Farmers' Market is a popular destination on Thursday nights in Downtown San Luis Obispo

For Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students, the Central Coast is like a nest. You get spoiled enjoying the area's amenities, but sooner or later, you are forced to fly away and settle elsewhere. And it's only then you realize just how great you had it.

So it is for my wife April and I. We lived in the area for two years while I attended graduate school. But like the thousands of others in the Cal Poly diaspora, we left town after graduation in search of gainful employment with fond memories of a laidback, college-town lifestyle. Visiting is now a rare treat.

With reservations at the Inn at Avila Beach, we scheduled a Thursday afternoon departure. The timing had little to do with avoiding the busier weekends, although that was a welcome secondary benefit, and everything to do with Farmer's Market, a Thursday night San Luis Obispo tradition and a must-do activity. More on that later.

Avila Beach has always been a unique place, but the town finds itself on the cusp of a new era, thanks to a massive clean-up necessitated by leaking oil pipelines and the resultant rebuilding. Nearly 100 years ago the bay was once the largest crude oil shipping port in the world. Oil was stored in tanks above town and pumped through pipes that ran under the three blocks of Front Street and along piers out to tankers in the bay for shipment to San Francisco, Los Angeles or elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the pipes leaked, discharging 400,000 gallons of crude oil, diesel fuel, and gasoline into the soil and sand. Years of legal wrangling culminated in a massive excavation project in the late 1990s that dismantled the charming hodge-podge of Front Street as buildings were demolished or moved, and carried away 100,000 tons of contaminated sand from the beach.

If this doesn't sound like the setting for a romantic weekend, rest assured, the cleanup is done, the reconstruction is very much in progress, and hazmat suits look out of place on the beach again. The pier is rebuilt and fresh sand beckons beachgoers year-round. Parts of Front Street are now closed to cars, creating an inviting promenade.

The Inn at Avila Beach features oceanfront rooms with private balconies perfect for lounging and taking in the expansive views of the Central Coast

For now, the Inn at Avila Beach remains the only option for waterfront lodging, and it certainly holds true to the character of the "old" Avila. A festive combination of Mediterranean and Mexican Riviera, it was refurbished in the mid 1990s to be a "home away from home." It bears the thoughtful, personal and artistic touches of its owners, Michael Kidd and Kevin Thornton, and it is clear their goal to make you feel as if you are staying at a friend's beach house is achieved. Whether it's the library stocked with books and videos available for check out on the honor system, or the Great Room, which offers free bottled water, hot chocolate and coffee all day, you really do feel at home.

After check-in, we settled into our second-floor ocean-view room, popped some complimentary microwave popcorn and sat on the balcony watching the waves roll in while the Beach Boys "Live in London" played on the in-room turntable. Yes, turntable! Just another of the special touches that surprise and please, like plush bathrobes hanging in the closet, and in-room refrigerators stocked with bottled water that come standard with every room.

We lounged for a while and did what only parents can: missed our kids like crazy while being thankful they were at home. A glance at the clock ended our lounging. It was nearly 6 p.m., which meant it was time to head for San Luis Obispo to partake in one of the best small town traditions anywhere: Thursday night Farmers' Market. (Or simply, "Farmers'," as it's called by the locals.)

Six blocks of Higuera Street in the heart of Downtown SLO are closed to vehicular traffic and opened between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to thousands of pedestrians who come to nosh on the offerings of food vendors, buy fresh produce, catch a live band, or simply watch the world go by.

More than just a place to buy fresh produce, Farmers' Market is something of a weekly fair. Anybody and everybody has a booth: liberals, conservatives, atheists, evangelists, massage therapists, and local restaurateurs who move their kitchens to the curb and serve up Chinese food, Mexican food, Italian food, barbecue, and dessert. And, of course, more than a dozen farmers with the greenest lettuce, juiciest tomatoes, sweetest fruit, and freshest flowers you'll find anywhere.

We wandered through the throngs, sampled produce from different vendors, bought some luscious raspberries and debated what to eat for dinner. With such a sidewalk smorgasbord, it was not an easy decision. We shared a calzini stuffed with chicken sausage, red sauce, mozzarella and grilled peppers and onions from Buona Tavola. It was so good we discussed getting a second one, but succumbed instead to the unmistakable aroma of Mo's Smokehouse BBQ in the adjacent booth. The shredded pork sandwich, which they top with coleslaw in the Southern tradition, was as good as we remembered it.

Having had our fill of both produce and dinner, we pondered what to do with the rest of the evening. A couple blocks north of Higuera Street is the Palm Theatre, San Luis Obispo's outlet for foreign, art house and independent cinema. We arrived just before a showing of the documentary "Murderball," which follows the USA wheelchair rugby team, so we bought our tickets and hurried inside to enjoy a rare treat: a movie without children.

Driving back to Avila, we contemplated something else that was possible without children: sleeping in. We stopped at the Madonna Inn bakery counter for a cinnamon pecan pull-apart loaf so we could enjoy an in-room breakfast whenever we awoke.

The waves serenaded us to sleep and were the first thing we heard in the morning. Following our lazy breakfast of berries and baked goods on our balcony, we wandered along the pier enjoying the sun and cool breezes, and visited the handful of shops on Front Street that were open to find some trinkets for the kids.

Another mandatory activity for our Central Coast visits is a stop for apples, which we made on the way home. Nearby See Canyon benefits from a unique microclimate that is perfectly suited to growing apples. Consequently, the area is home to several orchards that sell their fresh-picked fruit. The best of them (at least in April's opinion) is Gopher Glen. There are supposedly more than 6,000 varieties of apples in the world, and I think Gopher Glen grows most of them. (Not really, but the selection they do offer is dizzying.) The only way to really decide what to buy is to partake of the samples they gladly offer.

And no trip would be complete without dining at Chef Rick's Ultimately Fine Foods, which brings to life the old cliche about never judging a book by its cover. There really is a Chef Rick, and Rick Manson still owns and cooks in his namesake restaurant. This culinary gem is adjacent to a defunct grocery store in a Santa Maria strip mall. From the outside, there is no hint of the inspired decor, personable service and passionate cuisine awaiting you on the inside.

The food is unlike any other and reflects Chef Rick's personal philosophy: "Everything I do gohn be funky from now on ..." Some call the menu a blend of Southern Louisiana, Southwest, and Southern California influences. But describing the food is pointless. You just have to experience it for yourself. Where else can you find a lunch menu that boasts crispy beer-battered salmon tacos with jicama guacamole and green chile, black-eye pea rice? Or a black and bleu caesar salad with blackened Louisiana prime rib and gorgonzola cheese?

As always, we left very full, but content. And like the six-layer pecan-carrot-pineapple cake with pecan ice cream we had for dessert, it was sweet to savor the simple pleasures of the Central Coast, if only for a couple of days.