we found the ocean

Even before this State Department stuff, I was the kind of person who wasn't sure which place was home. Maybe that was because my parents felt like transplants in Oklahoma, where I was born. Then when we moved back to California, I felt out of place with my dip thongs and pale skin.  I went to eighth grade and high school in Santa Barbara and never had a day go by that I wasn't amazed at that spot of God's Earth....not just the natural beauty, but the architecture as well.  Then when I left for college I travelled back and forth between Utah and California and always felt a surge of gratitude to call this view my kind of homecoming.When Grant saw it he exclaimed "We found the ocean!"

When we got in to town I asked Courtney to take the Carrillo exit so we could drive by the condo where we lived and then up Meigs road to Cliff drive, then down to the beach. I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of the condo, but here is the deli that I loved to walk to, just two doors down.  It was one of those I knew them and they knew me things that I love, kind of like Jenny Lou's.

We called this Hendry's beach, though now the sign says Arroyo Burro.  It is the best beach for tide pools and walking reflectively...if you like that sort of thing.
This was Courtney and Zoe's first time to touch the ocean.

A walk on the beach, without swimsuits was what I had in mind, since it was already five o'clock,  Mary started in to the water timidly.

But soon the water became irresistible.

Grant's elbows were flying with happiness.  He loved the feeling of the sand under his feet.

I dug the kids' fresh clothing out of the back of the van and they traipsed back and forth from the showers until we had recovered from the spontaneous swim. Then we went on to my favorite pizza restaurant (still in existence...never forgetting the now out of business Sonny's) Giovanni's
Pizza.

That's where we met up with the star of our road trip, my good friend from high school, Amy Mills.  She invited us to come and stay in her parents' home.  I am grateful to Amy and her family for encouraging and allowing our fun adventure!  I am also grateful to Courtney for being willing to accompany me and for doing the bulk of the driving, without which I would probably have driven off the road somewhere in Nevada, due to my chronic daytime sleepiness.

Here's Amy.  We went to the park on Cliff Drive to eat dinner.

Doesn't this pizza look amazing?