Returning to Normal

After Friday's tumultuous start to the weekend, the rest of it went smoothly and pleasantly. Thank goodness. Debbi especially needed an easy weekend and some downtime.

She'd suggested this past week that we should head over to the coast. We keep talking about driving over there on a rainy weekend day and sitting in the car on the coast reading while the rain comes down around us. But we never seem to get around to it. So we decided to go to the coast anyway, on Saturday. (After checking to make sure we knew where all the kitties were, of course!)

We started in Half Moon Bay, where we had brunch at the Main Street Grill, a flat-out charming diner filled with old jazz music and a cook who sings along with the odd bit of tune from time to time. And the food's good, too! I think this might have been where John and I had breakfast after going to Moss Beach on my vacation to the area seven years ago, but I don't recall; there's another place two blocks down which might also have been the place. In any event, the Main Street Grill is a keeper.

We spent a bit walking around downtown. Debbi found a perpetual calendar with a cat motif, which she picked up. And we stopped in the Feed and Fuel (a Half Moon Bay institution) and bought a few cat toys and said hi to the bunny rabbits for sale.

Then we drove up to the Marine Wildlife Refuge at Moss Beach. The ranger station was open when we got there, which was unusual (I don't know what their hours are, but there aren't many of them). Then we walked along the beach for a bit, and got to see a bunch of harbor seals bobbing around in the water, presumably hunting for food in the rocks (which in a few hours would be above water). Debbi took some pictures, but I don't think they showed anything more than black smudges against the water. The seals were fun to watch for their movements and occasional splash when they went under - not very conducive to still photography.

We decided to make the drive down to Santa Cruz, and the trip was leisurely and the weather held at bright, cloudy, but dry. We stopped at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, since I wanted to see if they'd repaired it and if tours of the light had started up again. Some chunks of metal and masonry fell off a few years ago. Sadly, it's going to cost $3 million to restore the lighthouse to make it safe again, and the Coast Guard has decided to divest itself of the land. A preservation group is apparently trying to get custody of the lighthouse, at which point they can begin fundraising for the money to restore it. But there's no timetable for it to re-open. Alas. The tour was quite good and I'd like to go on it with Debbi.

In Santa Cruz we shopped at Logos, bought some cookies, and otherwise just walked around for a bit. Then we decided we'd had enough of an outing for the day - we'd been on the road for about six hours - and Debbi took the keys (to give my feet a rest) and drove us home.

The kitties were safe and sound and we were glad to see them

Today was even quieter: Bought some stuff at the farmer's market, and went to the library. Debbi got a library card and took out a book, while I took out eight (!) CDs from the library's jazz section. I also plan to start taking out their videotapes of the Ian Carmichael Lord Peter Wimsey adaptations. Maybe next week!

At home, Debbi did some scrapbooking with her friend Lisa, and I worked on stuff upstairs.

And that - plus Debbi cooking dinner - was pretty much the day.

Definitely a nice change from Friday, and once we got over the stress of hunting Debbi's darned cat in the dark it was a pretty nice weekend.