San Luis Obispo (night of the 1st November)
Our destination for the night of the 1st of November was Madonna in around San Luis Obispo. We drove through Bel- Air with no fresh prince in sight
(I’m so lame) onto Stearn Bay Wharf where we had lunch.
We then stopped at Solvang which is this little European/Dutch kinda style village. The whole town centre, and even most of the residents there live in old style houses like this.
We went to see the Pismo Beach Butterflies which are around this area at this time of year. Each year thousands of vibrant orange and black Monarch Butterflies flock to Pismo Beach, seeking shelter from the freezing northern winters. From late October to February, the butterflies cluster in the limbs of a grove of Eucalyptus trees at Pismo State Beach. When we first came in we couldn't spot them high in the trees. But after taking a rest there we soon saw them flitting up high around us. Couldn't quite get pictures of them. But it was a really peaceful and beautiful area.
Then on the eagerly anticipated Madonna Inn! One of the coolest hotels I’ve ever seen and I have been wanting to go to it for many years now.
You can tell I was excited by the pictures I took.
We stayed in the Romance room. I chose this one when looking at them online. It was pretty kitschy but done so well and in no means run down or cheap which is the connotations that usually come with ‘kitschy’. The room had a rock shower which was different, but it was very slippery! I was scared I was going to cane myself! Wet rock is not the best for standing on. The rock was even on the roof so enclosed in it got steamy but it did my mucus self a favour. Adrian also made a surprised noise in the bathroom. He wouldn't tell me why. he said I would find out when I needed to use the bathroom myself… I couldn't think of what it might be but soon found out - warm toilet seat! Haha. Def nice esp as a bit colder now we weren't in LA!
We took a look around some of the grounds on our way to dinner. This is the pool and fitness centre area. There are a lot facilities on site at Madonna. You don't ever have to leave and why would you want to?
They have pink lemonade! Soo good.
This is our entree - I had yummy abalone and Adrian had endive stuffed with cheese and raspberry sauce. Adrian loved it but I wasn't so much of a fan, it reminded me of 70s dinner party food. That said it suited the pink retro restaurant down to a t!
Pink champagne cake also fit well, not so much into our stuffed bellies. Especially as we did entrees plus mains…dessert was shared and even then not finished! was a big bit of cake and most of it icing/creaminess! I think I had some pasta and prawn dish for my mains. Adrian had steak as it was a steakhouse after all.
Even going off to the loo is an adventure. You never know what you might spy… There was a wine cellar down by the bathrooms, pretty.
This is the view of the restaurant from above taken the next day when we were looking in the souvenir store. They had some funky stuff in there I tell you! That morning when we were on our way to said store and brekky I spied Neil Gaiman one of my fave authors (wrote Coraline and Stardust) with his famous singer wife (I dont know her but I’ve heard of her from others) taking pictures outside the place and then inside to have brekky also. Pretty exciting. I’m too shy to say hi of course, I also think that just because people have heard of you doesn't give everyone the right to hassle you when you are having a nice brekky together. They are just people after all, it was just cool to see them and to see another cool person checking out the place I also loved. Okay they actually stayed there too, I read his journal. After grabbing brekky we had to move on. I didn't want to! Madonna Inn was so me, haha.