus on. When I was a military wife, before my husband finished his last military term, we were able to get really good deals on Disneyland tickets at the Navy base when we lived in San Diego!

 (This is not me in the picture, by the way. I was taking a picture of the LEGO tree from a distance, and they just happened to be in it.)

As a Christmas present and to celebrate the new year, taking our sons to LEGOLAND and staying at the LEGOLAND California Hotel were a surprise! They had an amazing time and to me, this was our favorite trip compared to the past two LEGOLAND family visits that we've had.

LEGOLAND California Hotel VS. LEGOLAND Castle Hotel

A few years ago, we stayed at the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel, which is also located within the resort and just yards away from LEGOLAND California Hotel. Therefore, we have stayed at both the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel and LEGOLAND California Hotel. See a couple of pictures of the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel that I took. It's quite different from the LEGOLAND California Hotel because LEGOLAND Castle Hotel looks just like a castle, while LEGOLAND California Hotel looks more like a LEGO hotel, but still offers a few different types of rooms. We picked the Pirate/mermaid theme. You could also pick an Adventure theme or a Ninjago theme. The exterior architecture of the LEGOLAND California Hotel showcases more on the large LEGO bricks that we all know very well. It's very exciting to approach the entrance for the first time! I actually prefer staying here at LEGOLAND California Hotel than the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel!

In front of the main entrance of the LEGOLAND California Hotel is a dragon that actually blows steam periodically! It was so fun to see! Because our room was located on the front end of the hotel, we could actually hear it blow steam whenever it did! Below is the picture of the view from our window.

One of the best things that made staying at one of LEGOLAND's hotels more worth it than staying at a Carlsbad hotel outside of the LEGOLAND property was that we got to go the LEGOLAND attraction park 45 minutes before it was open to the rest of the visitors! Furthermore, the breakfast buffet was included with our stay and it was a pretty good buffet too! It had eggs, sausages, bacon, a line of pastries, oatmeal, yogurt, biscuits and gravy, pancakes or French toast (depending on the day), chilaquiles, all you can drink coffee and soft drinks and more! Unlike staying at a Disneyland Hotel, staying at a LEGOLAND hotel offers complimentary breakfast with no extra cost! It's just part of the room stay and the walk to the main attraction park walk was easy and super close! Even though breakfast was free at the Bricks Family Restaurant inside of LEGOLAND California Hotel, you should still make a reservation for the time that you'd like to dine with your family. I want to note that the restaurant looks really different from the picture that they had on their website.

Bunk Beds in LEGOLAND California Hotel Room

My kids' favorite part about our hotel room was that they had bunk beds with their own TV in their own kid's section of the room! The hotel also supplied some legos in the room for the kids to build as well. You can view a video of their bunk beds in the top video that I've embedded towards the top of this blog entry. I took a video, instead of a photo.

I really enjoyed the parents' bed too with a pirate theme and a view. I especially liked how clean our bathroom was. The decorations with pirate/mermaid-themed legos were wonderful! I want to highlight that the bathroom does not have a lock, so although we could slide the door closed, we weren't able to lock it for privacy.

Check In Process

A few years ago, when we stayed at the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel during the pandemic, the check-in process was very annoying and stressful! The check-in time was 4PM, but we had to wait around until 6PM to be able to get into our rooms because they were still cleaning and sanitizing them!

It's 2025 now and the check in process for LEGOLAND California Hotel was much easier! The check-in time was 4PM as well, but they kindly informed us via email that our room was ready around 2:30PM! Not only that, when we arrived in the lobby, we could do self check-in using kiosks which made the process so easy! There was a personnel who did come around to check to see if we had any questions and gave both of my sons a lanyard as a gift. I thought that was very nice! Right after checking in, we started a scavenger hunt to find the code for the treasure box in our room. Inside the box were two sets of legos and a magazine. I didn't take a picture of this, but I love how LEGOLAND went the extra mile with customer service and making sure the kids had a great memory to bring back home. If you would like to see a picture of the treasure box to unlock, I did take a picture of it at the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel when we stayed there 3 years ago. See the treasure box from LEGOLAND Castle Hotel during our past stay.

2 Day at LEGOLAND and SEA LIFE

Our tickets were a 2 Day Ticket for LEGOLAND AND SEA LIFE. We spent the first day going to only a few of the rides because by the time we had arrived at the resort, it was already 1PM and the lines for some of the rides were really long. In between having fun at the LEGOLAND attraction park, we check-in and relaxed for a bit before coming back there to ride more rides until they closed at 7PM. (Every season, the hours are different so check their website before you plan your vacation.)

On the 2nd day, we took advantage of the early park entry as a hotel guest there and my kids got to ride on more rides that they didn't get to ride on the day before at the LEGOLAND park. We also visited the SEA LIFE Aquarium on the 2nd Day as well. The SEA LIFE Aquarium is small, but the kids still had fun getting stamps and touching the sea anemone. See my video of our 2nd Day at LEGOLAND/SEA LIFE below.

I've been to SEA LIFE Aquarium about 6 times between 2010 - 2025 and it didn't seem to have changed very much within these 15 years. Our ticket included a visit to SEA LIFE, so that is why we visited again.

My kids are 10 and 8 years old now, so it won't be very long until my kids will start to prefer other vacation activities. I'm grateful that my kids really enjoyed our LEGOLAND Vacation this time and I hope to be able to come back one more time with them before they become teenagers.

(My older son and I built legos together at LEGOLAND and placed them on their wall self at the LEGO WORLD area.)

Related Reading Suggestions About LEGOLAND:

• I've blogged about LEGOLAND California 3 different times. See all of my 3 LEGOLAND blog entries.
• Read my review for just the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel.
• Read my review of LEGOLAND California Theme Park, without staying at their hotel.
• I posted a few instagram videos of my visits at LEGOLAND California:
• • View a video of our LEGOLAND Castle Hotel Room and our first time seeing LEGO Movie WORLD at LEGOLAND California on instagram
  • View a video of our LEGOLAND California Hotel Room on instagram
  • View a video of our 2nd Day visit at LEGOLAND California in 2025
     

LEGO Sets for Building

• Mermaid Legos


• Pirate Legos


• Castle Legos

For this Christmas season, our family decided to go to the Mexican Riviera on a 7 Day Cruise on the festive Carnival Panorama Cruise Ship! It felt extra special to go on a vacation during this time of year because I got to enjoy all of the pretty Christmas decorations that were being displayed throughout the ship and see many celebratory passengers with their Santa hats and Christmas themed al fits on the daily!

This Mexican Riviera Cruise by Carnival Cruise Line stopped at 3 different ports: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. We decided to go on two excursions that we booked directly from Carnival Cruises website. We went on the All Inclusive Las Caletas Beach Hideaway at Puerto Vallarta and the All Inclusive Luxury Day Sail & Snorkel for Cabo San Lucas (scroll down or contine to read for my thoughts on these excursions). I know it's cheaper to buy an excursion last minute after docking, but I like the comfort knowing that the cruise ship worked with these excursions directly, so if there were any issues or delayed, we'd know that they would communicate them with our ship.

Our Balcony Stateroom

My husband is our leader in charge on our cruise vacations. He books all of them, including our excursions. For this cruise, he booked a balcony stateroom for our family of four. Our kids have been going on cruises since they were babies so we had not considered booking staterooms with a balcony until the kids got older.

When they were very little, we were hesitant to book balcony rooms for safety reasons. Now, that they are 10 and 8 years old, they understand the rules we'd set for them and that there are extra precautions with a balcony. All of the doors on the cruise ships are very heavy so if you're not careful, a slammed door can easily crush fingers and toes. We warned them regularly about this and they have not had any crushed fingers nor toes. However, our 8 year old did trip one time while he was trying to get inside from the balcony on this Panorama cruise ship. I would be wary to book a balcony room, depending on how responsible your kids would be in these types of situations.

What introduced us to booking balcony rooms was an unexpected free upgrade from a mishap that we had encountered on a Royal Caribbean Cruise a few years ago! You can read about this Royal Caribbean Cruise mishap on this blog entry link.

However, once introduced, being able to walk out any second and see a beautiful view immediately is extraordinary on a cruise ship and it got us hooked! Every morning on our port stop days, I could see our destination from a good distance when I'd wake up before most of the passengers did. See a video below of my view when we got to Cabo San Lucas (our third stop for this cruise).

Like all cruise ships that we had stayed on, there was usually a towel art placed in our stateroom every other day, after the stateroom attendant had freshened up our stateroom. Here are all of the ones that we had for this cruise vacation below. The rabbit one lost an eye before I got a chance to take a picture! It did initially come with two eyes. 

The name of our stateroom attendant was Lorenzo and he was the best stateroom attendant we ever had and we had been on 5 different cruises before this! I was so impressed. He was fast, polite, earnest and our room was in tip top shape after he freshened it up every day!

Food on Carnival Panorama

For most of the dinners on the cruise ship, we dined at the Vista Dining Room. Like many other cruises, dining in the dining room is complimentary with the cruise. We like to dress a little more decent when we dine at the dining room, even if some of the other passengers don't. On this cruise, I was especially impressed with their desserts and some of the appetizers in the dining room.

Vista Dining Room Entrees - What I Picked

There were times when I was so hungry that I devoured my entrees before I got a chance to take a picture of them! So, usually by the time dessert rolled around, I was full enough to remember to take a snap before devouring it! That is why I have more photos of desserts than appetizers (starters) and dinner entrees!

(Escargot as starter)
(Poke Bowl as a starter)
(Broiled steak as main entree)
(Fish entree as main entree)
(Crumble type of dessert)
(Sponge-like dessert)
(Citrus flavored dessert)
(Baked Alaska ice cream dessert)
(Peanut-free Cookies; freshly baked for one of my kids after telling the dining room attendants that he has an allergy)

Guy's Pig & Anchor Food Review

For breakfast and lunch, we typically dined at the Marketplace Buffet, but we also took advantage of Guy's Pig & Anchor for one of our lunches because we typically had to pay extra to eat there for dinner. For lunch, they were only open for a couple of hours and we lined up right outside, near the patio area of the restaurant to pick up lunch there, cafeteria style! They scooped all of the dishes for you as you tell them which of the four meats you'd like. I picked all four! See my plate below. They were all delicious!

I found out later, as we encountered more passengers, and had small talk that there were some who didn't know that Guy's Pig & Anchor was complimentary for lunch so make sure you check your Carnival app when you're on board to see what are all the free options and their hours for lunch every day!

JiJi Asian Kitchen

There was typically an extra charge for JiJi Asian Kitchen for dinner time, but for lunch, they offered a Mongolian Wok menu that was complimentary. Although I didn't take any pictures here, we ate here twice for lunch! The noodles were very tasty! They offered rice noodles and yellow wheat noodles as entree options. I highly recommend taking advantage of their complimentary entrees for lunch to shake things up a bit!

First Port Stop: Puerto Vallarta

All Inclusive Las Caletas Beach Hideaway Review at Puerto Vallarta Stop

We had a wonderful experience on the excursion that we picked for our family at Puerto Vallarta. After getting off of the Carnival Ship, we looked for a sign with the name of our excursion. Then, when it was time, they led us to a boat where they took us to Las Caletas, a pretty cool secluded hideaway beach with many activities. Lunch, an open bar, and all activities, which included: paddle boating, kayaking, kids adventures (zip lines, donkey rides and rope climbing just for kids!), and viewing sea creatures! It kept us busy all day. I highly recommend booking the 'All Inclusive Las Caletas Beach Hideaway' excursion as an adventure.

Having lunch was the first thing we did when we got to the island! The Las Caletas lunch buffet was very delicious! It's only open between a certain time frame so make sure you eat as much as you can before you start walking on their trail to the beach to start adventuring. The kids really enjoyed the Kids Adventure! We accompanied them while they were riding the donkeys so got to participate a bit as parents. Then, we observed from a distance as they ziplined, climbed and hiked. 

Afterwards, my husband and older son swam while my younger son and I kayaked. It was a fun day! The excursion was so worth it!

Second Port Stop: Mazatlan

The day after our first stop at Puerto Vallarta, we had our second stop: Mazatlan. We knew each port stops were just 1 day apart from each other and since we had such a busy day at Puerto Vallarta with the excursion, we opted to not do an excursion for Mazatlan, since we we were also going on another excursion for our third (and last) stop. I was pretty tired, and so were the kids. We just walked around the shops that the complimentary shuttle immediately took us to. Then, within an hour of shopping at Mazatlan, we just hopped back on the shuttle to get back on cruise ship to enjoy fun activities on the cruise ship. We took advantage of the fact that most of the passengers were exploring at Mazatlan to have a nice and smooth adventure around the cruise ship with less crowd. The kids enjoyed hours of "kids choice" that was on the itinerary that day at the kids club at Camp Ocean (read my full review of Camp Ocean below), and my husband and I had a quick lunch at JiJi Asian Kitchen for their complimentary Mongolian Wok menu again.

Third (Last) Port Stop: Cabo San Lucas

Our last stop at Cabo San Lucas was my favorite stop on this 7 Day Mexican Riviera Cruise by Carnival. The place was so beautiful with clear ocean water and a landscape with peaks and valleys.

All Inclusive Luxury Day Sail & Snorkel Review at Cabo San Lucas Stop

As mentioned earlier, we booked an excursion here. The excursion name was: All Inclusive Luxury Day Sail & Snorkel Excursion. It included a snorkeling adventure on a sailboat, a snack tray at the beginning of the trip and a lunch towards the end of the trip. They also included fun alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. We had a blast! The service by their crew was very amazing and their communication throughout the way about boat rules, safety and our plans was very reassuring. Shoes were not allowed on the boat, so we left our shoes at the dock.

There were passengers who booked specific boat trips just to see the arch in Cabo San Lucas, but with this All Inclusive Luxury Day Sail & Snokel excursion, we also got to see the famous arch and other cool landmarks.

When we got to our snorkeling spot, the water was so clear that I could easily see all of the fishes just from standing on the boat! My husband and my older son went snorkeling to get a really close look and swam with the fishes.

There were less than a dozen passengers on this sailboat so I felt like we got to have a more private experience in Cabo San Lucas. It was a bit pricey and my kids couldn't enjoy the snacks and lunch that they provided, because of their allergies, but they still had a great time and made great memories with us! You can view a short video of our personal adventure on the All Inclusive Luxury Day Sail & Snorkel at Cabo San Lucas.

Complimentary Kids Club on Carnival Panorama - Camp Ocean

Almost every day on the cruise, my kids enjoyed stopping in at the kids' club on Carnival Panorama to partake in one of their events on the itinerary and mingled with other kids. The name of the kids' club for my kids' age group is Camp Ocean. On their itinerary at Camp Ocean, there were fun themed parties, STEAM projects, craft time and more. A "wow" factor on this cruise was they even provided a phone for us so that the kids' club staff could be in contact with us quickly while the kids were being supervised by their youth staff there. We had never been given a phone before and we'd been on 5 different cruise ships before this one! I felt that this was extraordinary service and I liked it!

Fun Activities on the Panorama Cruise Ship

There were a lot complimentary activities for adults and kids on the Carnival Panorama Cruise Ship! They had a few pools, hot tubs and also a water park area! Other complimentary activities included: SkyRide, Rope Course, Mini-Golf, Chess, Foosball, Ping Pong, Shuffleboard and Basketball.

Waterpark with Waterslides and Splash Pad

I was really impressed with the waterpark on the Carnival Panorama Cruise Ship! There were two nice water slides (with a minimum height requirement for both) and a big splash pad area for all to enjoy!

SkyRide & Rope Course

My husband went on both the SkyRide and Rope Course. He did the SkyRide one by himself, but went on the Rope Course with my younger son. If you're afraid of heights, I wouldn't recommend participating on these. However, for the adrenaline junkie, these were great! There was a minimum height requirement for both as well!

Mini-Golf, Chess, Foosball, Ping Pong, Shuffleboard, and Basketball Court

My kids, my husband, and I played mini-golf, foosball and ping pong together. These activities provided a great way to bond together as a family and get some fresh air. We didn't get a chance to play shuffleboard on board, but I did shoot some basketball shots while everyone was sleeping one early morning by myself! My sons also played Chess together one afternoon.

Daily Itinerary

Every day on the cruise was a different itinerary. There was free music entertainment every day in the Promenade and Piano Bar. We could also participate in fun trivia events and contests. They always gave us a print out of the daily itinerary for the next day the night before, but we could always check on the app to see the entire itinerary for the entire cruise.

Sky Zone Trampoline Park and Arcades (Extra Costs)

There was a Trampoline Park on this cruise ship called Sky Zone so we paid a bit extra for the kids to jump around on the last afternoon of our stay. The kids really enjoyed it. It was organized play for 50 minutes. They got to keep the orange socks that they provided for jumping!

To play video games, the kids could play for free at Camp Ocean on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox consoles. However, for different games, there was an arcade on Level 6. You just use your stateroom key to charge for credits for any game. We only went there a couple of times.

We had a really fun Christmas vacation on the Panorama Cruise Ship by Carnival. Every night, I felt so blessed to have had a wonderous view of the sea. We can't wait for our next cruise adventure! View reviews for our past cruises.

Cruise Tips Specifically for the 7 Day Mexican Riviera from Carnival Cruise:

• Be prepared to not be able to park at the Long Beach Port. For a shorter Carnival cruise that we also embarked on from this Long Beach port in the past, the parking situation was really easy. We drove in, found parking and parked. There was ample parking. However, for this particular cruise for the month of December, there were not enough parking spaces, so after being stuck in traffic for over 1.5 hours to get to this parking lot for what was supposed to just a 10 minute commute from our Hyatt hotel that we stayed at, they told us we had to park somewhere else! They gave us a flyer with an address and told us we had to park elsewhere only once we entered the parking lot! They gave us the option to drop off the heavy luggage for bag check-in at their bins first, if we wanted to do that. Since we were already there, my husband dropped off the heavy luggage with my sons and me. However, he had to leave the parking structure to find parking at the Convention Center Parking Lot, which was what the flyer instructed him to do. It was a big fiasco! Thank goodness, our family had allotted enough time to do this. Otherwise, we would've been late. So, my husband dropped us off, drove to the Convention Center Parking Lot, which was literally next to the hotel that we had stayed at, then had to wait for a bus to get back to the Long Beach Port! After being stuck in traffic for 1 mile for 1.5 hours, this took almost another hour! I asked a worker there if this last minute parking situation happens often and he said, "no", and that it's because a couple cruises were still out at sea and haven't made it back yet, so there were still cars parked from earlier embarkation. So, be prepared for all that if you're planning on traveling during a busier season like we did for the Carnival Cruise. Allot more time for last minute parking changes like this!
• Stay close to the Long Beach Port the night before, if you're commuting from faraway. We live about a 4 hour drive away from Long Beach and knew Los Angeles traffic is unpredictable, so to be more rested by the time we embarked, we decided to stay at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach the night before our embark day. The Hyatt Regency Long Beach is only 1.7 miles away from the Long Beach Port. I thought that it was a very pleasant stay and liked the hotel! It's centrally located and had a lot of stores nearby, where we could walk to. If I could do it all over again, I would leave to park at the Long Beach Port for the Carnival Cruise a lot sooner, like 2 hours sooner, so that we could know about the parking situation before all the bad traffic started! We thought our close proximity gave us enough time to just relax at the hotel and do the Swan Paddle Boat Ride! See a short clip of our Swan Paddle Ride Adventure at the Hyatt Long Beach below. We'll skip the paddleboating next time.
  
• Pack bug spray for Mexico. When we arrived in Mexico, my younger soon got bug bites. We brought a bottle of bug spray, but had forgotten to spray it on him and he ended up bringing home 5 welts as a souvenir. So pack the spray and remember to use it, too.

Last night, my family and I went to the Paso Robles Event Center to see Zoppe Circus after a long day of work and school!

I was really tired from being in a four work meeting marathon (a good problem to have) from earlier in the day and the kids had just gotten out of the school, but this night we went to the circus!

Once I got to Paso Robles Center, I could see the big tent in the middle of the grounds. By 5:30PM, it was already getting really dark in December and their Zoppe Circus' tent lit up the space.

The kids were super excited by the sight of it! The show started at 6PM, but the pre-show started at 5:30PM. I'm glad we were able to get there early as they introduced the performers during the pre-show before we all went inside the big top! I thought this was a warm way for introductions of our circus performers!

They had candy apple, popcorn, lemonade and cotton candy for sale. Everything that we got cost $10 each and we were happy to get them as part of the experience for the kids. They all tasted freshly made! 

Although the jugglers, acrobats, and the horses were magnificent. The clown, Nino, was the heart of the show! My kids laughed and laughed. He even pulled on some heartstrings. Below is a video collage of some of the performers and the view from our seats.

The wonder in my kids' eyes was a surprise for me. In the past, one or the other always wanted to leave a different circus (not this one) early but for the first time, they were entertained the entire time! They were amazed and inspired!

Additionally, this was the first time that I've seen a performance at a circus with horses! These horses were beautiful and big! I especially loved it when the circus performer jumped through the ring of fire while riding his horse! You can see the Zoppe Circus YouTube video that I embedded above for that. The performance is shown towards the end of the video and you can see it on my Zoppe Circus instagram reel as well.

We left the night with hearts so full! They were extraordinary performances and all without a net! My admiration for circuses continues to grow. This one really did it for me, in much more intensity than any other circus has before! It's their first time coming to Paso Robles and I feel like the agriculture culture is the perfect stop for this circus. I hope they come back next year.

Our family had a busy Friday with commitments in the day, but Zoppe Circus brought light and spirit to the end of our night and I'm so grateful for that. It's also Christmas season and going to the circus as we're spotting Christmas lights to and fro seemed perfect.

Zoppe Circus website and schedule: https://zoppe.net/

Fun Kits for the Circus Enthusiasts:

• Magic Trick Kits for Kids


• Hula Hoops


• Juggling Set for Kids

---

(Photo of Pismo Beach Coastline during one of my hikes at Pismo Preserve.)

As a transplant from San Diego, moving to a small city from a bigger beach town gives me a different perspective. I'm used to the beach life but I've put my feet in the water here in Pismo Beach more than I have in the 29 years that I used to live in San Diego. That's because, hanging out at the beach here is so easy! And because, well, I have more time to enjoy the SLO life here.

During the summer months, most college kids go back to their hometowns and footprints are replaced by tourists by all over the world. It's fun to see the change but I've got to say, the college kids who come back to SLO to study are way more chill than the tourists who come here with their families during the holiday and vacation seasons. I'd expect the opposite but that's not the case here from what I've personally experienced.

The college kids here frequent Downtown San Luis Obispo and hang out at the weekly Thursday farmers market and study at local coffee shops. There is not a shortage of coffee shops in SLO, thankfully! They'd also hang out in Pismo Beach, which is probably the most famous beach on the Central Coast of California. I am going to be honest that I am very biased with this.

I've been approached by many parents asking me what I think about San Luis Obispo for their future and current college kids and I've got plenty of great things to say! Of course, there would be headlines here and there about trouble but compared to many colleges in California, San Luis Obispo is relatively mild with trouble making episodes. Plus, there are lots of outdoorsy things for them to do to keep their mental health in check.

Here's a list of suggestions for college kids to do or places to hang out in San Luis Obispo County:

1. Hang out at Pismo Beach. With a long pier, a nice beach walk trail and an amazing Central Coast view, anyone would feel at peace coming here. They're famous for their clam chowder at the local Splash Cafe near the pier and the big and freshly baked cinnamon rolls at Old West Cinnamon Rolls will satisfy a sweet tooth. There are also many souvenir shops and other restaurants to choose from for breakfast, lunch or dinner. See pictures that I've taken at Pismo Beach under the 'Beaches' category of my blog. I walk along Pismo Beach often and have seen really cool sea creatures like whales, sea lions and by-the-wind-sailors. What's also more unique about Pismo Beach is you'd see many white Pismo clams, even large ones that are more than 3 inches, by just casually walking on the beach.
   
2. Go to the Weekly Farmers Market in Downtown San Luis Obispo in Thursday. The farmers market in downtown SLO on Thursday evenings are fun. There's usually a band playing and walking by lots of local produce options encourages me to make healthy picks for our future meals. There are usually also many fun street food booths with different cuisines. My favorite is usually Shalimar's booth. On particular dates, they'd have themed nights for holidays and special events. When some events at the Downtown SLO Farmers Market are coming up soon, I usually list these special events in chronological order under the Event List page.
   
3. Check out the wine tasting rooms in San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles. Checking out the vineyards in the area can be a very beautiful experience right before harvest season. Paso Robles is a famous wine country now with over 300 wineries and it's located within San Luis Obispo County. You can view my top 10 favorite wine tasting rooms as a resident of the area. Remember, you have to be 21 and older to consume wine but I've seen many older college kids enjoy a wine tasting outing with their parents and I think it's so classy and fun to see them share that local experience. The wine tasting experience out here is drastically different than the Temecula and Napa Valley wine tasing experiences that I've had. It's typically less rowdy herel!
   
4. Hike at Pismo Preserve. In Pismo Beach, you can hike at Pismo Preserve and get a bird's eye view of the Pismo State Beach Coastline, seeing as far as the Oceano Dunes.
   I hike here more often than I do anywhere else. Parking can be limited, but it's free. The starting point and parking lot is located right off the HWY 101.
   
   I suggest taking a picture of the map that's located at the starting point near the restrooms before taking off on your hike so that in case you get lost, you can reference your picture of your map and have a better idea where you are located. I've had a group of people come up to us for directions while we're hiking here because they're lost and it was a pretty hot day that day. Read more about my thoughts about Pismo Preserve in a more dedicated blog entry. Here's one of my videos that I posted about Pismo Preserve.
   
5. Hike at Montana de Oro. There are many beautiful hiking trails here in San Luis Obispo County but the one that most residents and tourists will rave about is the Montana de Oro hike!
   
   The beautiful coastal view, cliffs, and nature will take your breath away. Make sure you have your appropriate hiking or trail shoes on and water for hydration. I recommend that you also pack a picnic or lunch as well. Here's a video clip from my hikes at Montana de Oro.
   
6. Go camping at Oceano Dunes. One of the rare things about living around here is you can drive on the beach on half of the Grover Beach side and all of Oceano on the beach. You can buy a day pass for $5 or a camping pass to stay overnight for just $10 (this rate may increase over time)! I've camped with a tent here with my family and you can't beat camping literally on the beach. It's a wonderful way to watch the sunset. If you're planning on driving on the beach, I recommend driving in an all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive vehicle or your chances of getting stuck in sand is very high. Like Pismo Beach, Oceano and Grover Beach are located on the South County part of San Luis Obispo County and make up the entire Pismo State Beach. 
   
   
7. Watch a movie at Sunset Drive In. Sunset Drive In is one of the last outdoor drive-in movie theaters left in this country (U.S.A). It's rare to find one in any town. Fortunately, San Luis Obispo's Sunset Drive In has been around for years and they are still going strong! You get to watch two of the latest movies for one price. I love coming here with my family and I imagine coming here with friends is just as fun.
   
   You can bring your own food and drinks. The most important thing to remember is to bring your own portable radio to hear the sound for the movie. You do not want to use the radio from your vehicle as it could drain your car battery and leave you stranded! Read more about my experience at Sunset Drive-In Theater and more tips. I also posted a reel about my recent Sunset Drive In experience via instagram. See my Sunset Drive In reel on IG.
8. Visit the elephant seals in San Simeon. Not only is San Simeon, where the famous Hearst Castle is located, is within San Luis Obispo County, you can also watch many sea creatures in their natural habitat around here. I had mentioned in the top item above that that I've seen whales, by-the-wind sailors (Velella Velella), and sea lions just by walking up and down the Pismo Beach shore during one of my routine leisurely walks. I also suggest going a bit north within the county like San Simeon to see the magnificent elephant seals in their natural habitat there too. It's very humbling when you're able to experience watching animals outside a zoo and aquarium. It's a reminder that this world is for all of us, and not just human beings.
   
   We usually see at least 50 of them when we go to the Elephant Seal rookery in San Simeon called Piedras Blancas Rookery. Read about my day visiting Hearst Castle and the Elephant Seals in San Simeon.
9. Visit the iconic Madonna Inn. Madonna Inn is a motel (doors to room are facing outside) and also has two restaurants on property: Copper Cafe and Gold Rush Steak house!
   
   If you love eccentric architecture and all things pink, this is the place for you! I've dined at Copper Cafe many times for special occasions and also had two Madonna Inn staycations!
   
   I've also dined here for a company banquet for my husband's work so my experience is very versatile over the years as a resident! Whether you are staying there or dining there, you can always walk around the main property during their business hours to shop for souvenirs at their two gift shops (one on the second story and one in the cellar). The men often like to rave about their restroom experience in the cellar but I'll leave that up to you to discover as I can't go in there as a woman. Read all of my blog entries about Madonna Inn. If you happen to squeeze in a visit to Madonna Inn, don't forget to try their famous Pink Champagne Cake!
10. Study from a coffee shop or go shopping at the stores in Downtown San Luis Obispo or Pismo Beach Outlets. There is no indoor mall in all of San Luis Obispo (SLO) County but we still have some options! The main two great areas for brand names and clothes shopping are around Downtown SLO or the Pismo Beach Outlets. For brands like Lululemon, H & M, Sephora, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Victoria's Secret, you'd have to go to Downtown SLO. For brands like Coach, Levi's, Nike, Guess, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Kate Spade and even Hot Topic, you'd have to go to Pismo Beach Outlets. I prefer to go to Pismo Outlets because parking is free and they have a lot of options in one general area without having to cross so many streets like I'd have to do if I'm in Downtown. However, when I need to work remotely from SLO, I do take advantage of my proximity and go on a shopping spree and take advantage of the more ethnic food options in Downtown. Here's a video clip of me walking around Downtown SLO below.
    
11. Lastly, go on a local food adventure. Please don't scoff when I say this but, I'm a "foodie". There's no other word that can define this better. I love trying different restaurants and challenging my palate. Some of my favorite cuisines include: Indian, Peruvian, Mexican, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and good Southern cooking! Thankfully, we have all of these options in San Luis Obispo. If I didn't care about my waistline, I'd be eating every 5 minutes. I also love visiting different coffee shops in SLO County and getting my boba fix all over, from Paso Robles to Pismo Beach (both cities are located in San Luis Obispo County). What can I say, I like my sweet caffeine drinks. To see my top favorite restaurants in all of San Luis Obispo County, go to my restaurants page. When the kids go to Kids' Night Out events, my husband and I go on date nights and I'd post it on my instagram if they are excellent dining experiences and then blog about it after. Here's a clip from our visit at Bell's Los Alamos (in the next county over in Santa Barbara County) below.
    

San Luis Obispo Goods:

• "I've got friends in SLO places" T-shirt and Other San Luis Obispo T-shirts


• Cal Poly Sweatshirts


• Pismo Beach T-shirts

Last month in July, my family and I went to Cancun, Mexico and stayed at the all-inclusive Finest Playa Mujeres for one week! It was hot and humid and I was in my bathing suit almost every day to cool down in the pool! I especially enjoyed seeing iguanas just roaming freely all over the resort!

It was a very wonderful vacation that we had and with the weather alway melting my make-up off, I opted to not wear foundation for most of my time there. There was only one night when I wore foundation and it was for the Fiesta night at the resort! While in Cancun, we also went on a tour bus to several xenotes (cenotes) on a Xenotes Tour and visited Xenses. It made this trip even more memorable as my kids were finally old enough to on adventures like this with us and it helped us bond in a different way!

Building 1 at Finest Mujeres

Our room at Finest Playa Mujeres was in Building #1 on the top floor! One quirk that I want to point out right off the bat is that the resort does not make the Ground Floor the first floor with the signage on the building. They label the 2nd floor the First Floor. So if you want to get to the second floor from the elevator, ignore the sign that is right outside the elevator to avoid confusion. I know that sounds weird. So, there was ground floor, then 1st floor, then 2nd floor, then 3rd floor, then 4th floor and lastly, 5th floor. So, at this building at the resort for this particular elevator, we had to get to the 5th floor so we pressed 5 on the elevator. Then, as soon as we got out of the elevator, we saw a sign that says 4th Floor, but it should have been labeled 5th Floor. At first I thought maybe this is how Mexico labeled their floors, but I stayed at Moon Palace The Grand in Cancun several months ago and the elevators were labeled "correctly". I'm not sure if the weird labeling was only for Building 1 of Finest Playa Mujeres but since we're staying at this particular building, we had to adjust pretty quickly.

Once we got to our room at Finest Playa Mujeres, I immediately knew the large balcony with the comfortable lounge beds were going to be my favorite spots. Here's the video that I captured of our balcony below. It had the view of the large pool! We selected the "Junior Suite Spa or Pool View" and it's the lowest tier room type that we could pick from. I was pretty impressed!

While walking around the balcony, I spotted a couple of iguanas here and there. See the video clip right above. I was definitely on a tropical vacation at a tropical destination!


There were many pools scattered around the resort but we mainly just hung out at this pool right by our building, Building 1. We got really lucky with the location off our room. The pool closest to us was also the longest pool among the property and located away from the main busy areas so we really enjoyed the somewhat isolation. My entire family liked seeing the iguanas that hung out around there.

Main Areas and Night Shows at Finest Playa Mujeres

There were several restaurants to pick from that were complimentary with our stay. I ate so much! The buffet, Asian restaurant, seafood restaurant and steak house were my favorites! However, there were a couple others that I didn't frequent as much while we stayed there for a week.

We didn't eat at Legends but there were free arcade games inside there. You could pick from thousands of games!

The resort is located at the Playa Mujeres beach ("playa" means beach in Spanish) so we could walk to the beach every day if we wanted to. At the main pool, there was a swim-up bar on the family-friendly side and another one on the adults only side. The separation is really nice. For exercise, there was a daily itinerary that included a fitness class in the morning. One of the mornings there, I attended a yoga class at the beach. I was a bit lost but found my way and joined in after being a minute late! The instructor was very cool about it. She taught in both Spanish and English.

I ate a lot during this vacation so I made sure that I also went to the fitness room that was located next to the lobby for a few days out of the week to get some cardio work outs in.

Finest Playa Mujeres is a large resort but not too large where we couldn't walk comfortable around as abled individuals. I was impressed by the nightly shows that they had there for the guests. All of the night shows were free at night. As an all inclusive resort, I didn't have to bring my wallet because all the food and drinks were free. However, every night at the shows, I brought my phone to take pictures with and my mosquito repellent spray! The spray had been my savior as the mosquitos like to get me and leave me with itchy and painful marks. I couldn't completely deter them, but this definitely protected me most of the time! I came home with just 10 red marks but it easily could have been 50 if I didn't bring the mosquito repellent spray.
There was only one night that Finest Playa Mujeres didn't have a show and that's because they had their weekly Fiesta night for guests to enjoy amazing authenic Mexican food with walking characters on stilts and fun activities at the fiesta area. I really loved this family-friendly party night!

Xenotes Tour as a Family

We left the Finest Playa Mujeres resort only twice during our entire week stay. The first time we left was for the Xenotes Tour where we traveled by bus to 4 different xenotes (cenotes) locations! This tour was definitely for the more adventurous and abled body. My father-in-law had a bad knee and even though we all had life jackets on, he didn't feel comfortable swimming at the xenotes with us so he stood on the sidelines and watched us ziplined, swam and snorkeled. They had a photographer come with us during the trip and we could choose to bring our water-proof phone, if we have one, or stow it away and have the photographer take the pictures from his professional camera. You just pay a photo package fee at the end if you choose to buy all of the digital pictures of your family from the photographer. I wanted to enjoy my hours there on this once in a lifetime adventure so I put my phone away and we purchased the pictures from the photograher at the end. It was worth it to me!

Xenses Park

Unfortunately, I didn't have any pictures at Xenses! I thought that I would have time to buy a photos package at the end and since we were going to get wet at the activities at half of the park there, I locked up my phone to keep it safe. I felt that the 3 hours there was not enough time to not feel rushed with our bus transporation. However, I do recommend coming here if you want to feel a bit of magic and have a sensory adventure with sound, textures, walking in the dark for 10 minutes and using your other senses to get you out of a jungle. 

Read About All of Our Travel Adventures and Reviews:

• Moon Palace The Grand Family Summer Vacation in Cancun for 5 Days


• Ensenada Cruise on Carnival Cruise for 3 Days


• Ensenada and Catalina Island Cruise on Royal Caribbean for 4 Days


• Alaska Cruise on Princess Cruise for 11 Days


• Cabin Trip in Monterey


• Birthday Weekend at LEGOLAND Castle Hotel Review and LEGOLAND California Amusement Park Review


• Birthday Celebration at Great Wolf Lodge in Southern California


• Universal Studios Hollywood Family Trip During Spring Break


• Staycations at the Iconic Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo on the Central Coast of California: Madonna Inn’s San Francisco Room Review OR Madonna Inn’s Antique Room Review


• Staycation at the Granada Hotel & Bistro in Downtown San Luis Obispo


• Staycation at La Quinta Inn in Downtown San Luis Obispo


• Staycation in Atascadero at The Carlton Review

What To Bring to Cancun:

• Bug Repellent Spray - Especially in the summer time, the mosquitos in Cancun can be bothersome. I didn't bring my wallet around the resort, but I definitely brought my bug spray. The exact kind that I use was the white OFF! Clean Feel Insect Repellent bottle. If you're not a fan of sprays, you can try the Mosquito Repellent Patch Sticks for Adults, Toddlers, Kids and Camping.


• Mineral Sunscreen for the Sensitive Skin for Kids - One of my kids have sensitive skin so I buy the sensitive-friendly kind that that is non-spray for kids and also use the same one for myself. 


• Waterproof Pouch for Phone - I bought waterproof pouch for my phone at the mall, but didn't end up using it. However, it is smart to have a waterproof pouch if you like to carry it around with you while you're in the water or you're a clumsy person.


• Hats for Shade - It's super sunny and hot in Cancun during the summer. Having a hat while I'm hanging out outside made it much more bearable and enjoyable for me.