On Highway 1 in Morro Bay, California, the Best Western Tradewinds sits a block from the waterfront and the beach beneath the great volcanic dome of Morro Rock on the Central Coast. A relaxed base for the bay, it suits a lazy beach day, a fishing trip or a round of golf, with the embarcadero and its seafood shacks close by. Sea otters drift in the harbor below, and a coffee maker and free internet round out each room. The waterfront path begins a block away, and tour boats head out to the rock and the bay from the embarcadero. Morro Rock guards the mouth of a quiet estuary alive with herons and otters, the fishing boats, kayak liveries and chowder houses of the embarcadero line the bay, and the hilltop splendor of Hearst Castle and the dunes of Montana de Oro lie a short drive up and down the coast. Kayaks slip out among the sandspit and the birds.