I'll Take One of Everything!

I've treated my day like a restaurant menu. I've opened the menu and said, "Oh my goodness, I'll have one of everything!"

Have you ever wanted to do that? I have. So I've captured entirely too much and I cannot seem to make that final decision -- what to show if I can only show one thing. Then I think of the days that I can't even find one thing that seems worth showing. Is that called feast or famine?

Because this journal is for me--so that at the end of my year I can look back and recall the places I've been--I think I want to include as much of today as I possibly can. However, I do know you are looking over my shoulder, so I'll say, "Excuse me for this. Forgive me please!" Today we traveled Highway #1 on the edge of California's Pacific Coast. It's probably in the top ten, no make that top five, most beautiful places in this nation.

In 1986 and again in 1992, Mr. Fun and I rode our Santana tandem bicycle south from San Francisco to home in our City Circle of Corona. The Big Sur portion of those two journeys was the most spectacular. So we have a great fondness for this stretch of road. Today we traveled north from San Luis Obispo to Monterey. Today we drove through mist much of the way, with occasional rain, and once or twice drove up into the clouds.

My surprise this day was realizing that I was going to get to see Treebones Resort and I realized it just a mile before we got to the entrance. The resort is not exactly a hotel or motel because the rooms are Pacific Yurts. I've always wanted to stay in a yurt. If Bob dog had not been with us today, we probably would have spent the night at the resort--they had vacancies. Treebones sits high above the highway with amazing views way below of the ocean and the wet shiny thread of highway cutting through the land.

Mr. Fun's surprise was driving to the top of the mountain to stop in the bookstore of the New Camaldori Hermitage. Why Mr. Fun likes this place is beyond me because it is a place for "solitude" retreats, a place to meditate solo. Mr. Fun has never had a quiet fifteen minutes in his entire life. Talking is as natural and as necessary to him as breathing. I did not want to take the 10+ minute drive up the road to the Hermitage. It is a one-lane highway with sheer drop-offs. We drove up it once probably 12 or 15 years ago and I was quite convinced then that once was enough. Today within minutes of our detour to Treebones Resort, we were off the highway again and climbing to the sky toward the Hermitage. The BIG surprise was on the drive back down as the BIG brown UPS truck came driving up to make a delivery. Thankfully we found a little turnout in the road.

So this montage or poster blip starts at Morro Bay with the big rounded "rock" in the water. Then the next shot is the first sight of waves (we love the ocean more than words can describe). The third shot is on the stretch of pavement just north of San Simeon and leading to Ragged Point and the 70+ miles of winding road ahead. The fourth shot is a couple of the Pacific Yurts at Treebones Resort. The fifth is looking down from the Hermitage. The sixth is the UPS truck roaring up the road toward us. The seventh is the picnic tables at Lucia, a place that has a gift shop, a small restaurant, and a little motel. Eighth is looking over the edge toward Partington Cove. We actually made a U-turn to capture that sight. Finally, we paused for just a moment after driving over the Bixby Bridge. Mr. Fun actually clicked this one and cleverly managed to capture some extra sights in the mirror--thought he'd try to out-do my mirror photo from yesterday. No such luck.

So tonight I'm as full as I can be in the vision department. I took it ALL in and did not miss anything. If I had done that with food, I'd be called a pig. So I confess, I'm a piggy. But blipping just one of these photos in my journal was impossible, because if I had, it would have probably been the yurt at Treebones or the UPS truck aiming at us because they were the big surprises of the day, and then you would have missed so much of what we saw.

But truthfully, the big surprise of the day was looking at that highway--the skinny little shoulder on the other side--and acknowledging that Mr. Fun has actually convinced me twice to pedal a bicycle south on that ribbon of two-lane asphalt. How did I ever say "yes" to that? Maybe because I was younger, oh so much younger then. Maybe it was for love.

Tonight we're in Monterey after our first full day of "holiday" -- listening to a light rain fall outside this motel-room door. Tomorrow we'll explore Monterey and Carmel while weaving several more threads into this vacation tapestry.

So for now, good night from Monterey.

Rosie, aka Carol

P.S. You can google Morro Bay, Pacific Yurts, the Hermitage, Bixby Bridge--they are all worth investigating, especially the yurts. I forgot to mention that we also stopped at Coast Gallery--lovely.