40 Day Vagabonds

  We pulled into our family beach house in South Mission in San Diego around 5:00.  By the time we unloaded the 44 bags, took the bikes off and locked them up, unloaded the Thule and took that off, and got settled in, it was time to make a cocktail and watch the sunset...which did NOT look like this!  It was completely overcast.😑 But we did make the cocktail;-) We're so happy to be here.  Not just because we love this beach house.  Not just because we like looking at the beautiful scenery.  Not just because we love the bike rides and long walks on the beach... but because we don't have to carry our bags in a new place every night or two!! We  definitely packed too much!  At least we're in San Diego for 12 days, so it'll give us time to come up with a new strategy!  

  Before we headed south to San Diego, Mike and Kelly offered to show us around Cal Poly.  We'd never seen it and have heard great things about it.  They'd also been telling us about the infamous murder case of a Cal Poly student, Kristin Smart.  I had noticed several of her bill boards on our drive going south on I5, but didn't realize she disappeared in 1996.  25 years ago!  They told us about a podcast  Your Own Back Yard   that takes a deep dive into the mystery and retraces her last steps on the Cal Poly Campus. Well, being someone who frequently watches true crime stories, my interest was definitly peaked!  As we drove through the ENORMOUS, goreous campus, Kelly would bring points-of-interest in Kristin's case to my attention.  I was hooked. Not being an avid podcast listener, I actually couldn't wait to start the drive south to get into this story! We drove south about 90 miles to Santa Barbara where we decided to stop for lunch in   Brad's old stomping

  We got up early in the "manana" so I could drive Brad to Spanish Bay to play golf.  Muy bonita!  I wasn't "muy contenta", but it gave me more time to walk around the "bella ciudad" of Carmel.   They have a special art exhibit of "hearts" (corazon's) on display throughout the city of Carmel  I only photographed the ones I walked by, but I guess there are 10 in all that will be auctioned off this fall!  The proceeds will go to the Carmel's Women's Club and Leadership Program.  After Brad's golf Sanround, we had a lovely lunch overlooking the golf course with views of the ocean.  We than headed south to visit our friends in San Luis Obispo. Now, I'll be honest.  I've had two experiences with "SLO".  The first being when Braden was a toddler, and we stayed at a Holiday Inn off the freeway.  I can't even remember why we spent the night there.  I just remember being in a small, highly chlorinated (and probabl

  The minute you enter Carmel, you will notice there is probably a 1:1 dog to human ratio.  They are everywhere!  In hotels, in shops, under tables, on tables, in strollers, in front packs meant for babies.   And it seems there is a city ordinance or something that requires most of the dogs to be a Doodle of some sort.  Goldendoodles, labradoodles, bidoodles, schnoodles, sheepadoodles, and cockadoodledoos!  The lack of dog diversity in Carmel is concerning.  The Australian Shepards are shunned to the far end of the beach to incessantly chase their sticks.  The King Charles Cavaliers barely have a bench to sit on that's not occupied by a human or a Doodle!  And the Bichon Frise's are only allowed at the one French Bistro in town!  Doodles are taking over the world...one boujee resort town after another.  It's a Doodles world out there, folks! The Doodle Majority really became obvious on my morning walk.  I walked down to Carmel Beach which has breathtaking views of Pebble Be

  As we headed from Sacramento (a.k.a., The Big Tomato) to Carmel, I started noticing and smelling something.  Tomatoes.  I'm conservatively guessing 10-15 double-trailer, open-air semi's of tomatoes.  They looked like Roma tomatoes and they were mounding over the top of the trailers.  I mean, there had to be tens of thousands in each trailer...or more!  I kept thinking, "how do they keep them from falling out"?  Well, they don't! Sure enough, the tomatoes fly out on a fairly regular basis.  Thousands of them splattered on the sides of the road!  I wondered how many had smashed into cars!  How many car accidents had these tomatoes caused?  Why don't they put some sort of net or something over the tomatoes? Maybe they could saran wrap the whole truck!  What are they doing with these tomatoes? The ones on the bottom are obviously going to be crushed.  Surely these aren't going to the grocery store.  They must be heading to a processing plant to make sauce or

  We left EARLY from Bandon Dunes for the long drive to Sacramento.  Brad had conference calls he needed to take from the car (which ultimately didn't happen since we were in REMOTE Oregon!)  We wound our way southwest through beautiful lush scenery until we got to I5. The minute we got to I5, we drove into what looked like a dense fog. It wasn't fog.  It was SMOKE!  We could smell it from inside the car and visibility was terrible.  We couldn't see the mountain ranges that hug the interstate. We were "exhausted" so we only thought it appropriate to stop in "Weed", California to fill up for "gas".  I "lit up" when I saw they have a  Visitors Center.   I'm not exactly sure how busy they are.  It seems like most visitors to Weed have specific plans!  It's definitely not a "drag". We "fired up" the car and headed further south to Sacramento.  Almond Capital of the World.  America's Farm-to-Fork Capital.  S