CA Trip Day 5 - Take 2

Oh, Day 5… I have already written this once, and deleted off my blog by accident! Of course, I didn’t keep a copy. I’ve used this as a debriefing, and now I’m going to relive it again.

Okay, so here we go…

We woke up in Pismo Beach that Wednesday morning. I actually woke up before Jim did. The seagulls were calling to each other and anyone else who would listen, so I stood next to the sliding door and watched the waves crash in, the birds flying by, and the clouds hanging low over the ocean. All of a sudden, I saw something in the water, so I woke Jim up.

 

“Hey, I think there’s a dolphin out here!” I said excitedly. “Come look!”

“Is it the rocks?” he asked.

 

And we both laughed We had already had this conversation the night before except it was him thinking it was something then. No such luck. It was the rocks.

We got ready and went down to eat breakfast at the buffet. This was the first time we had breakfast at the hotel since we had been on our trip. It was so crazy crowded! People were standing around with their plates waiting for someone to get up from the table.

After we loaded everything up again, we went to the outlet mall. Jim was looking for some different shoes, so we went into the Vans store and got a great deal. Then he thought Challenger (there is no sense in using THE before it anymore) needed a car wash. On our way out of town, we stopped at another little shopping area for some coffee at Starbucks. When we were walking by a bagel store, Broadway Bagel Café, we decided to in there instead. They were playing music from musicals, and we had some really good coffee and bagel sandwiches.

 

Then we headed down the road to Monterey.

 

We were taking the PCH, Pacific Coast Highway. I had in my mind how beautiful it would be, but nothing I imagined could compare to the actual scenery of it all. The vastness of the water and the sailboats, the people, the sights are just something I am still finding hard to find words for.

When we started heading up in the mountains near Big Sur, things started changing for me, and I was pretty nervous. I had been looking at the map for so long while planning this trip, and it seemed like there was always at least one accident on the PCH. Thankfully, we didn’t see any on our trip. The up and down, curving this way and that, it was a good thing I took Dramamine or I really would have been in trouble.

We stayed at a little place in Pacific Grove, The Best Western Plus, which was located in a residential neighborhood. When the clerk learned it was my birthday the next day and we were celebrating our 25^th anniversary, he went into the back room and came out with a bottle of wine for us, which I thought was very sweet.

This place must have been a former townhouse community because we even had garages to park in, which was a nice touch. And it was funny the number of the room we stayed in… 114. Because we consider 14 our “lucky” number. We met on the 14^th, Jim became a Christ-follower on the 14^th (the same 14^th, by the way), and our son, Caleb, was born on the 14^th. Coincidence? 

 

We only stayed in the room long enough to get settled, and then we left for our adventure in Monterey on Cannery Row. Of course, it was hard to find parking, so we paid to park in a lot on one of the ends of the street. My directions were so turned around that I can’t even tell you what direction we were.

In the meantime, our friends were giving us suggestions about places to go and restaurants. We took some advice and had dinner at Louie Linguini’s. We sat out on the patio under heating lamps. It was still foggy, damp, cloudy, and the smoke from the fires was also hanging around. It was a great location, though.

 

 

 

I kept wondering if we were ever going to see the sun set on the ocean. It hadn’t happened so far, and it was one of the things I was most looking forward to. Watching the sun disappear over the water...

After dinner, we walked around the little stores on Lighthouse Avenue. It was a lot of fun.

 

When we got back to the car, we had to drive around and search for a corkscrew for the wine because we just don’t carry one with us. We went into a Trader Joe’s because we’ve never been in one before. They were out of stock. Can you believe that? We did find one at another grocery store, and then we went back to the room and played Canasta.

When we went to bed that night, it would be my last day being 50. This trip was something that I had been looking forward to for so long, and it wasn’t disappointing. I was missing my kids, but I was not missing the Texas heat.