I don’t remember exactly when we started hearing rumors about the novel corona virus (or COVID-19), but it started hitting the news sometime in February. It started out as news of a very contagious virus that had started in an open-air market in China, (possibly from a bat?) that spread like wildfire among passengers on a couple of cruise ships and then, when introduced into a couple of nursing homes in Washington, was killing off the residents in alarming numbers.
We weren’t terribly worried at first. It didn’t seem to be close enough to us that we would be affected, so we went on with our activities.
On Feb. 9, Tracy Cross, Tracy Bower and I got together for breakfast at Country Harvest and were delighted to find our friend Emmanuel Rodriguez working that day. We re-created a picture that we had taken with him back in 2009 and posted it on facebook.
2009
2020 Whenever I get together with those 2 girls, we have so much to talk and laugh about, it’s amazing. And Manuel has a great sense of humor, too. Back in the day, when he would wait on us, (we regularly ate breakfast at CH once a week) we used to call him Herman before we knew his real name and he took it all in good humor. We always thought he was the greatest. And he still is.
This is a picture of the sandwich I always order when I go to Country Harvest. It’s a variation of the Garden Pita on their menu, which we have nicknamed the “Rita Pita.” It has a bunch of veggies and I add turkey and cheddar cheese. It is awesome! (And the steak fries and Ranch dressing are out of this world, too!)
For Valentine’s Day, Vladi and I decided to take advantage of our free week at Pismo Beach. It was the first time that we took advantage of this perk of our “Colorado River Adventures” membership that we bought when we purchased our RV. For the most part this membership was a big waste of money but we signed a contract that keeps us on the hook in perpetuity (pisses me off). But we have enjoyed 2 of the campgrounds in the system—Catalina RV Spa and Resort in Palm Desert and the Rushmore Shadows Resort near Mt. Rushmore. Other than that, we haven’t been impressed. But when we go on our cross country trip, we are going to try to visit more of the campgrounds. Anyway, we are entitled to spend a week at some beach cabins near Pismo, but reservations have to be made pretty far in advance. This time, we marked our calendar and scored the week of Valentine’s Day.
We took the car, no dogs, and headed out on Feb. 13. The cabin was nice if not spectacular. It wasn’t right on the beach as I had expected (picturing sitting in nice chairs on a porch looking out at the ocean) but was in a spot up the street from the beach in a big group of other cabins. It was comfortable enough and we settled in on the first day and took a walk to look around. We were surprised by the cars that were driving around on the beach, but the huge apron of sand lent itself to all manner of sand vehicles and there were a number of rentals available to use on the beach (like dune buggies and ATVs). It was rather chilly and I think we wore our jackets most of the time we were there.
Then again, here is Vladi in his shorts and tee-shirt (because he don't need no steeenking jacket.)
On Valentine’s Day itself, we started out by visiting the Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove. It was pretty cool. It was an old grove of very tall eucalyptus trees where we could see splotches of orange amidst the grayish green long thin eucalyptus leaves. Occasionally the splotches lifted off and fluttered around to land in another location amidst the leaves. It was fun to hunt around and see if we could find them. Sometimes there were big clusters of them and the docents had telescopic viewers trained on the clusters so that we could see them better.
After spending an hour or so walking around there, we took a drive to The Bayside Café in Morro Bay Sate Park. We have spent several Valentine’s Day lunches there so it has become somewhat of a tradition for us. The little café has a full wall of windows that look out on a bay that harbors nice little boats and has a kayak rental place. It was a little cold for many people to be out kayaking, but there were plenty of birds enjoying the day. The thing that has brought us back every year is a soup they make called California Chowder.
It’s a mixture of clam chowder and this green chile soup that is out of this world! And on a nice chilly day, soup is the BEST thing to warm you up! So we had a lovely, leisurely lunch and took some pictures there and then across from Morro Rock, which was just down the road. We tried to perfect our heart shape with our hands and I think we got a pretty good shot.
For dinner, we went into the town of Pismo to have a meal at the Crab Shack. A lot of people had the same idea so there was a very long wait (over an hour) and it was really cold so Vladi and I decided to walk for awhile in hopes of warming up. I think we went around the block 3 or 4 times and then we got to sit by one of the outdoor heaters until they called us in. The food was SO GOOD! We enjoyed it thoroughly.
The next day, we went to have breakfast at a place we had seen advertised that looked like it would have good breakfasts. It was in Arroyo Grande, which is one of the “Five Cities” in the area. After we ate, Vladi noticed that we had a nail in one of our tires. We found a place to get it fixed and by the time that was done, it was time for lunch. I think we got a recommendation from someone at the tire place and we checked out The Mason Bar and Kitchen. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures but it was a cool little place. There was an interesting firepit, in that it was like a low wall, separating one part of the restaurant from another and there was glass on both sides of the flames so that the heat wasn’t too intense, but it created a nice atmosphere. And there were mason jars worked into the décor as well as the glassware that we drank from. The food was very good, though not our usual fare. Very healthy and on the fancy (pricey) side, but we enjoyed it.
On Feb. 16, we found something called the Bob Jones Trail, which was described as a 3 mile easy walking trail “City to the Sea” which ended up at Avila Beach. We were ready to do something a little more active, so we decided that sounded just right. And it was! We took some pics at the Avila pier and then walked back to where we parked the car. Easy peasy.
We drove home the next day.
The other big event in February was our friend Richard Heaton’s 70th birthday. We were invited to a party on February 29 at the Stonehaus which is a cool restaurant in Westlake Village where most (if not all) of the tables are outdoors in various idyllic settings, with lots of plants, vines climbing stone and ironwork, rustic wooden tables, romantic lighting, firelight, and just a European ambiance. We celebrated with many members of the Heaton family as well as many of their friends. There was a guest book set up in which the guests were asked to write down favorite thoughts and memories about Richard and although my mind was rather blank, I read what Christy wrote and was very impressed with her ability to remember many experiences she shared with the Heaton family.
On Valentine’s Day itself, we started out by visiting the Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove. It was pretty cool. It was an old grove of very tall eucalyptus trees where we could see splotches of orange amidst the grayish green long thin eucalyptus leaves. Occasionally the splotches lifted off and fluttered around to land in another location amidst the leaves. It was fun to hunt around and see if we could find them. Sometimes there were big clusters of them and the docents had telescopic viewers trained on the clusters so that we could see them better.
After spending an hour or so walking around there, we took a drive to The Bayside Café in Morro Bay Sate Park. We have spent several Valentine’s Day lunches there so it has become somewhat of a tradition for us. The little café has a full wall of windows that look out on a bay that harbors nice little boats and has a kayak rental place. It was a little cold for many people to be out kayaking, but there were plenty of birds enjoying the day. The thing that has brought us back every year is a soup they make called California Chowder.
It’s a mixture of clam chowder and this green chile soup that is out of this world! And on a nice chilly day, soup is the BEST thing to warm you up! So we had a lovely, leisurely lunch and took some pictures there and then across from Morro Rock, which was just down the road. We tried to perfect our heart shape with our hands and I think we got a pretty good shot.
For dinner, we went into the town of Pismo to have a meal at the Crab Shack. A lot of people had the same idea so there was a very long wait (over an hour) and it was really cold so Vladi and I decided to walk for awhile in hopes of warming up. I think we went around the block 3 or 4 times and then we got to sit by one of the outdoor heaters until they called us in. The food was SO GOOD! We enjoyed it thoroughly.
The next day, we went to have breakfast at a place we had seen advertised that looked like it would have good breakfasts. It was in Arroyo Grande, which is one of the “Five Cities” in the area. After we ate, Vladi noticed that we had a nail in one of our tires. We found a place to get it fixed and by the time that was done, it was time for lunch. I think we got a recommendation from someone at the tire place and we checked out The Mason Bar and Kitchen. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures but it was a cool little place. There was an interesting firepit, in that it was like a low wall, separating one part of the restaurant from another and there was glass on both sides of the flames so that the heat wasn’t too intense, but it created a nice atmosphere. And there were mason jars worked into the décor as well as the glassware that we drank from. The food was very good, though not our usual fare. Very healthy and on the fancy (pricey) side, but we enjoyed it.
On Feb. 16, we found something called the Bob Jones Trail, which was described as a 3 mile easy walking trail “City to the Sea” which ended up at Avila Beach. We were ready to do something a little more active, so we decided that sounded just right. And it was! We took some pics at the Avila pier and then walked back to where we parked the car. Easy peasy.
We drove home the next day.
The other big event in February was our friend Richard Heaton’s 70th birthday. We were invited to a party on February 29 at the Stonehaus which is a cool restaurant in Westlake Village where most (if not all) of the tables are outdoors in various idyllic settings, with lots of plants, vines climbing stone and ironwork, rustic wooden tables, romantic lighting, firelight, and just a European ambiance. We celebrated with many members of the Heaton family as well as many of their friends. There was a guest book set up in which the guests were asked to write down favorite thoughts and memories about Richard and although my mind was rather blank, I read what Christy wrote and was very impressed with her ability to remember many experiences she shared with the Heaton family.
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