Plenty of fun for pint-size travelers around Cayucos

Thunder the sea lion started bellowing as soon as we entered the room.

She roared, she barked, she howled. It was easy to tell how she’d gotten her name. But we were too startled by the clamor to understand her message.

Finally, she splashed over to the edge of the pool, so close that her shiny brown nose was less than a foot from us. She started bellowing again and clapping her front flippers. I looked down into her open mouth.

“The food. She wants the food,” I shouted over the din. Four-year-old Ethan had been clutching a small bag of fish food close to his chest. Now he flung it -- bag and all -- at our raucous new friend. It flew through the air, smelly gray pieces of smelt sliding out. Thunder grabbed them in midair.

While she slurped, we laughed ourselves silly, giggling and pointing and clapping. It was our turn to put on a noisy show.

Pretty good entertainment, I thought to myself, for $4.50.

Our little tour group -- my niece Gaylean Neville, her preschoolers, Ethan and Brooke, and my two dogs -- visited the Central Coast this month. We were looking for pint-size fun and adventure, good food and reasonable, dog-friendly seaside accommodations. We found them all within a 30-minute drive of Cayucos, a sleepy beach town that offers an inexpensive base for families in search of wild things.

Our visit to the Morro Bay Aquarium, about five miles south of Cayucos, was a good place to start. Thunder, Maggie and Loyd -- California sea lions -- hold court there daily, along with harbor seals Army and Cajun. The facility is modest, a storefront building with a sign reading Morro Bay Gift Shop and Aquarium, but a clerk in the gift shop assured us, “It’s the best little aquarium in the world.” And the price was right: children 5 to 11 are admitted for $1, adults for $2. A bag of fish food is 50 cents extra.

The tiny aquarium, which shares space on Morro Bay’s picturesque Embarcadero with restaurants and shops, has been owned by octogenarians Dean and Bertha Tyler since 1965. Twenty years ago they turned it into a nonprofit rehab center for injured or abandoned mammals. Besides the three indoor-outdoor pools for the harbor seals and sea lions, there are 14 small tanks holding octopuses, eels, sharks and other marine life. Though it lacks the panache of larger aquariums, it can’t be beat for getting up-close with the likes of Thunder.

“Kids or adults, everybody has fun feeding them,” Bertha Tyler said.

More fun awaited outside. We walked along the Embarcadero, watching anchored sloops and fishing boats bob in the estuary. A hungry otter floated by on its back, tap-tap-tapping a mollusk shell for lunch. When we reached a seafront playground, Ethan clambered onto a miniature sailing ship, and 2-year-old Brooke toddled over to a rocking seal. A pleasant spot to let off steam.

Though we could have spent a couple of days in the Morro Bay area alone -- the cliffs at Montana de Oro State Park are wild and beautiful places to explore -- we headed north in search of activities better geared to the carseat set. We found it on a stretch of Highway 1 coastline named Piedras Blancas, where elephant seals by the hundreds lolled in the sand. Ethan jumped out of the car and ran excitedly along a boardwalk above the beach, pointing out babies and giant bulls -- some of which weigh as much as 4,500 pounds.

Hunted nearly to extinction in the 19th century, the elephant seals now seem fat and happy basking on the beach at this rookery about eight miles north of San Simeon. A blue-jacketed volunteer docent from Friends of the Elephant Seal told us that about 3,000 pups were born here this year along a 4-mile length of beach. (For tips on when and where to view the seals, see www.elephantseal.org.)

We began working our way south along a stretch of the Pacific that is part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a protected area that extends north to Marin. Miles of windswept coastline, pocket beaches and tide pools flashed by the car window; for the most part, the shore was deserted.

Beautiful and low key

In Cambria, about eight miles south of Hearst Castle, we stopped for some quick sightseeing and a long lunch at Robin’s, a vine-covered cottage that features an eclectic menu of salads and Asian dishes. The shops and rugged coastline in this attractive hillside beach community appeal to visitors, many of whom find lodging in Moonstone Beach. I’ve stayed there myself and enjoyed it -- an oceanfront boardwalk makes it easy to stroll along the water’s edge -- but prices can be high in summer.

This time, low-key Cayucos beckoned.

“Let the slow pace and spectacular natural beauty work their relaxing magic on you,” reads the Chamber of Commerce website. When we checked into the Cayucos Beach Inn, Gaylean worried that its location on the town’s main street would keep her awake at night. Not to worry. Even during rush hour, few cars passed.

The motel was tidy and comfortable, offering a kitchenette, breakfast and special Bowser towels and blankets: “Pets are eagerly accepted at our inn,” says the brochure. Double rooms are $125 in summer, suites $135. Our extra-large, octagonally shaped suite cost $147 per night ($175 in summer) and had four beds. A park and playground -- great for kids and dogs -- separated the inn from the Pacific.

Gaylean and I liked the town best for its restaurants, particularly chic Hoppe’s Bistro, which specializes in stylish California continental cuisine, and the child-friendly Sea Shanty, a diner less than a block from the motel.

Brooke and Ethan liked Cayucos best for its long, empty pier -- a fun place to play -- and wide, sandy beach, where they dug holes, sat in them, threw sand at each other, got wet, rolled around, built sand mountains and knocked them down.

Pint-size fun and adventure. Just what we were looking for.

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Budget for four

Expenses for this trip:

Lodging

Cayucos Beach Inn,

two nights $294.30

Lunch

Robin’s Restaurant $40.53

Dinner

Sea Shanty $52.17

Dinner

Hoppe’s Bistro $86.80

Other meals $39.34

Admission, fish food

Morro Bay Aquarium $4.50

Gas $81.00

Final tab per person $149.66

CONTACT:

Cayucos Beach Inn, 333 S. Ocean Ave., Cayucos; (800) 482-0555, www.cayucosbeachinn.com.

Cayucos Chamber of Commerce, 158 N. Ocean Ave., Cayucos, CA 93430; (800) 563-1878, www.cayucoschamber.com.