When people say that driving Route 1 in California is: beautiful, treacherous, remote and loooong, they are right on the money. The farther south we drove from Big Sur, the more numb my hands became on the steering wheel, and I was feverishly scoping out helicopter landing sites in case we had to get Cesare out of here. Then, decided to let that all go. (Though didn’t stop me from asking the desk clerk at the lodge where helicopters do land here. Got that now. ) Cesare actually went from worse to better while we were in Santa Cruz. Fingers crossed.
_____________________________________
We stayed in an adorable hostel in Santa Cruz, which was actually a network of cabins. We were just three blocks from the beach. Apparently uncharacteristic of Santa Cruz weather, we were able to make it a true beach day and the kids had a blast in the waves. The kids multiplied by 2.5 with cousin Judy’s kids Roman and Chiara and friend Darcy’s cutie pie Rioma. (Pics of the five of them included). The same fun bunch met us in Yosemite last year and all of the kids really hit it off. Once again Darcy, Judy and Tom and I drank too much, and had a lot of laughs. Judy is a great role model for parenting, takes it all in stride (Roman! Chaira! Step outside for a beating… I want to get caught so they’ll put me away in a nice quite cell with three squares a day!”) I love that she and Darcy find entertaining the things we find annoying about our wonderful sons after 12 days on the road. I’m going to remember that beating thing.
Flowering cacti in Capitola, east of Java
Cousin Judy, honorary cousin Darcy
Cousin Roman on far right, and Chaira in the middle. Honorary cousin Rioma sandwiched between.
The yurt at http://www.treebonesresort.com/ . I'm betting the video of the yurt I'm trying to load, below, is never going to happen.
At the Santa Cruz hostel, I found a scale. It was really about time to check, and the damage wasn’t too bad. It did make me think, though, what these twenty something blond waifs from Germany and Holland really needed a scale for. As Tom and I chowed down on prosciutto and duck pate with Boudin’s sourdough in the communal kitchen and the waifs prepared their instant oatmeal and their donated after market produce it made me just a little self conscious.
____________________________________________
Ces and Griff enjoyed the beach and being with their cousins. For a cool $60 the four of us caught a movie and went out on a limb for some popcorn (after the $11 parking for the beach). How California could possibly be in a financial crisis gives one pause.
________________________________
We have just arrived at Treebones Yurt resort in southern Big Sur. Griffin keeps chanting “This is like heaven” and I suppose it is. Perched on a hill overlooking the ocean are 14 yurts of different sizes. Ours has two queen beds and a ping pong table! I’ve tried to embed a video I took of the room, but picture is above.
_____________________________________
Ces has been too unpredictable to keep traveling south, farther away from the city. When we leave here we return to San Francisco to a nice hotel (I’m over the hostels) for our last two nights and fly out on Wednesday.
I keep forgetting to say what a life saver, and what fun it has been to have Gypsy with us (the GPS that my Mom and Dad gave us recently). We found our way back to the hostel last night from nearby Capitola in Cantonese. Kate, we also have played several of the games you sent us! When we are not yelling at each other, it’s nice to have some family fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment