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Best bets: Family adventures lead to adventure guide book

By Emily Welly

Local writer Jennifer Best poured her background into her first book, “Best Family Adventures: San Luis Obispo County.”

In fact, it’s hard for Best to say when she actually began the book because she feels like she’s been researching the topic her entire life.

Best was raised in San Luis Obispo and worked in communications for the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce for three years. She has written for the Adobe Press and other Central Coast publications.

After resigning her position as education reporter for Lee Central Coast Newspapers, Best took on an assignment to write a weekly outdoor article.

She stuck to favorite spots within 150 miles of Santa Maria, where she lives, and packed up her children and husband to explore them.

Her stack of stories — to which she retained the copyright — began to grow, and Best realized she had a possible book.

She decided she’d focus on San Luis Obispo County, since a majority of her adventures had taken her there, and a little research revealed that no similar book had been written on the county.

And so began “Best Family Adventures: San Luis Obispo County.”

Best’s oldest daughter, Erica, now 6, was in a baby carrier when Best began writing articles that wound up in the book, and her 3-year-old daughter, Valerie, wasn’t even born yet.

But it wasn’t until last fall that she began working earnestly on the book in which those stories would be compiled.

“I had to learn a lot,” she said.

Best became a publisher, got a seller’s permit, found a distributor and is now working to find stores to sell the book.

She published the book herself, using an ISBN number given to her by her grandmother after she published a book about her own mother. Self-publishers are required to buy ISBN numbers for their books, and they are sold in groups of 10.

Best plans to print 3,000 copies of the book and expects it to become available June 7.

She doesn’t think she’ll see a profit from the book until at least 500 copies are sold. But she’s not hoping to get rich from it.

“Pay off a couple of bills,” she said casually.

The book’s 20 chapters are divided into sections that read like school subjects: arts, letters, nature, history and other adventures.

The book’s chapters are devoted to particular communities in San Luis Obispo County. Best also includes a chapter called “Outlying Areas & Day Trips” that details a few special spots outside the county lines.

Each adventure — more than 500 in all — includes an address, telephone number, Web site, driving directions and descriptions.

The book also includes references to numerous guidebooks in the area.

“I didn’t try to re-create those,” she said, referring to already-published guides on places in the area.

According to Best, the book caters to people of all ages, including teenagers and older generations, not just to families with young children. Still, it is evident her daughters’ penchant for adventure helped propel Best’s research.

Best said she’s met other parents that can’t believe she’s been brave enough to take her 6- and 3-year-olds to museums and art galleries.

“Follow them,” she advises parents about how to make a trip enjoyable for everyone involved.

By following her children on hikes and through museums, Best said, she’s been able to see what they’re interested in.

“The girls helped with everything,” she said, and so did her friend Julia Cabreros, who accompanied the Bests on most of their adventures and, along with Best’s husband Steve, served as an editor throughout the writing process.

Best’s ability to continue to fit family adventures into their lives is to be commended. She acknowledges they’re busy, between school and swimming and ballet. She also coaches swimming at St. Joseph High School.

Still, the third Thursday of every month, the Bests take a trip to explore a place they haven’t seen before.

Best and her daughters also volunteer once a month as docents at the Natural History Museum in Santa Maria. Since she home-schools them, the activity acts as a lesson for the kids and gives them a chance to experience community service.

Since putting the book together, Best has realized it could be used in home-schooling as a guide for educational field trips.

She hopes parents and kids mark up the book like a textbook, making notes of what works for them and what to try next.

“That’s what I imagine,” she said. “I hope that happens with this book.”

June 02, 2006