Madonna Inn Hotel:
It’s likely that you’ve heard of the Madonna Inn Hotel at some point. It’s a quirky and eclectic hotel in San Luis Obispo where each room has a different theme and the restaurant looks like it’s from a fairytale movie set. The entire place reminds me of Disneyland because every inch of it is covered in colorful details.
Liz and I drove up for a one night stay to take it all in and capture some epic photos. It’s about a 3-hour drive from Los Angeles (with minimal traffic.) We stopped at a Walmart on the way up to grab snacks and picnic supplies, only to realize there is a Ralphs, Denny’s, even a Target, and everything else you could need right across the street from the Madonna Inn Hotel.
We stayed in Room 160: The Austrian Suite which is one of the largest, if not THE largest, room on the property. It’s on the third floor (no elevator, hi stairs!) and overlooks the mountains and beautiful pastures with horses grazing. We had plenty of room to sprawl out and relax, however, there was hardly any relaxing going on. As soon as we checked in we had about 100 photoshoot ideas we wanted to get through. We shot a ton of photos in our room (see above.)
We spent the golden hour in a field shooting an epic picnic. Just an FYI, this field is NOT part of the Madonna Inn Hotel and we were probably trespassing. Luckily, from years spent on horse ranches, I knew to look for an electric wire before climbing over the fence. We were able to find the one spot that did not have the wire. That would have not been good (but funny!) if one of us had accidentally grabbed it.
Once the sunset, we headed to dinner at the Madonna Inn Steakhouse. Honestly, the food was subpar in general and not worth the steakhouse prices. We could have eaten at Denny’s and plenty of other options right around the corner.
After dinner, Liz and I relaxed with a glass of wine. We considered heading to the hot tub, but once we laid down it was lights out for us.
The next morning we awoke nice and early to shoot in the Secret Garden and the pink tennis courts. The golden glow that came over the garden while we were there was nothing short of magical.
I think these photos from the tennis courts are my favorite because although I have a fitness section on the blog, I haven’t written about athletic apparel very much. I am going to work on changing that this fall. Since working out is a part of my weekly routine.
