Our Father's Day Adventure 2023

 

 

Vladi and I had a lovely Father's Day on Sunday. We started out with breakfast at Pickles Deli and then we went home to pick up Roscoe so that we could take him with us for a drive. I had asked Vladi earlier in the week to think of something that sounded enjoyable to him and when it came down to it, he decided on a drive down PCH. We have often driven North on PCH, so we decided to take the other direction and go as far as we felt like going. Then we would turn around and head back up to Ventura Harbor for an early dinner. I told Vladi that I wanted to take some pictures throughout our day, but I didn’t really get started until we reached our southernmost point. We had a nice, relaxed drive and I started telling Vladi that I had been thinking a lot about fathers for several days and that I wanted to write about what I had been thinking. That morning, I had been perusing Facebook and saw all the tributes, memories and praises people had been posting to their wonderful fathers. I wanted to say something about my dad and the dad of my 2 children, as well as something about Vladi but I hadn't completed my thoughts yet. I started to tell him some of the things I had been thinking and he suggested that I start writing them on my phone right then so I wouldn't lose my thoughts. It took me a couple of days to be able to get started on writing what I wanted to say—but that’s the subject of another page. I want to get back to our Father’s Day drive…

       We had a great conversation as we drove south. I encouraged Vladi to tell me about his experience as a dad and his experience with his own father. 

       The drive also brought up a lot of memories for me because it’s been a long time since I’ve driven past some of the places along PCH. There were the full-size jet models at the entrance to Mugu Naval Air Base. And the giant Mugu Rock that sits just offshore when you get to the coast. I remembered camping at Sycamore Canyon with the Frosts and a hike that Christy and I did with the girl scouts there. We passed Leo Carrillo Beach where I probably had some of my very earliest camping experiences with Helen and Steve (neighbors from my childhood). As we passed the long stretch of Zuma beach, I was trying to find the numbers on the lifeguard stands. I finally saw one, but the numbers seem to have faded on a lot of them. I remember trips to Zuma when the plan would be to “meet at lifeguard station 11 or 15” or whatever number we designated. We passed Moonshadows restaurant where I’ve had at least one romantic dinner. And then we passed Decker Canyon where my first husband Doug used to love to ride his motorcycle. As we passed all these places, I kept thinking about taking pictures, but I decided to wait until we were on our way back.

       We pulled into one little plaza so that we could stretch our legs and let Roscoe relieve himself. We wanted to see if we could walk to the beach from there so that we could avoid paying the pricy parking fee at the lots along the beach but there was no passage through so we continued on our way.

       We kept hoping that the sun would come out and brighten the day a little, but it stayed pretty gray for the whole time. When we reached Will Rogers State Beach, we pulled in and paid the $15 fee, so that we could get out of the car and get some pictures.

I did a pretty terrible job with my selfie attempts. I was trying to get a shot of the waves crashing on the rocks behind us but I was not successful.

Vladi took some at the same spot that came out much better. I liked this one the best.

        

Then we moved over to where the sign was and got a picture of that.

As we came out of the parking lot, I took a picture to show exactly where we were as we headed back north.

                                     

It was a lot harder to get the pictures I had hoped to catch on the way back. The only ones that came out decently were those of Mugu Rock. I started out shooting it from a distance.

                       

                       Then, got a little closer.

                       

      And finally, this one when we were right up to it.                                                                                                      

The only other shot I got was this one of one of the jets at the Naval Base. Well, you can ALMOST see it…   I tried.

                 

From there, we headed to Ventura Harbor to have an early dinner. We stopped at The Boatyard Pub, which had outdoor tables. Vladi ordered a cup of clam chowder and Roscoe helped him finish it.

When we got the rest of our food, Roscoe rested his chin on the table with great hopes of getting to help some more. Several people that passed by were laughing at his look of longing.

                                

   He eventually gave up and laid down at our feet.

All the while when we were eating, there was a crowd of people at a place next door, waiting to be called for their ice cream orders. We saw people walking by with all different colors of ice cream and different configurations of cups and cones. There was a particular one that intrigued me and after dinner, I was curious enough to go find out what it was. They were called fishzookies.

Three of Vladi’s favorite foods are: 1. soup, 2. fish & chips and, 3. ice cream. So, we had to top off our Father’s Day celebration by ordering these intriguing treats.

Because…                     

And they were DELICIOUS!!!