We left our hotel to head over to Avila Beach, which is a tiny bit south of Pismo beach.
Even though there was fog along the coast, it eventually burned off by the time we arrived...
We found street parking near this hotel (free parking) since the main thoroughfare had only timed spots. Of course I noticed the tile work here...
The Virgin of Guadalupe shows up in the most unexpected spots!
Very nice!
And even more lovely tile work along that same stretch of street...
Avila Beach has two piers, the Avila Beach Pier, which is a commercial fishing pier open to the public; the other is not and is mainly used for research by Cal Poly SLO. You can see the second pier in the background.
Astroboi told me that not that long ago, Avila Beach used to be a small, sleepy but charming beach community. Then it was rebuilt entirely after environmental concerns that the whole town was sitting on polluted land due to an oil leak (those articles will be posted in my next post on Avila Beach). As a result, the whole town was razed and local citizens had to live elsewhere until the town was entirely rebuilt. The new main street for Avila Beach may look postcard pretty with all of the cute storefronts in various architectural styhles. However, I found it kind of a "sterile" and pretty only with a Disneyfied artificial facade.
Our first stop that morning was for coffee at Hula Hut which also sold ice cream by Doc Burnstein's Ice Cream Lab (we would end up visiting the flagship store in Arroyo Grande later that day).
Hula Hut was a mish mash of a store, selling coffee, smoothies, ice cream, knick knacks, decor, clothing, etc. Perfect for a tourist one stop shop I suppose.
Blended mocha shared with Bert...
Lovely view...
Avila Beach info:
wwwvisitavilabeach.com
Avila Beach - Trip Advisor
Hula Hut
480 Front St.
Avila Beach, CA 93433
(805) 627-0488
There is no website but here are the yelp reviews.
We were lucky to have found untimed parking near that hotel! Thank goodness! It was time to head out to the beach...
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