10/13 Thurs.Items of note
today: I have lost track of the day and date, and need to refer to a guide for this information. Seems like a good sign. Also Jack just scrubbed the floor of the camper. So clearly we're evolving in to somewhat different people.
Our trip is going really well. We love the meals we cook in this little playhouse. The small space and never-ending clutter is not too annoying. The bed is comfy though interesting to climb in and out of. I'm sure we'll be glad for more comforts someday, but in the meantime, the adventure, lack of responsibility, and beautiful places we find, are well worth the inconveniences. Lissa and Ben are really happy in SF and it was so good to have the time with them. The whole day with Lissa was a treat; we first saw their brand new cute little apartment, then drove around shopping, and visiting the restaurant she works at (The Ramp) and meeting her friends there. For dinner we walked down the street and had a great Thai dinner, after a glass of wine at the little yuppie restarant also near them. The city was fun for us, after the semi-developed desert we live in. We left SF yesterday morning after the best latte ever on the planet since my last SF trip. How do they do that? There is some magic in the Bay Area that makes for the most heavenly smooth sweet espresso drinks. I could have stayed there all day people watching, drinking lattes. For many reasons we didn't want to leave SF. We've felt that about almost every place we've been; it's a theme. Having a month is just a tease. We feel like the time with both Corey and Lissa went by in a wink, and we miss them so much now. Then once we leave them and are smelling the salt air and watching the crashing waves, we still miss the kids but we're so in love with the ocean we don't want to leave it either. We drove up Hwy 1 yesterday, of course one of the most beautiful drives ever, any where. At least if it's not pouring rain which it wasn't. No landslides or car wrecks, either. So we lucked out, and wove in and out of fog and sun and unbelievable scenery. We love Santa Fe but this is so different in every way, that we're drinking it up and our appreciation of the ocean and everything related, is huge. Checked out a few campgrounds on the way up, and had cherry pie and coffee in Gualala yesterday, then ended up here at Manchester, which is just south of Mendocino. We love it here, and this is the first place we've spent two whole nights in one place. It's very quiet, only a few people out on the beach. A few other campers in the campground and even that's too many for us. The weather has been sunny and perfect during the day, not a cloud; nights are cold-ish. Yummy.Yesterday the quail showed up right in the campground. Oh, are they ever cute, these California Quail!
A group of 10-12, all full grown, with one big flashy male keeping an eye on them all and on possible threats, now and again calling them all back from their foolishness of eating the breadcrumbs I tossed them. They live in the brush right here at our camp, so they show up frequently, to my huge delight. Dang are they beautiful little sillies. Also lots of deer here. A doe with two still spotted youngsters among them. They walk on the beach too; we saw their tracks down there today. The high point of this place so far is Jack conversing with owls last night. We heard two of them hoo hooo hooooting, and went out to listen. Jack hooted back. They replied, and it went on like that for quite a while. It was dark, half moon out. Then we saw them when they flew to a cypress tree even closer to us. It went on and on. Jack said he's done this before, called it hooting up an owl. They came closer and closer, and at one point circled around us and landed in the tree we were standing under. So it was so close. All the while singing to Jack while he sang back. It was a wonderful night communicating with these magnificent birds. Jack thinks they were great horned owls and large; they didn't look that big to me so we'll look it up later, what owl they might be. As this was all happening and I started calling Jack by his new name, Sings With Owls, I thought of how happy my mom would be, that I have this man in my life who is such a joy, so odd and wonderful, and who loves nature as much as I do and as much as she did. So, perhaps she visited us last night in the form of an owl on a Northern CA beach, singing her hello and love. We love large birds, and today on the beach saw a group of 4-5 red tail hawks that we had interested in us due to the funny noises we were making. They were curious enough to stick around for a while till they realized how boring and inedible we were. Very long beach walk today; all day on the beach. No driving for the first time. We feel exhilarated and tired, and very much on vacation. Yahoo!
We're running out of time to do everything we want to do, and I think we'll have to nix the wild horse preserve up near Shingletown, in favor of the next few days near the ocean. A tough decision but I'm figuring since we have mountains and horses in NM, we'll drink up more ocean while we can. We are finding it so nurturing and beautiful we just can't head inland, which we'd have to do in two days if were were going to go see the horses. Too bad. Sings With Owls is out there again calling his friends but no luck this time.After a few more days of ocean, we'll go back to SF and pick up Lissa, then head over to Sacramento to see Arian, which will be great. We have such fabulous kids. A recurring conversation is can we somehow spend more time out here and see them all more.