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SAN LUIS OBISPO |
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SAN LUIS OBISPO , 160 miles north of Santa Barbara and halfway
between LA and San Francisco, is a few miles inland, but makes the best
base for exploring the surrounding coastal regions. Still primarily an
agricultural market center, it holds more nineteenth-century
architecture than any other Californian city (especially around Buchon
Street), plenty of good restaurants, a couple of pubs, and - outside
summer holiday weekends - plenty of accommodation.
The compact core of San Luis is eminently walkable, centered around the
late eighteenth-century Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (daily 9-4pm,
June-Oct closes at 5pm; suggested donation), a dark and unremarkable
church that was the prototype for the now ubiquitous red-tiled roof,
developed to replace the original, flammable thatch in response to
Native American arson attacks.
Between the mission and the visitors center, Mission Plaza 's terraces
step down along San Luis creek, along which footpaths meander,
crisscrossed by bridges every hundred feet and overlooked by shops and
outdoor restaurants on the south bank. The undeniable highlight is the
stunning pink Fremont Theater , 1035 Monterey St, an Art Deco marvel
that becomes a riot of splashy neon at night and still plays movies.
Higuera Street , a block south of Mission Plaza, is the main drag, and
springs to life on Thursday afternoons for the Farmers' Market , when
the street is closed to cars and filled with vege-table stalls, mobile
barbecues and street-corner musicians.
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