Morro Bay Town

Morro Bay is a strange place. Here, a delightful 576ft perfectly-shaped rock stands surrounded by a peaceful estuary rich with herons, egrets, pelicans, and sea otters. A bay with sailboats anchored on glassy blue-green water rounds out the scene. It would be a postcard-like sight, except for massive imposing smokestacks that stand beside the rock, the remnants of a power plant that closed down in 2014.

A pleasant touristy area stretches out along the water on Embarcadero at the 700 block, offering restaurants and trinket stores. From the restaurants, you can look out the windows at seals swimming merrily by. It's a wonderful treat, and kids love to watch while they eat. You can also walk along the docks and coastal acess walkway behind the stores and look out on the sailboats, kayaks, the dunes across the water, the birds and seals, and amazing Morro Rock. At night, if you make sounds on the dock, seals will often echo back to you, "ar ar ar!"
Sweet Reef Boba, at one of the docks behind the stores, is a great place to have a delicious boba tea!
The Garden Gallery, at 680 Embarcadero, is a nice store to check out, with interesting pots, sculptures, and wind chimes by Woodstock for your garden. The meditating frog sculptures are the best!
On the 800 block of Embarcadero, you will find a giant sized chess board! It's great fun and free to have a game! There are also some tables with regular-sized boards where you can play. This is one of only two giant outdoor chess boards in the U.S.A! The other one is in New York City. Sun-N-Buns Bakery sits beside the chess board in the cutest building ever. Here you can share a milkshake. For breakfast or lunch, you can have a croissant sandwich melt.
At 845 Embarcadero is a playground between buildings, with water views. It is colorful and cute, with a mini carousel, snoopy car, killer whale bouncy, mosaic sea otter to climb, and amazing mosaic octopus to climb. 
Above the chess board is the Centennial Stairway, a gorgeous staircase made of redwood. This takes you to some more restaurants and also affords a fantastic view of the city, bay, and sand spit. Make sure you walk up it! 
If you want to get out of the touristy area and eat where the locals eat, check out Morro Bay Blvd, where cute coffee shops and stores line the sloped street. The best choice is Shine Cafe, where you can feel the hippie love while you eat the most delicious food! Try the black bean tostada salad! You can tell it's a great place to eat by all the people sitting outside- come early! Next door to Shine Cafe is a health food market where you can stock up on supplies. Across the street is Buttercup Bakery and Cafe, a counter-service bakery with a large outdoor seating area that is sunny on mornings with good weather. It is lovely to sit out there enjoying a sandwich made with Dutch Crunch bread, the bread from San Luis Obispo that is so yummy! They have summer concerts in August and early Sept, Saturdays 4-7pm. On cold days (a frequent situation), it is wonderful to sit at Scout Coffee at the counter by the huge windows and watch the world go by, while feeling warm yet almost outside. Come early so you can get a delicious ham and cheese croissant! Thai Elephant, one block down, is my favorite restaurant in Morro Bay. Have a pineapple red curry- it is the only good menu choice though, so don't come unless you are going to order it! If you stay at one of the hotels in the main part of town such as on Main Street you can walk to this area easily, and to the Embarcadero. This makes for a great vacation because you don't have to get into your car to do everything.
Sea otters and their babies often play in the water at Morro Bay T Pier. It's amazing to watch them!
After, your snack you can walk or bike from Embarcadero all the way to the base of Morro Rock and to wild, beautiful Morro Rock Beach on the Harborwalk, which offers a separate pedestrian path and bike path. Here you have a good chance of seeing sea otters on your left as you walk along! You may also see sand dollars at the estuary beach at the very end, on the left side of Morro Rock. 
Tidelands Park, at the very south end of Embarcadero, is a wonderful playground with a big cement ship that little captains can steer! The views of the bay and Morro Rock are gorgeous, with peaceful rowboats bobbing in the water at the docks and lovely little twisted trees catching the golden sunlight in the afternoon. Kids love to climb on the giant octopus sculpture, whale tale, seal, octopus, and dolphin sculptures.
There are some charming wooden stairs across from Tidelands Park where you can enjoy great views of Morro Rock, framed by Eucalyptus trees. The stairs lead to Morro Ave, where you can walk along checking out the cute houses and get back to your hotel.
Morro Bay is a freezing place. For some reason it is always ten or twenty degrees colder than everywhere around it, so dress warm.
You can also find hundreds of sand dollars, and pretty sand dunes, at windy, cold Cloisters Beach.
A few days before Halloween, Morro Bay is full of people dressed as witches and warlocks, many on canoes and paddle boards! On foggy Halloween days, it is mystical to see them all rowing around in the bay!
A wonderful place to go if you drive north ten minutes up the coast from Morro Bay is Cayucos, a little beach town with a pier, coffee shop, bakery, and waterfront cafe. Make sure you walk the clifftop trail at Estero Bluffs and see the shipwreck in the tidepools below! It looks like a movie set! You can also find green rocks just below the surface of round pebbles at the beach below the trail.

Directions

From Highway 1, head west on Morro Bay Blvd. Turn right on Main Street, and left on Beach Street. Turn left on Embarcadero. It veers to the right. Then park along the road as soon as you see an open parking space.
Shine Cafe, 415 Morro Bay Blvd, Morro Bay CA 93442, call (805) 771-8344.
Thai Elephant, 355 Morro Bay Blvd, Morro Bay, CA 93442, call (805) 772-5988.
Scout Coffee Morro Bay, 390 Morro Bay Blvd, Morro Bay, CA 93442. Open 6:30am-6:30pm.
Sweet Reef Boba, 845 Embarcadero, Morro Bay. Open 9am- varying times around 6pm.

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