Our Most Excellent Valentine Adventure

Valentine's Day fell on Friday this year and in the day's approaching it, I got to thinking that it would be a nice time for Vladi and me to get away from the house and do something fun. We have both been home for a few weeks, him between jobs and me on disability because of foot surgery. We were both a little stir crazy. We got our taxes done on the 12th and knew we were going to get a little money back so we decided to take a little weekend getaway.

Now, anyone who knows us well knows that we are planners. We like to know what we're doing and where we're going well in advance so that we can be properly prepared for whatever might come up. Well, THIS time we decided to be spontaneous and ready for adventure. We made no reservations, did not decide on any particular destination, just decided to head NORTH.

On Friday, we made arrangements for Christy to spend the weekend at our house to watch Zuli, took care of a few things and threw a few clothes and toiletries in a suitcase.

By 1:30 we were on the road.

Our first stop was in Ventura. As we were approaching the off ramp for the fairgrounds, I remembered the great lunch I had when Christy and her friends participated in the Color Run in October. After the race, we had gone to Beach House Tacos on the Ventura Pier. I told Vladi about it and he was game so we pulled off and found a place to park.

It was probably 2:30 when we got there and this is what the line looked like. From what I hear, this place always has a line but the food is well worth the wait.

It was just as good or better than I remembered it. These tacos are so full of fish and sauce and veggies that it takes two corn tortillas to hold it. So, so yummy. And filling!

When we finished eating, we took a walk to the end of the pier so that our food would settle a little before we got back in the car. We don't have much experience with selfies but we took this one and thought it came out pretty well.

And then, further down the pier a nice lady took this picture for us.

Mind you, this is February 14, at the beach. Note how we are dressed. It was a gorgeous day!

So we headed back to the car and pointed it north again and continued our journey. I wasn't really sure if there was anything to see in Ojai, but when the fork in the road beckoned us in that direction, we decided to explore. We drove through a couple of little towns and I think we were on the outskirts of Ojai when we decided to follow the road pointing to Santa Barbara. Vladi said he had never heard of some of the roads we were traveling on. Highway 33, Highway 154. Now I know what people are talking about when they say "the back way" to Santa Barbara. We drove around Lake Casitas and enjoyed the lovely scenery on this route.

Pretty soon, we were driving through a more populated area and there we were in Santa Barbara. I suggested that we see a movie and have a late dinner there and find a motel.

I had wanted to see August: Osage County with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts ever since I'd seen the previews, so we decided to find where that was playing. I asked Siri (on my iPhone) to find theaters and the movie we wanted was only playing at one place. The showing was at 7:30 so we decided to look for a motel near the theater and take our stuff there because we had a couple of hours to kill. The first couple of motels were sold out but we found The Sandpiper Motel a  couple of blocks from the theater which had a couple of rooms available. The manager even let us check the rooms to see which one we wanted. In the first one, the heater wasn't working but the second one was fine. So we took our stuff up, settled in, freshened up and went to our show. It was  little theater that only had two shows playing and they gave us the "senior" price without us even asking for it. Some people might not like being mistaken for a senior when they're not, but we didn't care. We got a bargain!

The movie itself was a bit of a downer, about a very dysfunctional family, but the acting was excellent. I guess I didn't expect it to be quite as much of a downer as it turned out to be but at least we didn't pay full price!

It was about 9:40 when the movie was over and we figured it wouldn't be too hard to find a place to eat since it was Friday night, but when I asked Siri to find us an Italian restaurant, and we went to check them out, everything was closed. At that point we just drove around to see what we could find that was open. Vladi noticed a Plaza that seemed to be getting a little traffic so he pulled in to see where the people were going. There was a little place tucked in the back corner that appeared to be happening. We saw that it was a cafe so we decided to give it a try.

Boy, were we glad we did! It was called Harry's Plaza Cafe and the food was incredible. They had a sheet of Valentine specials and though I'd been craving pasta, and there were pasta dishes on the menu, my eye was drawn to the lamb chops because I couldn't even remember the last time I'd had them. Vladi and I decided to split the meal and each get our own starter. The waitress gave us the option of paying a small fee to get our own veggies and potatoes and just split the meat so that was what we did.

Everything looked and tasted SOOOO good! The flower you see in the picture was edible as well. But it pretty much tasted like a flower. Not bad, not exactly delicious--but it sure looked pretty. Anyway, they had TVs on, showing the men's figure skating from the Sochi Olympics, so we watched some of that. And we had a lovely time.

We had someone take a picture of us as we were leaving but we didn't have the real camera with us, only our iPhone, so we are just silhouettes in this one, the flash didn't work.

So we went back to our motel and slept very well.

We thought about finding a place to eat breakfast but the motel's continental breakfast offered some nice croissants which were surprisingly filling and their vanilla coffee with vanilla creamer was quite yummy so that fortified us enough that we didn't feel the need to get anything else.

So, as Vladi said several times throughout our journey, we were "on the road again . . ."

As we were driving, we passed the exits for Solvang and the Chumash Casino and I kind of noted them in my mind and mentioned to Vladi that at some point I would like to check them out. He said he had never been to Solvang and would like to see it but Chumash we should save for another trip. We continued north and kept driving all the way to Morro Bay. As we approached it, we could see from a distance that there was a layer of fog tucked right into the bay. And indeed, as we got there, the sun was pretty hidden and the air was much cooler. We had asked Siri about interesting things to do in the area and one of her suggestions was the Museum of Natural History. It took us awhile to find it because Siri's directions took us to a parking lot that was about a quarter mile before the museum but Vladi's instinct told him it was a little further down the road and indeed, it was. It was a lovely little place, but geared toward kids so we went through it in about 20 minutes.

This statue is at the entrance.

When we first arrived, Morro Rock was plainly visible.

But later in the afternoon, it was completely shrouded in fog.

This picture was from a different angle, but we were about the same distance away.

When we left the museum, we went to lunch at a place called The Bayside Cafe that was in the parking lot that we originally turned in to. 

It was destiny. We had another great meal there. They (like every other restaurant in the area) had clam chowder, but they also had something called California Chowder which was a mixture of clam chowder and green chile soup.

We decided to try it and we were so glad we did! It tasted so good! And especially because there was a chill in the air. There's nothing like hot soup on a cold day. We also shared a salmon sandwich and some onion rings. Mmmmm Mmmmm good.

After lunch, we drove into the town of Morro Bay where we visited a little street fair and found some treats to take home to Zuli.

Then we walked leisurely through the little shops on the main drag and I got some ideas for a little picture display I want to put together on one of my many blank walls. I bought a little replica of a VW van because it reminded me of the one my neighbors owned when I was young. They used to take me and my sisters camping and they had that van equipped for wonderful adventures at the beach.

Along about 5 o'clock or so, we thought we better start looking for a motel. I started calling motels in the area and every one was sold out. Pretty soon, Vladi and I had both our phones going, calling motels in Morro Bay, Pismo and San Luis Obispo. We did find one available room in Morro Bay but when we went to look at it, it smelled funny and I didn't really want to pay the price they were asking. At one of the motels we called, a kind soul said he had called around to help his customers out and found one motel that had rooms available . . . in Lompoc. . . 67 miles away.

When I looked at the map, I saw that Lompoc was actually quite close to Solvang so a plan formulated in my mind. We decided to head there and then go to Solvang on Sunday.

As we were driving, I was trying to reach the motel but the girl that answered was apparently inundated with calls and asked if she could call me back. I said yes but after 20 minutes went by, I started to worry. She finally called me back and we secured a room and felt very relieved that we had a place to sleep for the night.

As we were driving, following Siri's directions, suddenly the GPS changed from saying "go 3 miles and turm right on Hwy 1" to "go 7 miles and turn left on Hwy 1". We couldn't figure out what happened but we were then on a dark, dark rather bumpy road in the middle of nowhere. It felt like we had driven into a scene from a horror movie. We nervously laughed about half expecting somebody covered with blood to jump onto the road and try to wave us down. And THEN we saw a sign for the Vandenburg Penitentiary!

Of course nothing bad happened, but that was a loooong 7 miles.

When we found the motel we were still in that frame of mind and from a distance the motel didn't exactly look reassuring. It was in a huge empty lot and there was a single car parked in front of something similar to the Bates motel. Once we got closer, we saw that the lobby was actually very inviting and when we went in, all thoughts of horror movies were banished. The place was actually very big but you certainly couldn't tell that from the front in the dark.

I took this picture the next morning.

You still can't tell how big the place is but it stretches out behind this front building a long way.

Anyway, we got settled in our room and needed to find a place to eat. We asked Siri again and decided on a place called "the Lompoc Restaurant". We called to see how late they were open and they said 9. It was almost 8 but we weren't far so we headed there. When we arrived, we could not see any customers in the place nor any cars in the lot but we pulled in and noticed that there was another restaurant behind the first. There was a big sign on the wall.

There were quite a few cars parked closer to this restaurant so following our  instincts, we figured this was the better bet. And again, we were rewarded! The restaurant was full but it was a little after 8 and the sign on the door said "open till 8:30 or later" so we didn't feel unwelcome. We were seated right away and had another terrific meal. By the time we finished, we were the last ones in the place, but we saw quite a few people pick up to-go orders, so we never felt like we were rushed to finish. There was way too much food for us to finish so we packed up our leftovers and took them with us.

We got a great night's sleep at the White Oaks Motel and it was the perfect jumping off place for the adventures of the next day. We got a fairly early start and did not partake of the disappointing continental breakfast that was offered there because I knew that we could get much tastier fare in Solvang.

We got to Solvang around 10ish and found a place to park. We were near a restaurant and bakery but decided to check around before we stopped to eat. At a visitor center we asked for a recommendation for a good breakfast spot. We were directed to The Solvang Restaurant. We put our names on the waiting list and were sitting on a bench outside when who should walk up the street but our friends, Mary Jo and Ron Bass and their son, Jake. Of course there was much laughter and hugging and can't believe its, what are the chances chatter and then we visited a bit until our name was called to be seated.

We had been told that Aebelskivers were THE thing to eat in Solvang, so of course we ordered them along with eggs and Danish sausage. I wouldn't say it was the best meal of the trip and I was not that impressed with the Aebelskivers but it wasn't bad and it was really fun to see our friends so I think that was why we ended up there at that time.

Later on, we found a chocolate shop and we went back to the Danish Bakery that we saw on our way in and ordered some things to take home with us. Now THAT stuff was incredible.

So we wandered around Solvang and saw some neat art and clocks and some amusing signs.

By around 2, we were ready to move on.

We decided to visit Ventura Harbor because I was looking for another item for my "beach" themed display and we knew Mary Jo was working (because she told us when we saw her in Solvang). So we went to her shop and then walked around a few other shops there, and had some decadent ice cream cones. Didn't find what I was looking for but still had a nice time.

From there we planned on going to a movie that started at 7:10 but we stopped for a light dinner at the Yard House in Oxnard on the way to the Roxy Theater in Camarillo.

We were both pretty full from the ice cream cones but we figured we should have dinner before the movie instead of after.

We each had a cup of the chicken tortilla soup. It was SOOO good. I swear, we did not have a bad meal this whole trip. After the soup, Vladi had fish and chips and I had a chicken gorgonzola flatbread that I couldn't even finish. Yum.

 

We decided to go to another movie and decided on "American Hustle" which was Vladi's choice since I picked "August: Osage County". I wasn't really sure why he really wanted to see this movie, but I wanted to be fair. I think we had about the same reaction to both movies. We didn't really know what to expect and they were both well acted but they weren't exactly uplifting. At least there wasn't a bunch of bloody shooting in "American Hustle" which is what I started to expect toward the end. I was relieved that it didn't end that way.

So that completed our most excellent Valentine adventure.

And we have concluded that being spontaneous is an awful lot of fun.

My January 2014

January 31, 2014

It has been a rather eventful month and I'm afraid that if I wait till the end of the year to write about it, I'll forget half of what happened.

So, starting from New Year's Day. Vladi and I cleaned up after our fun New Year's Eve Party. For the party we had Ralph and Janeen, Ron and Mary Jo, and Richard and Cher over. I served a bunch of hors d'oevres and snacks (which was really easy and well received). We played a game that Tracy C had given me for Christmas, called Logo Party. We had played Logo before but this was more suited to a big group and we had a lot of fun. We played teams, boys against girls, as usual, and I think the boys won. The game had some similarity to Cranium in that it had cards you had to act out, cards you had to draw something and cards that you just gave verbal clues. There was also an all play category where a card was slowly revealed and whoever guessed it first, won the round. Everything had to do with advertising slogans, old and new.

Our TV service provider offers a bunch of music stations so you can pick whatever type of music you want to play and I put on "party favorites." With this group, especially Ron, there are always comments about the songs. We watched the ball in Times Square drop when the time came and Olya called us with the tremendous news that we will be grandparents this year. (I don't know if she really said it that way but that was the way that Vladi announced it to me.) Actually, he came in the kitchen as everyone was getting ready to leave and came up to me and said "Congratulations! You're going to be a grandma!" In the first moment the assembled group all thought that Christy or Ben was going to be a parent. But then they all realized that it probably wouldn't be Vladi telling me the news it that were the case. So of course, there were congratulations all around and I could tell Vladi was just SO excited. We have discussed it since and plan on making a trip to see the baby soon after it's born. (Not TOO soon, but soon).

Anyway, so New Year's Day was pretty laid back. We cleaned up and put things away. We aren't really into the rose parade or football so we didn't watch any of that. I had to get to bed early because I had to go in at 1 a.m. the next morning for ad night at work. Christy left for her trip to Redding. This was the second trip she made there for a seminar about relationships. She got a lot out of the first one and decided to go again. She really felt comfortable in Redding and is considering moving there later in the year.

The next day Ben flew home for a visit from Portland. He was with us for 3 full days and 2 partial days. During his stay, he met Zuli for the first time, we played lots of "Settlers of Catan", (which I never won once, although in our last game I was only one turn away when Ben snatched the victory away from me). We saw the movie "Hunger Games:Catching Fire" which we all enjoyed very much. Ben and I went on a hike together, which gave us a chance to catch up with each other's lives, he saw several of his old friends, and he spent a little time with Christy when she got back the day he was heading back home. That was when she took this picture

It cracks me up every time I look at it.

On our drive home from taking Ben to the airport, Christy told us about her trip to Redding. She enjoyed it very much and feels like she wants to make Redding her home. It makes me a little sad to think of her being so far away, but I want very much for her to find her place in the world and if this helps her in that process, I don't want to hold her back.

That week, I went to the first of my appointments in preparation for having foot surgery.

It was Sammy's 19th birthday on the 7th so we made plans to take him to the Cheesecake Factory (at his request) on Saturday 1/11. Of course, that was also the anniversary of Caleb's passing away. On facebook that day, there were many tributes to Caleb and Jessica happened to mention that she was going to go to the Cheesecake Factory to have a slice of cheesecake in honor of Caleb. She said "Wouldn't it be great if everyone who knew Caleb and has a Cheesecake Factory near them went to the there tonight to celebrate Caleb. That boy loved him some cheesecake. He would think that was pretty cool." I was so excited that Sammy had actually requested that. The thing is, we have been taking him to BJs the last few times we've gone out, so it really was his idea and I just thought it was so cool that it coincided with Jessica's suggestion. So Vladi, Christy, Sammy and I went there and had a wonderful meal and celebrated Sammy's birthday and toasted Caleb.

 The following week was pretty quiet. We celebrated my birthday on 1/18 (because it was a Saturday.)

I've gotta say, it was an awesome birthday. Two weeks before it, Vladi and Christy asked if I wanted to do a party. They kind of caught me off guard and I said let me think about it. I knew I didn't want to have to cook so I started thinking about ordering something. As it got closer I started having 2nd thoughts because if you host a party there is always some kind of work involved, even if you do order the food. At one point I was thinking "I need to say something about not wanting to do this kind of thing on my birthday ever again." But I kept my mouth shut and I'm glad I did. I settled on ordering my favorite Mexican food from the Latino Market (carne asada, rice and beans) and I got all the stuff to go with it from my store. We set up the table in the living room, just like we did for the New Year's Eve party and the house was still pretty clean from that. All the same friends from New Year came over (except Richard and Cher because they were sick.)

We played some games, had a lot of laughs and I got some great gifts!

I was blown away when I opened my daughter's gift. She bought me 2 tickets to see my hero, Cesar Millan, at the Civic Arts Plaza in April. I am so excited! She had been asking me recently to give her an idea of what I wanted, even if she couldn't afford it, she just wanted to know. I had mentioned that I would love to attend one of Cesar's training camps since his "Dog Psychology Center" is not too far away. I had no idea that he was doing a tour of seminars and that he's coming here, to TO. I can't wait!

Then Vladi gave me a gift certificate for an hour and a half massage and an hour facial. Awesome!

I also got gift cards to Olive Garden and Home Goods.

Lisa had been making something for me for Christmas but when she didn't finish it in time, she said it would be my birthday gift. She still wasn't finished for my birthday but she finally brought it over on Super Bowl Sunday(Feb. 2). It's a very cool dog house for Zuli. (I love the personalization.)

So I would say that this year I got the best birthday gifts I can remember. Love them!!!!

The  Friday after we celebrated I had surgery on my foot. I didn't want to make a big deal about it, so I didn't tell anyone (except work and Vladi of course) but my daughter got very upset with me for not telling her and I promised I wouldn't do anything like that again. I can see her point, and it made me feel pretty good that she cared so much.

So I got the joint replaced in the big toe of my right foot. I'd been having trouble with it to the point where I wasn't able to do my brisk walk for exercise anymore because it hurt too much. It was very arthritic and I'm hoping that the replacement will heal well and I'll be able to get back to my exercising again. I want to walk with my Zuli.

Vladi did a great job of taking care of me (as always) and it's been so pleasant to have this time at home together that it's going to be really hard to go back to work when the time comes. I so wish we could just retire now! It's nice to be able to stay up late and sleep in and putter around the house. And watch all the shows I've recorded. The first two days I was laid up I watched a Dog Whisperer marathon and an Ellen marathon and I got caught up on Parenthood by streaming all the shows from the current season. I never do that! And it was fun.

So that was my January.