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I participated in a baking class at House of Bread in San Luis Obispo and had a very memorable experience and lesson! I wrote about it as the EXPLORE feature for SLO LIFE Magazine's FEB/MAR 2025 Issue as a contributor. You can pick up the latest issue at Boo Boo Records or read the SLO LIFE Magazine digital version, if it is available.
Dr. Bravo, a very well respected pediatrician in San Luis Obispo, was on the cover of this particular issue. Although my kids have a different pediatrician, he's been recommended by so many moms! I love that many local moms can relate to the person on this cover for FEB/MARCH 2025. He's made, and will to continue to make, a big impact on families in the county.
You can also get a mail subscription for SLO LIFE Magazine so that every new issue is mailed to you. Here is a the link to subscribe.
Planning a birthday party that's just right for the season can be tricky. There are questions about whether it should be family with relatives only, with friends only or both? So far, we have hosted birthday parties for our sons at Pacific Flips Gymnastics, Pismo Bowl, Ravine Waterpark with a canopy rental, and at Pismo Beach on the sand where we brought and set up our own canopy (literally on the beach).
For each birthday party that we had planned out here on the Central Coast, it has been a success and our birthday boys had a great time!
Pacific Flips has two locations: Grover Beach and Santa Maria. We've planned a birthday party for our child at the Grover beach location and had an excellent experience with organized play and music! Their birthday packages are either for 90 minutes or 2 hours. Parents are welcome to come watch and when we planned this for our kindergartener, all of the parents stayed to watch. They set up 2 tables ahead of time per your reservation and you just bring your decorations. I came 15 minutes early to and set up the tables they provided with a Minecraft theme. This was my decoration for our son's birthday party below: I want to note that we had the party at the older Pacific Flips Grover Beach location. They have moved since to a different part in Grover Beach.
For more pictures and details, read about our detailed experience in this Pacific Flips Birthday blog entry.
Pismo Bowl Birthday Party
Located in the central area by the Pismo Beach Pier, Pismo Bowl was a great spot to host my son's 11th birthday. We invited 5 of his friends and their families to bowl with us. It was a great time for a dozen of us. We did a birthday package and reserved the spot ahead of time. I came 15 minutes early to decorate the two tables that were reserved for us for food.We had 2 hours to ourselves with two bowling lanes, side by side.
After we bowled together, we continued to hang out together at the arcade where everyone got to roam around a little more. I highly recommend coming here for a birthday party, especially if you have a winter birthday. Address: 277 Pomeroy Ave, Pismo Beach, CA 93449
The list below are places that I haven't hosted a birthday at, but I've visited these places personally and feel that it would be great for kid's birthday parties! So, here are some more ideas:
Even though we've never hosted a birthday party at Mustang Waterpark in Arroyo Grande before, we have rented a canopy as a celebration for our son's birthday with just the four of us! It was at the tail end of the pandemic. My birthday boy still had a great time and made some random friends there. The canopy space there is smaller than the Ravine Waterpark, but I feel that it's more appropriate if you have little ones the water park is smaller and you can keep track of the kids a bit better. Like Ravine Waterpark, when you rent a canopy, a designated server comes around and takes your order periodically so you never have to get in line to order food.
Read my full detail review of Mustang Waterpark.
Central Coast Aquarium Birthday
For a 2 hour slot, you can have a birthday party for your child at the Central Coast Aquarium in Avila Beach. They host birthday parties on Saturdays and Sundays. Their minimum birthday packages is pricey but it's very engaging and is complete with decorations.
To see more pictures of the aquarium, read our review blog entry of Central Coast Aquarium. I've volunteered to chaperone at a field trip here before so got to have a more private party experience.
This children's museum offers a birthday package experience and there have been many times where I've considered booking a birthday package here, but felt that it would be hard to connect with families and have the kids mingle with each other throughout the timeframe because the space is three stories big! However, I have no doubt little kids would have fun here! We've been to San Luis Obispo Children's Museum for their free Moonlight Hours and the kids can spent at least an hour or two here! Read my full review of San Luis Obispo Children's Museum.
As always, you could always reserve a spot at a park with the city office for a particular date within San Luis Obispo County for parties.
A month ago, I dined at El Mirador and raved about how they made a fantastic California burrito on instagram.
Then, today, I walked down the same street to check them out again and realized they are now permanently closed.
The exact message they had on their window was this:
"Permanently closed
From the bottom of our hearts,
thank you for over 28 years of support - El Mirador"
I'm sad that they permanently closed, but glad that I was able to enjoy their California burrito before El Mirador closed a few weeks after.
I was checking my credit card statement and I saw a post for $170 by "Arroyo Grande Oil LLC" that was noted as a personal transaction.
I was very alarmed to see this! So I called my credit card company by locating the customer service toll free number that was printed on the back of my credit card. When I got to a real live representative, I asked them if they could help provide more context on where that charge was coming from and they said there's a telephone number tied to that post. The number is: "8054735400". I googled that number and it linked to the City of Arroyo Grande Website as their main number! Then, I remembered that my son recently took a Winter Camp at the Arroyo Grande Chamber of Commerce office for that very amount. (I know, winter break day camps can be expensive!) So, I felt silly and was relieved that it was for my son's Winter Camp so I didn't dispute the charge. However, it's quite odd that a Winter Camp transaction would show up as "Arroyo Grande Oil LLC" on my statement. What are your thoughts on that?
Before calling the credit card company, I thought someone must have fraudulently used my credit card to get gas and other things. I was really concerned. I'm glad that's not the case, but I think if there's another person who regular checks their credit card statement, like I do and sees that transaction, they wouldn't initial think that it's the City of Arroyo Grande's account for a kid's day camp. The word "Oil" and the LLC part threw me off, for sure.
I wanted to blog it here in case someone was getting super concerned like I did, and a google to this post might offer them some relief.
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 for a software company that builds booking engines that sold tickets online, and the client at 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!
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.)
Originally from San Diego, California, I'm a San Diego State University alumna, veteran's wife and mom of two kids who were born two years apart. After living on the East Coast for 6 years, we now reside in San Luis Obispo County and here, the exploration continues. In between work and momming it, I like to exercise.
Some of the links are just useful local information that I'm sharing for free and some are commission-based products that may help me earn a small commission for each sale to upkeep with the fees of running this local blog.
(My older son and I built legos together at LEGOLAND and placed them on their wall self at the LEGO WORLD area.)
Originally from San Diego, California, I'm a San Diego State University alumna, veteran's wife and mom of two kids who were born two years apart. After living on the East Coast for 6 years, we now reside in San Luis Obispo County and here, the exploration continues. In between work and momming it, I like to exercise.
@sanluisobispomom