Cathardic Coast

And it was. Cathardic. At least until I got home. But that's a story for later on in this post. So here's the story:

We left Friday morning after getting the dogs to the kennel and loading up the car. I have to interject here that the weekend's weather was (to quote Jim Carey) B-E-A-U-tiful! It couldn't have been any better. New flowers. Little critters. Just amazing.

So anyway, we're in the car on the way to the coast. We arrived at our hotel room which was literally right on the ocean in Cayucus (Shoreline Inn -- stay there if you are looking for a hotel recommendation). We had 2 king size beds so Shaun took one and George and I took the other. It was a huge room...HUGE. Donna and Bob weren't there yet so we had some time to kill.

We took a few "from the room view" pictures and then went for a walk down to the pier. Came back and went into Morro Bay. We did some window shopping and found a place to eat called The Hoffbrau that seriously lifted our skirts something fierce. I had a bowl of clam chowder and a few bites from George's tri tip french dip. Oh my goodness! This was honestly the BEST beef dip sandwich I have ever had! So good! From there we came back to our hotel and hunkered down for a few minutes. Donna and Bob got there just before 10:00pm so we didn't have a lot of time to visit with them. Off to bed. Check off Friday.

Saturday was a super full day. We did so much! Bob and I started off the day with a walk down to the pier again. We watched the surfers (one looked like a hippie version of Santa Claus) and talked and walked back to our room stopping and saying "good morning" to every person with a dog. Which was about 30. People with their dogs were everywhere. It was kinda kewl.

Then we packed up Mom's ashes and all piled into the car and headed off down the road to San Luis Obispo's airport. When we got there, we met our pilot, Al (I think?) and his plane. George asked me after what I was expecting and I wasn't really expecting anything but, it was a really small plane. You could only seat the 6 of us...nothing else. Bob and I sat in the back, then Donna and George and Shaun sat next to the Pilot in the cockpit. Uber cool for him. I think our pilot put Mom's ashes into a paper bag before we left? I think it was just easier for him to dump her out like that from a grocery bag.

Up and away we went, flying 3,000 feet over the California Coast. We flew over to San Simeon and Hearst Castle. Then we flew back to Morro Bay and right before the rock, the pilot told us he would spread Mom's ashes and he opened up his window and Mom went flying out. It was a beautiful setting...a beautiful day and to show us all how happy she was about it, within seconds, we saw a whale breaching the water. A WHALE! It was awesome! And it was rather a touching coincidence that it happened at that very moment. I loved it. Whatever happened between me and Mom, whatever we had and didn't have, it didn't matter right then. What mattered was that this was/is her final resting place and it was breath catching. We continued to fly to almost Pismo Beach and then home to our airport. It was a lot of fun and really a wonderful final resting place for Mom.

After that, we went to a gun shop that Shaun wanted to visit and then we went to Morro Bay to have lunch at the Harbor Hut. Donna had clam chowder in a bread bowl (and then gave me the bread bowl for our next stop) and Bob had calamari strips. Shaun and George each had hamburgers and I had a piece of chicken. I was so excited because right behind where George was sitting was a HUGE angel trumpet plant! (I have one at home that I've been growing and I love it!) It was the biggest one I've ever seen. After that, we drove to the shoreline by the rock and I fed the bread bowl to the seagulls. I know they are flying rats but it was still so much fun to feed them. But the best, the absolute best thing were these little rock squirrels that scurried up the rocks and I fed them some nuts I had with me and they literally crawled onto my lap. One of them, a particularly brave little fellow, his cheeks got SO big from all the nuts. It was awesome!

From there, we went up the coast again, past Cayucus and we drove through Cambria and showed Shaun the beautiful little hotels on Moonstone Beach. He wants to come back with Jessica and Winston. I won't comment. Anyway, more driving up the coast to Piedras Blancas where there elephant seals are. There were mainly just babies there...not much going on this time of year, but it was still cool. I think that Shaun enjoyed it. I hope he did because I think it was pretty cool. Then we came home and collapsed for about an hour, dressed up and went back into Morro Bay and went to the *nice* Harbor Hut restaurant for dinner. Bob had crab salad, Donna had a seafood combination plate, George and I shared halibut and Shaun had steak and lobster. It was a really wonderful dinner. Then we returned home and yakked a little bit in our room...I showed Donna about digital scrapbooking while the boys talked guns. I turned Donna and Bob onto Boo Goo which, as anyone who has ever had it knows, once you have had it, you are hooked.

Check off a busy Saturday.

Sunday morning we woke up and packed up our stuff and then headed to Montana de Oro which was apparently an old cattle ranch that was turned over to the State and they made it a park. It's a coastal area that WOW, really just is stunning. It reminded me of the black sand beaches in Hawaii. Anyway, we took some pictures there of all of us and collected some seashells which I now have in a jar and which I will forever believe to have a piece of Mom in them. We explored (and I saw a bunny and a lizzard!) and then we went back to Morro Bay for lunch. Donna and Bob did the Harbor Hut again (I think they like that place) but my boys and I did The Hoffbrau (I told you we liked it there). Then we met in the middle and I got some awesome pictures of the flora and marina. I believe it was around 2:30pm when we left and we did hit some traffic on the way home but with picking up the dogs, and grabbing some Taco Hell for dinner, we were home by 7:00pm. I even did a few loads of laundry and completely unpacked us. It was a good, good trip.

Good-bye Mom -- I know you didn't have the happiest of lives but you tried the best you could. I think I understand that. I TRY to understand that. I hope that you find rest and know that I will always love you.







While we were gone, either my brain was finally at rest, or I was so busy with everything that I didn't think as much as I usually do, whatever...but I didn't think much about Shirley stuff. I was able to still my mind and it was good. Thus the cathardic thing I mentioned. But the instant I walked in the door when I was home, it all washed over me again. Here I sit on Tuesday night and I just feel the Shirley weight on me again. Now with April coming up and her memorial, I have a lot to do to get ready. I'm going to just dunk myself into trying to keep busy, to focus my brain on other stuff and to get my life back. I need to do that.

Tomorrow is the last day of March. I wonder where the month has gone. Time truly flies.