San Luis Obispo

Sitting right in the middle between San Francisco and Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo is one of the oldest towns in California.  It was founded when Father Sierra built the Mission San Luis Obispo here in 1772.  Today it is a popular and charming little city that is home to The California Polytechnic State University or Cal Poly for short.

Over looking the town, the mission still stands.  I love visiting the old mission churches so we stopped in to take a look around.

The interior looks similar to the Mission San Luis Rey, another mission I shared with you here.

After we left the nave, we took a  stroll through the mission gardens behind the church.

 The Mission Bells.  The one on the left is called the Joy Bell, the one in the middle is the Gloria Bell and the one on the right is called the Sorrow Bell.

From the front of the church you can look down into the town.

 When we had finished touring the mission we wandered down to the San Luis Obispo Creek that runs through the center of town. Usually when we stop through here there is just a small stream of water meandering slowly through the town.  This day, with all the stormy weather it looked more like a river getting ready to overflow it banks.

In fact, it was coming over the walkway in one spot so we had to cross over the bridge to the other side.

 There are actually a number of cute little bridges and sidewalk restaurants along the creek which remind me a bit of the Riverwalk in San Antonio.

I spotted this rock wall on our way back to the car.  It looks like it might have been an old foundation or wall to something.  I wonder what it was?  I am guessing that the walls to the old mission might look like this under the whitewashed clay or stucco.  It's fun to imagine anyway.  Thanks for stopping by.