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Kelly McDonaldPhotograph by: Brady Teufel

San Luis Obispo (Spanish for St. Louis, the Bishop) is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. The city, referred to locally as SLO or “San Luis,” is the county seat of San Luis Obispo County and is adjacent to California Polytech-nic State University (Cal Poly). As of the 2000 census, the city popula-tion was 44,174. Cal Poly is a na-tionally ranked, four-year, comprehensive public

university located in San Luis Obispo, halfway be-tween San Francisco and Los Angeles on Califor-nia’s Central Coast. It is a distinctive learning com-munity offering academi-cally focused students a hands-on educational experience that prepares them for today’s scientific and technical world. Because of San Luis Obispo’s location halfway between Los An-geles and San Francisco, it has long been a stop-ping point for travelers. In fact, the word motel was coined here when the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo was established in 1925. Since then, the

pleasant year-round cli-mate, pretty scenery, and well-preserved, walkable downtown have made the city a tourist destination in itself. Downtown San Luis Obispo is centered around the carefully restored Mission San Luis

Obispo de Tolosa, ori-gnally built in 1772. It is one of the best preserved examples of Spanish Mission architecture and among the oldest build-ings in California. Its bells are unique in that, unlike other California missions, the bell ringer

Photo above: The 101 freeway, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Photo below: The bells of Mission SLO.

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stands in the bellroom with the bells when ring-ing the cadences. The downtown area also boasts many eclectic shops and bou-tiques. One famous tour-ist destination in down-town San Luis Obispo is Bubble Gum Alley. Since about 1960, people have been sticking their chewed gum on the walls of this alley located on Higuera Street, between Broad and Garden streets. Bubble Gum Alley has even appeared on national television. The Fremont The-ater, located downtown, is a historic Art Deco the-

ater from the 1940s. It has appeared in many movies including a three second clip in My Blue Heaven. One of the main draws is Farmers’ Mar-ket, a large festival held downtown on Higuera Street every Thursday evening year-round from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.. About three-quarters of a mile of the street is closed to cars. Live entertainment is featured and local farmers and vendors sell goods and produce. The Farm-ers’ Market was created in 1983 to make use of downtown streets blocked off to end a tradition of teen/collegiate cruising. Farmers and vendors

were allowed to set up be-tween barricades as a way to bring people back to the downtown area. Later, all traffic was blocked off, making the downtown Farmers’ Market one long “mall,” even rerouting part of a state highway to accommodate the street closures. The Farmers’ Market brought a great deal of revenue and has become internationally known. Parking in the downtown area can be a challenge for those interested in finding a spot directly in front of their final destination. The city provides parking in three multistory park-

ing structures throughout downtown at: Chorro and Marsh street intersec-tion; Palm Street between Chorro and Morro streets; on Palm Street between Chorro and Osos streets. Street parking downtown is metered. The structures are free for the first hour and 75 cents per hour thereafter. Cycling is occa-sionally used as a mode of transportation in San Luis Obispo. Bike lanes are maintained on a few of the streets and the number of bike stands are increasing, especially in the downtown area. The city is home to San Luis Obispo

Photo above: Crowds of people enjoy Farmer’s Market every Thursday night in downtown San Luis Obispo.

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County Regional Airport which offers private and commercial air service to several major cities in the west. Amtrak provides daily rail service here as the terminus of the Pacific Surfliner line and a stop on the Coast Starlight line. Greyhound also maintains a bus termi-nal in San Luis Obispo. Public transportation in-cludes the city-wide SLO Transit bus lines as well as the county-wide SLO Regional Transit system. Rideshare encourages the use of the local public transit, as well as carpool-ing and biking. San Luis Obispo has been home of sev-eral events, including a

stop on the way of the Olympic Torch, the Tour of California bicycle race, Cinco de Mayo celebrations, as well as a long-standing Christmas Parade. A Mardi Gras parade that was well at-tended has been fraught with difficulties related to crowd control and alco-hol consumption. Debate about the cost of the parade, and the associated crowd control, continues.Mardi Gras has not been the only local event reined in after gaining acceptance. Cal Poly’s open house, Poly Royal, was held every April until a 1990 riot of drunken revellers, many visitors to town, caused damage

throughout residential neighborhoods and the business district. The university cancelled the event for several years before reintroducing a scaled-down Open House. While Poly Royal wel-comed the community for hikes, carnivals, “magic” shows put on by the

Chemistry Department, and other public perfor-mances, the revamped version is designed for students and parents. Jamba Juice, famous for its fruit smoothies, was founded in this town. Formerly called Juice Club, Jamba Juice is now a national

Photo above: The beauty of San Luis Obispo’s hills and valleys. Photo below: Population of SLO is 44,174.

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chain. Although Juice Club was not a Cal Poly senior project as some claim, three of the four co-founders, Joe Vergara, Kevin Peters, and Linda Olds did graduate from the university. Jamba Juice still exists at the original Juice Club loca-tion: 17 Chorro Street #C. A field station of the Marine Mammal Cen-ter is located in San Luis Obispo to support sea res-cue and beach stranding rescue operations for this section of the California coast. The dentist office on the corner of Santa Rosa and Pacific streets is one of very few commer-

cial buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. A horse race on turf named the San Luis Obispo Handicap is run at the Santa Anita Park in honor of this city. The Madonna Inn is another famous local landmark. Established by Alex Madonna in 1958, the inn is a famously ec-centric building known for its generous helping of pink, wildly kitschy decor, themed guest rooms, and a waterfall urinal in a men’s rest-room. Another big at-traction is the develop-ment of Edna Valley into a well-known wine

region. Just south of the city, people can spend an afternoon wine tast-ing several wineries in the area with a very short drive. Some of these win-eries have won awards and acclaim for their vintages. The wine region extends north beyond Paso Robles (30 miles north) and Santa Ynez (70 miles south). Another big tour-ist attraction is Hearst Castle, the vast estate of publishing magnate Wil-liam Randolph Hearst, 43 miles to the north of San Luis Obispo. City ordinance prevents businesses of any sort (including fast-

Photo above: San Luis Obispo is home to many vineyards. Wine tasting is fun thing to do while visiting SLO.food restaurants) from constructing new drive-up or drive-through windows or services. Two branches of one local bank are the only locations in the entire city with drive-up service; their drive-up service existed before the ordinance became law. San Luis Obispo was the first Ameri-can town to ban indoor smoking in all locations, including bars and restau-rants.

Text taken from: Wikipedia and Cal Poly’s websitePhotographs provided by: Brady Teufel

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San Luis Obispo Wineries:

compare their priceper bottle7

Balleyana Winery

Cerro Caliente Cellars

Domaine Alfred Winery

EdnaValley

Vineyard

KelseySee CanyonVineyards

SalisburyVineyards

SaucelitoCanyonVineyard

$50

$40

$20

$10

$30

$60

$90

$80

$70

$13-38 $10-36 $18-90 $10-40 $15-30 $18-35 $14-305

Photo of wine bottles: freevectors.com