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Mistura does everything right! Located in Downtown San Luis Obispo, Mistura's ambiance is sleek, the service is sharp and the food and drinks are stand outs!
For a belated Valentine's Day celebration, my husband and I made a reservation online for Mistura for a Saturday.
We arrived about 15 minutes before our reservation after finding a metered parking spot. Luckily, we had coins because the meter we parked right by didn't not use the parking app that the other spots use in San Luis Obispo. Somehow we parked outside of the range but no matter, it was still a good parking spot because it was only a couple of blocks down from Mistura. After checking in with the host, I only had to wait a couple of minutes before we were seated.
We remembered that the restaurant takes great care of making our food and that it was going to be awhile before we'd get our entrees so we ordered a couple of cocktails and the presentation was excellent. I ordered the Cucumber Moonrise and then the Moon Lite. I stuck to a moon theme tonight. If I had to choose, I preferred the Cucumber Moonrise but they were both refreshing options. See pictures of the cocktails that I ordered below.
I was really hungry and ordered their Arroz Con Marisco (paella) as my entree as I loved it so much last time. The portion was big, the seafood on the dish were fresh and it came in a quintessential paella pan! I had leftovers to bring home.
After about 1.5 hours, we finished our meals and walked outside to take a downtown SLO stroll around the busy streets. It was packed with young people, old people, people with families and people on vacation! It's always fun to walk around downtown when there's time to do it. I really enjoyed our belated Valentine's Day dinner with my husband. Next time, I hope to have enough room in my stomach to try one of their beautiful desserts at Mistura.
Note about Mistura's restrooms: The men and women restaurants are separated from each other by a bar so if you need to use the women's restroom, make sure to walk to the farthest corner (left of the bar) to find it. The men's restroom is perpendicular to the host's desk.
Mistura Address: 570 Higuera Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
My Reviews for Other Restaurants That I've Visited in San Luis Obispo (SLO) County:
We drove 4 hours south to Orange County in Southern California to do a Great Wolf Lodge Getaway for our son's birthday celebration this month! Instead of having a party, we decided to take a road trip and spend the weekend at their kid-friendly waterpark. Great Wolf Lodge has an indoor waterpark with slides, toddler area, lazy river and more. It's a perfect place for kids who want to play in the water during wintery weather. Best yet, we didn't have to really leave the resort because they also had a few restaurants inside. When you book a room at the Great Wolf Lodge, it includes entry to the waterpark so there is an added convenience and it's located within the property. This made it a very pleasant experience for adults too as it made the trip so easy to plan. Scroll down to see more pictures from our waterpark stay below with our thoughts about our entire Great Wolf Lodge Getaway.
Wolf Den Suite
There were many rooms to choose from when I researched online on the Great Wolf Lodge's website. We decided to reserve the Wolf Den Suite, which was just a bit more expensive than their standard double bed room type. Sometimes they run seasonal deals with a promo code, which you'd have to manually enter to see the discounted deal. That was what we did. We're so happy that we chose the Wolf Den Suite for our stay. The Wolf Den Suite has bunk beds (that's perfect for our two sons), 1 queen bed and a full sleeper sofa. You can sleep up to 6 people in this room but we're a family of four and felt that if we had 2 more adults, it might seem uncomfortable. However, I think if you had 2 adults and 4 non-teen kids in your family, selecting this room type makes a lot of sense.
We loved the cave theme of our room and additionally we also added on the Birthday Fun Package to our room which included: a birthday banner on the door of our room, a set of balloons inside, a voucher for a cake and birthday theme napkins, plates and utensils. I thought this made our stay much more eventful and my birthday boy looked really happy when he saw all of this already set-up when we've arrived to our room. It was an additional cost but it was worth it to us. One thing to note is that the birthday cake that came with the Birthday Fun package was way too big for our party of 4. I think this package would be great for a bigger group. Here's a picture of our birthday cake below. It's a 1/4 sheet sized cake, which I think is big enough to feed 10 - 15 people for dessert. We had to redeem our birthday cake voucher and pick the cake up at the Bear Paw Sweets & Eats, which is on L1 level.
Bear Track Waterpark
When we arrived at Great Wolf Lodge on a Friday evening, we didn't make it to the waterpark as it was too late. However, the next morning, we beelined to the waterpark right before it opened. The waterpark, which is called Bear Track Landing Waterpark inside of Great Wolf Lodge Anaheim, is located on L1 (one level below the Lobby level). You can take the elevator to get there from any room floor. While we were there during the weekend, the waterpark was open between 9AM - 8PM. There were many chairs and tables but the tables get claimed very quickly. So, the sooner you get there, the better if you're looking for a table for your group. Each morning, we got in line 15 minutes before 9AM so that we could maximize our experience there. My kids really enjoyed the waterpark and the many things we could do there together. The birthday boy's favorite waterpark feature was the Howlin' Tornado for bigger kids. The raft of the Howlin' Tornado fits 2 - 4 riders at a time. It was so exciting for us! He is over 48 inches now so he was able to go on that with me. We bonded over how scary certain parts were and got off the raft with big smiles!
There were also a couple of sections that were better for the little kids with less-scary slides like Fort MacKenzie. Even adults like me enjoyed them.
Breakfast at Loose Moose
Another awesome convenience with staying at the Great Wolf Lodge is that there were a few restaurants on property inside of the Great Wolf Lodge in Anaheim to choose from. We ordered pizza from Hungry As A Wolf by the arcade (also on L1 floor) for both evenings while we were there and enjoyed breakfast at the Loose Moose in the mornings because it was a buffet and this made breakfast a breeze for our family. After the server at the Loose Moose found out it was my son's birthday at our first breakfast, without having to request it, they came by with a cupcake later on to sing a unique Great Wolf Lodge birthday song to him that ended with a howl! I prepaid for a breakfast package for both mornings, thinking that it would save us money and time as the package also included non-alcoholic drinks and tip as well. In retrospect, it might have been cheaper if I hadn't done the pre-paid breakfast package. My husband typically drinks water with his meals and one of my sons didn't feel like eating one morning because he was still so tired. You can only redeem the breakfast slip once per day so the whole party had to be there for breakfast at the restaurant to redeem it so we couldn't stagger our visits where two of us could eat before the other two.
Lobby Area and Other Resort Activities
I really liked the high ceilings of the Great Wolf Lodge as I entered the property. We self-parked in their parking structure instead of valet parked because it was significantly more expensive to valet park. We used the elevators from the parking structure to get to the L1 level to head to the lobby. Once entering the lobby, the check-in desk would be to the left after passing the Loose Moose restaurant on the right-hand side and the candy shop on the left-hand side. Checking in was a smooth process. However, if you are self-parking, you'll need to alert them to exchange your white ticket, that you received from the parking structure machine when you entered the parking structure, with their blue parking pass, which you'd then scan on your way in and out of the parking structure in order to open the gate each time.
It was nice roaming around Great Wolf Lodge. Every day, there were resort activities in the lobby for kids. Activities included: bingo, arts & crafts, yoga and more.
There was a lot of room on the lobby level to just sit around and hang out.
During our trip, we used the waterpark, played in their arcade, did the MagiQuest scavenger hunt and relaxed. We had a very fun weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge in Anaheim. To my surprise, my sons actually preferred coming here over Disneyland!
Things I would do differently next time:
Get a waterproof pouch for my phone so I could take more pictures in the waterpark without fear of ruining my phone. I didn't take any pictures while I was in the water and wish I had been able to take some.
Not get the Pre-paid Breakfast Package so we had more flexibility on what we wanted to do for breakfast on a whim.
There was no microwave in our room. We had leftover pizza that we could store because our room had a mini-fridge, but we couldn't it heat up. Our thought is since we drove to the Great Wolf Lodge with our car, bringing a mini air fryer with us to the room would have been an easy solution. However, it might set off smoke detectors in our room and get us in trouble if we use it. I don't know if they have a hard rule about not bringing in your own kitchen appliances, but I may need to do some research on a solution to heat up leftovers for a future visit. I read online afterwards that there is a community microwave on each floor by the ice machine. We didn't make our way to the ice machine during our stay so didn't know. However, I'll make sure to locate the microwave by the ice machine next time!
Great Wolf Lodge in Southern California is between 20 minutes to an hour drive from nearby major attractions. Here are ticket offerings for attractions online.
Earlier this afternoon, we had a Signature wine tasting flight at Alpha Omega Collective in Downtown Paso Robles. It had just grand opened a couple of days ago so this was their first weekend of opening. The inside of the tasting room is very sleek and cozy. We can tell the staff there are seasoned in the industry. They are calm, professional and attentive. We really enjoyed our experience there and loved that it is literally right by the Downtown City Park in Downtown Paso Robles. I always like to compare the Downtown Paso Robles area to Downtown San Luis Obispo because they are both located within the San Luis Obispo County. I feel like Downtown Paso Robles has done so many things right! They have a centralized park with a playground, many wine tasting rooms, different types of restaurants and little neat shops scattered around several blocks. Best of all, it is very easy to walk around Downtown Paso Robles because it is flat! Downtown San Luis Obispo, on the other hand, is very hilly. You can read about my Downtown San Luis Obispo staycation at the Granada Hotel & Bistro and pictures of the places we visited in the Downtown SLO area. Alpha Omega Collective has selections from three different wineries: Tolosa (Edna Valley), Perinet (Spain) and Alpha Omega (Napa Valley). We like this variety and it was very nice to be able to taste something from Napa Valley without having to visit Napa Valley! We are Tolosa Winery wine club members and was able to enjoy complimentary tastings here as they are sister properties. Because of Alpha Omega Collective's addition here in Paso Robles, we are going to definitely continue to remain members of Tolosa Winery for another year. Tolosa Winery is located in Edna Valley of San Luis Obispo, California. Read my full review on Tolosa Winery, Alpha Omega Collective's sister winery.
We get visitors coming to visit us at least once a year and we'd take them wine tasting in our county and if there is a bottle that we all really like, we'd buy one to save for later at the house. It's really elevated our home parties, especially if we've all visited that very winery together. I've gotten really good at opening a bottle of wine with a regular wine cork opener but if you feel like being fancy, you can check out some
wine cork bottle openers that doesn't require pulling strength.
Posted by San Luis Obispo Mom. Posted In : Wineries
Staying active and healthy is one of my goals. Over the years, I went to a number of gyms around the South County part of San Luis Obispo County. I even went to a couple that eventually went out of business!
Here is a list of gyms/fitness centers that I've visited and my thoughts about them in chronological order:
Pismo Beach Athletic Club
As things were starting to open up and the kids were transitioning to a couple of hours of lessons a day in school during the pandemic, I was able to try out Pismo Beach Athletic Club for one morning! They didn't offer a free trial but allowed non-members to purchase a day pass so that was what I did for one morning. I really wanted to try one of their fitness classes but all of their classes required pre-registration and all of their morning classes were already full by a whole week! So, I just came in and jogged on the treadmill. It sufficed for what I needed for cardio. I felt that the membership fees were too high for me and was not able to easily join a class so I didn't join as a member. However, they have an indoor lap pool so if swimming is your main focus for fitness, Pismo Beach Athletic Club is a good option. They are also located just a block from the ocean so it's such a wonderful location. The staff there are all professional and nice so there is a family feel to it. From my understanding on their website and my single day visit, they do not offer childcare but I suggest double checking with the business in case that has changed recently. Pismo Beach Athletic Club Address: 1751 Price Street, Pismo Beach CA 93449
Planet Fitness
Located in Arroyo Grande and in the same shopping center as a Starbucks, Grocery Outlets and off the 101 highway, Planet Fitness could be a great hub for many needs. Their monthly membership is very affordable! They also have an electric car charging station right in front of Planet Fitness as well! I feel like because of their highway proximity, electric charging station and with the Starbucks right there, this Planet Fitness is full of yuppies, travelers, students and a bunch of smart and efficient people! The cost is such a good deal as well! They don't offer classes though so that is the major con. However, if you don't care for fitness classes, Planet Fitness in AG is a great gym spot. They have a lot of cardio equipment, weight machines and free weights. I like their big locker room with a few showers for women. I'm assuming the men's locker room would be the same size? Furthermore, Planet Fitness is a chain so if you have the black card (a higher membership level), you can work out at any Planet Fitness around the U.S. and bring a guest every day for free! They do not have any childcare services. I've also worked out at the Planet Fitness location in San Luis Obispo. Ready comparison and thoughts between the Planet Fitness in Arroyo Grande and the Planet Fitness in San Luis Obispo. Planet Fitness Address: 1576 W Branch St, Arroyo Grande, CA 93420
CYB Studios
Located in Arroyo Grande off of Grand Ave., CYB Studios is strictly classes only and they focus on cycling, yoga, and barre (hence the acronym for their name)! They were having their anniversary sale so I bought some passes to try it out. Thus far, I've tried their cycling, Barre, YFlow, Y26, and YSculpt classes. All of their yoga classes are heated yoga classes so I'm usually sweating like a pig by the time I finish the class.The staff members there are all very helpful with customer service as their forefront #1 asset. Within their shopping center, you'll find a Starbucks, Rite Aid, CHC Urgent Care, a few restaurants, and an Aldi so you can get almost all of your errands done in this shopping center before or after working out, if you really wanted to! Their classes and instructors are amazing! I usually feel sore for a couple of days after taking a class there so make sure to give yourself a break for a couple of days between classes if you're not used to it. You will definitely get a really good work out! The big con is if you're not into working out in classes with other people and only want to work with machines or equipment on your own, CYB Studios is not for you. They do not have any treadmills or any other cardio machines. Every once in awhile, they offer free classes to the public so that you can try them out or you can always just pay a fee for every visit without a membership or pay a package deal. One fun thing is they often plan really neat social events with fitness. They also have a very nice restroom area with showers. They are also very proactive on their social media. Other things that stood out to me is they do not offer childcare services, but do offer complimentary towel usage for your work outs. CYB Studios Address: 1231 E Grand Avenue, Suite 105, Arroyo Grande, Ca 93420
Avila Bay Athletic Club
As we've lived here over the years in San Luis Obispo County, I've gone from going to the least expensive fitness center in Five Cities to the most expensive place! Last on this list is Avila Bay Athletic Club because I had to work myself for 5 years to be able to figure out that this is the right fitness option for my entire family as my kids have been getting older and like hanging out at pools. For over $300 a month, my entire family comes here to enjoy pickle ball, the family pool, fitness classes, lifting weights and a nice resort-like area. I'm even blogging about this piece while sitting at their patio area at this very minute! Except for a few group classes, most of the fitness classes do not require a reservation, which is nice to be able to drop in when I can. If we happen to be hungry, we'd order food there at Oasis Grille that's inside. Thus far, we've ordered chicken tenders for the kids, a sandwich, tacos, fries and they also have local beer and wine. You order at the counter, pay, get a buzzer and they'll buzz you to get your food when it is ready. They have regular events here at Avila Bay Athletic Club that are sometimes exclusively for members. Some have also been open to the public like the a Halloween event that I attended here, and Wednesday evening concerts during better weather. There is a nice top deck area that I'd bring my laptop and hang out at when I have some work to finish.
Avila Bay Athletic Club Address: 6699 Bay Laurel Place, Avila Beach, CA 93424
SLO Swim Center is another pool in San Luis Obispo County located in San Luis Obispo City where families can go to swim during their recreational hours. The hours for family or recreational swim changes from season to season. I like to bring my kids here in the past during the spring and summer breaks. Read my review about SLO Swim Center under the Spring Break blog entry.
Your ideal work out session is very personal. Some people like to be outdoors to exercise, while others like to be alone. For working out at home, you can get a yoga mat, some dumb bells and just select a free exercise video from Prime Video from your TV. Working out options is aplenty. Try to find that motivation and the right exercise equipment that works for you.
Fitness Centers that I used to frequent, but went out of business in the area:
Fitness 19 (went out of business in August 2024)
Tantrum Fitness (went out of business around 2021 during the pandemic)
Posted by San Luis Obispo Mom. Posted In : Fitness
My husband surprised me with an anniversary SLO staycation in Downtown San Luis Obispo! He had presented me the reservation date and details on our actual anniversary day in an envelope as a gift but I had to wait a few weeks to experience it, when my mother-in-law was able to come to visit and watch our precious kids for us! It was a gift with big anticipation and he executed it well! Our staycation was extra unique as it was on a Monday night in December. It had rained earlier in the day but luckily, it didn't rain anymore by the time we started our celebration.
Here is an itinerary of where we went and stayed for our date night and Downtown SLO staycation.
Checking In at Granada Hotel & Bistro
Before we started painting the town, my husband took us to the Granada Hotel to check into our staycation. The Granada Hotel is located in a very centralized area in Downtown San Luis Obispo. They also have their own parking lot on the property through a very narrow alley. Parking in this alley as a hotel guest was free. You just have to put a permit on your dashboard that the hotel provides for you upon check-in. After we parked at their complimentary parking lot, we entered around to the front to find the lobby. While we were checking in, the front desk personnel asked if we would like a glass of wine. We said "yes". To our surprise, this welcome complimentary drink was offered and it started our evening wonderfully. After we finished our drink, the front desk personnel walked us to our room! It was amazing service. There is no magnetic card key as they used regular keys for all of their rooms, and I especially loved this as it's a reminder that the property is a hundred years old. We just had to remember to lock our door before we left as it does not automatically lock once we close the door like the newer hotels.
Once we entered our room, I was instantly wowed. There's a nice fireplace and a little balcony to watch the town, which I find out later that not all rooms have this. My husband also added a surprise array of chocolate, flowers and a bottle of wine that was already waiting in our room! I was gushing like a teenager. It was all so fancy and romantic. We started to enjoy the chocolates and wine almost immediately and opened the balcony door to look at the view. See my video reel on instagram to get a better look at the chocolates that I enjoyed at our stay at Granada Hotel. It's a quieter work week this evening and it had rained earlier so we were able to see a slower downtown with some Christmas lights further along the street. It was so peaceful. I felt like a VIP.
After hanging out in the room for a little while, we were ready to head down for our dinner reservations that my husband had made through OpenTable for the Bistro at the Granada Hotel. All we had to do was walk downstairs from our room and then we were there. We were 15 minutes early but they were able to accommodate us. Upon sitting down, the server handed us the menus and then minutes after, surprised us with two complimentary glasses of champagne and said, "Happy Anniversary"! My husband was very surprised as well because he had made the reservation through OpenTable and did not mention that it was our anniversary celebration. Granada Hotel had went above and beyond and must have crossmatched our stay reservation with the bistro reservation list. I was so impressed at this point and it had only been an hour since we've arrived on this property. I ordered the soba noodles and ate everything. It was delicious! (First picture at the top of this post was the picture of my food from Granada Hotel & Bistro.) We skipped dessert and left to go to our first bar stop named Highwater SLO.
Granada Hotel & Bistro Address: 1126 Morro St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Highwater SLO (now closed)
Lucky for us, Highwater SLO was highly rated and is open on Mondays! Many restaurants and bars close on Mondays in SLO County so we were grateful. Upon stepping into the bar, we knew that we were in for a really unique experience. We sat right at the bar. Menus offered to us used record covers as their menu book! Along the walls were black paintings on white (or maybe they were stencils) of famous rockers and singers. They were tastefully decorated. Just the ambiance itself was enough to get me to come back. Fortunately, the drinks are art of a professional. I have confidence that whatever I decide to order here in the future will be excellent. They also serve food but because we already had dinner at Granada Bistro, we wanted to just stop in for a drink and maximize our date night experience to explore another place that we had never been to before.
Highwater SLO Address: 1127 Broad St., Suite B, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 [Update: Highwater is currently closed.]
S.Low Bar and High Bar at Hotel San Luis Obispo
As we were walking from Highwater SLO to S.Low Bar that's located inside Hotel San Luis Obispo, we enjoyed looking at all the Christmas decorations in Downtown San Luis Obispo. It felt like such a celebratory holiday stroll. See my instagram video reel of our walk by the Holiday Plaza in Downtown during this date night. As mentioned, it had rained earlier in the day so the air is still cold but it had stopped raining by the time we started our night so the peace and calm carried on throughout the night with our walks. We were thankful that it did not rain anymore. Once we sat down at S.Low Bar, we had a nice conversation with the bartender and ordered from their specialty list for S.Low Bar. We read on Yelp that the property also has a second bar called High Bar so after a drink, we went to the elevator and made our way up to the High Bar.
At High Bar, you can see the view of Downtown San Luis Obispo as it is a rooftop and it's all outdoors. We both ordered the blueberry mojito from their specialty list. Even though, S.Low Bar and High Bar are both located at the same hotel, their specialities are different. It was pretty cold as the night went on for this December night and we brought our mojitos with us and wandered back downstairs again to get some warmth by S.Low Bar's fireplace. S. Low Bar closes at 10PM.
Hotel San Luis Obispo (S.Low Bar & High Bar) Address: 877 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
End of Date Night
After S.Low Bar closed, my husband and I went to the back door of Granada Hotel with our hotel key to get back to our room. The front desk closes and front door locks at 10PM. We were instructed to enter through the back with our key if we were coming back past 10PM. It felt like we were elites to an elite club as we did this. It was a cold walk and I couldn't wait to get back into our room. We also had some pieces of chocolates to finish in our room so we enjoyed a few more chocolate pieces on our balcony and then, went to sleep.
It was a lot of walking around town and it did not take long to drift to sleep with one of the best sleeps I've had in a really long time. We also walked by the Bubble Gum Alley in Downtown. It was nice to see it without a crowd. The collection has quite grown. See my video reel of my walk by the Bubble Gum Alley in Downtown San Luis Obispo during this date night to see the current culmination.
I highly recommend all of the places that we went for our anniversary celebration in Downtown San Luis Obispo. Don't forget to bring a thick coat if you're wandering around here in December, and maybe an umbrella too (just in case).
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.
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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