We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh - This was perfect vacation reading. Good enough to read during beach and pool time, but not so good that you couldn't put it down during activities. Although near the end, I wanted to find out what would happen. It's about a young single mother who, after not having to care for her children, finds herself suddenly responsible for them. The dual story is that of her 15 year old son who doesn't really know his mom but is a lot like her. Families, love, connections, figuring out a way to escape poor financial circumstances - these ideas are at the core of the story, but somehow I never felt like I was there.The vacation was to California to see Peter run in the Big West Cross Country Meet in Riverside, California. The Cal Poly boys placed second as a team, only 5 points out of first place, and Peter was 18th overall, and the sixth Cal Poly man to cross the finish line. The Cal Poly women won the meet. It was so great to see him, and especially to see him run. The 8K course actually took the runners through the UC Riverside Ag Ops orange groves!Before we saw Peter, though, on Thursday, we drove down through Orange County all the way to Dana Point where we saw a spectacular sunset. The next day, Friday, we took the ferry out of Dana Point to Catalina Island, which was lovely. If I ever go back I'll take the tour of the Casino building as well as check out the botanical garden. That night we met a long time Ford friend for dinner. It was great to catch up and have a few laughs. I've got to tell him that in his next career he'll make a wonderful teacher/educator. Saturday we saw Peter's race then drove up to Pismo Beach with a stop in Santa Barbara to take a long walk up and down State Street with our chocolate gelatos from Spoon. Pretty much you don't have to find any other gelato once you've had Spoon's. Stopped in Santa Ynez at Steve's neighbor from River Forest and her husband's horse ranch, which was an unexpected treat. I hope we'll be able to return there to visit with them someday - it was dark as we left, and passing through the little town the street was closed off and there was a band playing and people dancing. Arrived in Pismo after dark, checked into the Kon-Tiki Inn, got to our room and fell asleep to the sound of the surf outside our door. Woke up the next morning to the most beautiful view of wide sandy beach and Pacific waves stretching on forever. After too much of a starchy included breakfast, we went for the longest beach walk to Grover Beach which is a vehicle beach. Maybe someday we'll take our car there, too. After the beach walk, we had an hour to get to the Monarch Butterfly Grove where 5000 Monarchs had gathered for the winter. To the naked eye, they look like triangular black leaves clustered on tree branches in a foresty little area, but through the telescopes that were set up for that purpose, you could see them individually and clearly clustering on the branches. I just love butterflies and always have. Returned to the Kon-Tiki to watch the sun set from our balcony, and it was good. Then we drove up to San Luis Obispo to check out the Cal Poly food at Von's supermarket. We didn't really have the space to haul a huge butternut squash home, but they had some Cal Poly cheeses, and we bought a nice chunk of yellow cheddar. Picked up Peter at his great little house on Kentucky Street, and Steve saw his room. Took him to dinner at Woodstock Pizza which was typical college pizza place with typical delicious college pizza. The next morning, we awoke to rain! It made it a little easier to say goodbye to our beautiful view. On the way to LAX, we stopped at the Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard to check out the boat club with the new friend we'd made on Catalina Island. It was a beautiful spot, and after a few minutes there, we traveled through Malibu along PCH all the way to the airport. A quick chocolate shake at In n Out Burger, a stressful little glitch filling up the Chevy Malibu rental car, a ridiculously long time through TSA for nothing, and we scooted onto the plane with minutes to spare. I wish I'd taken a picture of our Malibu in Malibu. But we might have missed the plane. I can no longer get photos onto my computer from my phone, but here is a close approximation of my magical Dana Point Sunset photos:Tuesday, November 3, 2015
WE NEVER ASKED FOR WINGS * CALIFORNIA!
We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh - This was perfect vacation reading. Good enough to read during beach and pool time, but not so good that you couldn't put it down during activities. Although near the end, I wanted to find out what would happen. It's about a young single mother who, after not having to care for her children, finds herself suddenly responsible for them. The dual story is that of her 15 year old son who doesn't really know his mom but is a lot like her. Families, love, connections, figuring out a way to escape poor financial circumstances - these ideas are at the core of the story, but somehow I never felt like I was there.The vacation was to California to see Peter run in the Big West Cross Country Meet in Riverside, California. The Cal Poly boys placed second as a team, only 5 points out of first place, and Peter was 18th overall, and the sixth Cal Poly man to cross the finish line. The Cal Poly women won the meet. It was so great to see him, and especially to see him run. The 8K course actually took the runners through the UC Riverside Ag Ops orange groves!Before we saw Peter, though, on Thursday, we drove down through Orange County all the way to Dana Point where we saw a spectacular sunset. The next day, Friday, we took the ferry out of Dana Point to Catalina Island, which was lovely. If I ever go back I'll take the tour of the Casino building as well as check out the botanical garden. That night we met a long time Ford friend for dinner. It was great to catch up and have a few laughs. I've got to tell him that in his next career he'll make a wonderful teacher/educator. Saturday we saw Peter's race then drove up to Pismo Beach with a stop in Santa Barbara to take a long walk up and down State Street with our chocolate gelatos from Spoon. Pretty much you don't have to find any other gelato once you've had Spoon's. Stopped in Santa Ynez at Steve's neighbor from River Forest and her husband's horse ranch, which was an unexpected treat. I hope we'll be able to return there to visit with them someday - it was dark as we left, and passing through the little town the street was closed off and there was a band playing and people dancing. Arrived in Pismo after dark, checked into the Kon-Tiki Inn, got to our room and fell asleep to the sound of the surf outside our door. Woke up the next morning to the most beautiful view of wide sandy beach and Pacific waves stretching on forever. After too much of a starchy included breakfast, we went for the longest beach walk to Grover Beach which is a vehicle beach. Maybe someday we'll take our car there, too. After the beach walk, we had an hour to get to the Monarch Butterfly Grove where 5000 Monarchs had gathered for the winter. To the naked eye, they look like triangular black leaves clustered on tree branches in a foresty little area, but through the telescopes that were set up for that purpose, you could see them individually and clearly clustering on the branches. I just love butterflies and always have. Returned to the Kon-Tiki to watch the sun set from our balcony, and it was good. Then we drove up to San Luis Obispo to check out the Cal Poly food at Von's supermarket. We didn't really have the space to haul a huge butternut squash home, but they had some Cal Poly cheeses, and we bought a nice chunk of yellow cheddar. Picked up Peter at his great little house on Kentucky Street, and Steve saw his room. Took him to dinner at Woodstock Pizza which was typical college pizza place with typical delicious college pizza. The next morning, we awoke to rain! It made it a little easier to say goodbye to our beautiful view. On the way to LAX, we stopped at the Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard to check out the boat club with the new friend we'd made on Catalina Island. It was a beautiful spot, and after a few minutes there, we traveled through Malibu along PCH all the way to the airport. A quick chocolate shake at In n Out Burger, a stressful little glitch filling up the Chevy Malibu rental car, a ridiculously long time through TSA for nothing, and we scooted onto the plane with minutes to spare. I wish I'd taken a picture of our Malibu in Malibu. But we might have missed the plane. I can no longer get photos onto my computer from my phone, but here is a close approximation of my magical Dana Point Sunset photos:
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