Home here and there

I quite like Pismo Beach and the surrounding area. We have been here before multiple times and the plan was to go on an ATV ride in the dunes in the morning. Unfortunately the weather forecast was correct and it was pouring the whole day long. We had some time to kill because I had booked an escape room for 4pm that we could not move. We started by going to Barnes and Noble in San Luis Obispo. A bookshop is always a good idea in my opinion. We were hoping the rain would let up a little so we could have a look at the bubblegum Alley – not so much. A wall of bubblegum is quite yucky in the rain (it is yucky all the time but even more in the rain).

We made our way to Pismo Beach and spent the rest of the time with games and lunch at an arcade place. The escape room was a full success. It was the Alice Room at the Locked Inn. It was one of the best and hardest rooms I have done so far and it was really fun.

Driving on to Tehachapi to spend the night there and be closer to Las Vegas.

On day 1 we drove down to Pismo Beach from the Bay Area. The main tourist attraction Highway 1 along Big Sur was out of the question because you can’t get through right now due to a landslide. The last couple of years this has been a pretty regular occurrence but it sure is beautiful when it is open.

So on this fine day we took 101 instead and stopped at the Sculpterra Winery & Sculpture Garden in Paso Robles. It was a nice break from the road and the adults had a glass of wine while wandering through the gardens.

There are quite a few sculptures in the garden and it’s really beautiful out there

The best thing? Probably the late afternoon sun on the fall leaves. It’s magic right there.

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind and after not going to bed before midnight for a couple of days I gave in and was not typing blog posts for NaBloPoMo. I am writing this on my phone in the back of our trusted minivan. My BIL and SIL arrived and now we are on our way down the coast. They already got the full on Northern California winter experience with non stop rain for a whole day. Yesterday was sunny though and we took a ferry Ride to San Francisco. The day started out with a surprise flat tire. Luckily we were right around the corner from a tire shop and they fixed it in 20 minutes so we actually made said ferry in time. Good that I am always on the early side.

In my opinion taking the ferry is the absolute best way to travel to the city. I was surprised how many Holiday decorations were already up.

Now I have to spend some time researching our first stop along the way. Can you tell yet I am not quite up to speed? Usually I have that planned out ahead of time. Stay tuned for more road trip reports to come.

I have caught myself backdating posts the last couple of days since I had/have a hard time keeping up with posting let alone commenting on other blogs. So please don’t think I am ignoring your posts – I have been skimming but was a little short on time commenting. I am trying to catch up – promise!
One annoying thing was that our internet at home was out over the weekend. I don’t know if I should call it luck that it was an more centralist issue that not only affected us? At least we did not have to wait for AT&T to show up at our house but “just” needed to wait for them to fix the bigger issue at hand. We don’t have AT&T service but our provider still uses their lines in our neighborhood. It really makes you realize for how many things you rely on the internet working these days. Not to mention that typing on the phone is not the best.
Part of me was asking myself “What were you thinking when you signed up for NaBloPoMo?” We have BIL and SIL visiting this week and besides the birthday celebrations last weekend I spend a decent amount of cleaning. With all the back problems the house cleaning fell a little short. But hey, I was still able to walk the next day so I guess overall it is getting better. The added fitness classes, chiropractor and PT visits don’t help with my time management but I feel like it’s starting to pay off what is all that counts right now.

So anyway, I guess this is a sort of apology post and I hope you stick around even if I don’t manage to catch up on all the posts you have written!
How is NaBloPoMo going for you this year?

A couple of years ago I started wishing for a drawing or other creation for my birthday from my kids. I thought it would be a good idea to have these memories at some point. I got a sketchbook exactly for this purpose. – so every birthday for myself and my husband another page (or two) get filled.

This year my daughter made me a family portrait in water color and my son drew me a penguin (my favorite animal).

Somehow my daughter also got roped into making me vouchers for my other presents.

I got tickets for a Christmas concert in the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco that also includes a part of Christmas Oratorio by Bach (hence the image). And also the tickets for the Matchbox Magic Flute (below).  I love the cards as much as the voucher itself and will keep them in the sketchbook, too. Do you keep special birthday cards as memento? What would you wish for if you had to pick an outing?

We always start birthdays with cake for breakfast. This year I even had two cakes (it was actually three total but one we already had at work a day previously). After getting the cake from my colleagues another co-worker stopped by the lab and what do you think – with another cake. Since everyone was already filled up on cake I took the second one home and my family gave me one, too. So lots of cake all around.

Most of the rest of the day was spent as usual but we did go out for dinner followed by the musical play “The Matchbox Magic Flute”. I thought it was great! I wished for it and had the condition that no-one complained. It turned out it would not have been necessary since everyone liked it. Maybe that is something we can do more often together as a family. With everyone having different interests it’s sometimes hard to find something everyone likes.