“Road Trip – Week 2”
The Pacifica Rockaway Beach Holiday Inn Express was our office for calls on Monday. Fortunately our room had a nice balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean and a changing collection of surfers. That meant that one of us could conduct business from outside with the crashing waves as a backing track, while the other worked from inside. I enjoyed watching the different skill levels and strategies of the surfers. The 60 degree temperature and view were certainly a change from our back patio in McKinney. Just what we needed.
There was an issue with Clorinda’s hot water heater that Marco was in charge of remedying. He tried to enlist friends to assist with the replacement – this was unsuccessful but one friend did recommend the Vietnamese sandwiches from Dinosaur’s. I filed that away and we ordered a variety of those for lunch on Monday. We sat outside and enjoyed these on Amy and Adamo’s patio. My portobello was delicious.
Lunch was a bit boisterous as Luciano and Massimo competed to see who could be the least safe on a new see-saw toy that Any bought for them. What was she thinking? I can’t imagine a worse choice for those two monsters.
A typical Campagna project spun up on Monday afternoon – we need to replace the 20+ year old water heater that has started leaking. Adamo refused to help, reserving just the right to criticize and boss Marco around. Diana and Marco headed off to Home Depot and came back with a new heater, faucet and various other supplies. We left Marco and his supervisor to it and headed up the hill to Andy and Jude’s for Happy Hour.
Here’s an entertaining video of Marco “Sparky” going through his water heater installation checklist:
What a joy to be in a quiet environment with calm people! They were great 
hosts as usual and showed us videos of the resident mountain lion and cub playing in their fountain. The wildlife on Gypsy Hill has expanded quite a bit over the last year – deer were the main attraction but now we have added bobcats, mountain lions, and wild turkeys. Really, seven wild turkeys were congregated outside Clorinda’s kitchen window on Monday afternoon. I understand they peck at the glass pretty relentlessly – doesn’t seem like very “wild” behaviour.
We enjoyed a lovely sunset from Clorinda’s patio.
It’s always sad to watch the continued decline of Diana’s first car – such a pretty Fiat Spyder. I’m afraid it’s beyond restoration hope at this point.
Diana went up on “The Hill” to supervise the plumber on Tuesday morning – he was reviewing Marco’s water heater installation, installing a new kitchen faucet and fixing a sink. I stayed back at the hotel to get some meetings and work done. It was a warmer morning and so I was able to sit on the balcony and enjoy the surf show during my calls.
Dinner was takeout sushi from Go Sushi. Fortunately they had a chicken curry on the menu for me – it was actually very good. Clorinda and I ate outside with the boys and the see-saw made it’s way into the proceedings again.
I got to babysit Francesca for a while and enjoy the sunset – such a happy baby. Very pleased with her penguin dummy.
The wildlife show continued with a young deer checking out the parked cars.
Adamo shared some of his delicious lobsters with us for dinner on Thursday night and then it was time to get packed up for the continuation of the road trip.
On Friday we drove down to San Luis Obispo (home of Cal Poly where Will studied Mechanical Eng) with a brief stop to see Will at his office in the afternoon. It was entertaining to see his face when one of his co-workers told him “Your Dad’s here” – not what he was expecting at all. Will gave us a tour of the school that he’s remodeling and then we were on our way south.
Alicia brought us dinner to our hotel and we had a nice early night. Diana was up and looking for a running location on Saturday. Alicia suggested Shell beach on the north end of Pismo and that seemed to work out well.
Diana let me know that she could easily live there and had found some nice bungalows just off the beach. Maybe she forgot about California taxes and the elevated prices of absolutely everything. Turns out she was trying to find a compromise in our retirement destination desires – cooler weather for me and a beach for her. Not entirely out of the realm of possibility but a serious long shot.
After D’s morning exercise, we drove to Alicia’s house for breakfast. She made us some amazing Bloody Mary’s with crispy bacon stirrers and avocado toast – definitely becoming quite the hostess.
Saturday afternoon was spent with John and Madi at their home in Arroyo Grande. Ben and Lilly provided some great entertainment – they’re such good kids. Ben is an excellent baseball player for a 3 year old. Can you see the focus on his face as Mama D pitches to him?
John grilled up brisket and ribs and we had a lovely meal outside. I sat down inside to relax after dinner and was quickly joined by the kids looking for me to read some stories. Ben was almost asleep by book number three. Overall a very pleasant day on the California central coast.
Sunday took us on down the coast to Pacific Beach in San Diego to meet up with Campbell and Molly. Diana found an excellent hotel room for us on the beach at a boutique hotel called Tower 23. The balcony had a great view of all the action on the beach.
Campbell and Molly came over and joined us on the balcony for a while before we went downstairs for dinner at the Jordan restaurant in the hotel. Then they came back upstairs to watch the last of the sunset. I really enjoyed Molly telling us that, having to much time listening to Campbell’s sales pitches and follow up, she could easily tell the story for him. I particularly enjoyed her rendition of “and what have you” – something I say quite a bit.
As Molly’s sister was arriving to drive them home, we experienced our first live protest march. All very peaceful.
Whew! Another busy week but so nice to spend time with everyone.