Vacation Update

I meant to write this earlier, but I made the mistake of checking in on Ravelry . . . . two three several hours later I still haven't posted. That place is dangerous addictive.

Dick has had a bad case of the "gotta go's", aka the travel bug, for awhile now. But with Gary in summer school and not yet 18, we were kinda stuck at home. Both of those issues resolved themselves the first week of August; Dick's been pacing the driveway ever since. So Monday we made a quick stop to pick up my Fair entries, ribbons and check (for $13!) before hitting the road.

Our goal was to drive up the coast until we got tired or found something interesting. Dick thought we'd spend the night in San Luis Obispo, but neither of us was ready to stop when we hit the city limits at 4:00. Our first stop of the day was here. Hey, it's not my fault. We needed fuel and it just happened to be next to the gas station. Honest!

I've seen Shari at various shows - and have one of her felted rugs in my house - but I'd never been to her shop. She doesn't have a lot of yarn or fiber for sale but what she has is very nice. I found 3 skeins of a blue 50/50 wool/silk blend that I think will make a nice felted scarf or shawl. And a skein of one ply Tussah silk and one ply Tencel - in green and white of all colors - that really spoke to me. It's obviously hand-spun and all lumpy-bumpy, but it's so shiny and soft that I just had to have it. (Sorry for the crummy cell phone photo. It's hard to focus in a moving car.) I couldn't just leave the yarn in the bag, so I improvised a swift (my knees) and wound yarn while we traveled.
Dick put the baby car through its paces up Hwy 1, stopping occasionally for the views - and when the slow-poke, scardy-cat drivers in front of us got on his nerves. The stretch between Morro Bay and Big Sur has got to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world.

We ended up in Pacific Grove, just south of Monterey. We'd stayed here before, right after Dick retired in 2005, and really liked the area. It's August, top tourist season in a top tourist destination. No reservation, no problem, right? We really lucked out - the Inn at Seventeen Mile Drive, where we stayed before, (go check out the photos, I'll wait. The place is gorgeous) had one room available for the two nights we wanted - and only those 2 nights for the month previous and the two months following. And not just a room - a stand-alone cottage with a king-size bed and a fireplace. Heaven.

Pacific Grove started out as a religious retreat but has grown into an upscale "village" with some excellent restaurants and a biking/walking path right along the ocean. We've already picked out the B&B where we're going to stay on our next visit . . . a gorgeous Victorian mansion with several cottages that's just across the street from the ocean. And this time we'll make sure we have reservations.