Camping for Halloween - Pismo Coast Village and Lunch with the Cousins

    I know! I know! I have not done the second part of my post regarding the funeral for my brother in law Sean. I will, because it was one of the most amazing and special funerals I've ever attended. 

    Since his passing on August 4th, I have been spending the nights with my sister. She has never been alone, from living with our parents she went to live with her husband and I knew it was going to be difficult for her to be alone, especially in the beginning. 

    So my routine since then has been that I wake up at her home around 5:45 a.m. and get dressed and head to my house which is probably four blocks away. I do my normal morning routine and since I work from home and have since Covid began, I put in my eight hours of work. After work I spend a bit of time with my mom and then head over to Lisa's house where we have dinner, talk about the day, on Monday's we go to Grief Share, a grief therapy group that meets for two hours, then we start the routine all over again the next morning.

    Lisa and Sean LOVED camping! It was their greatest passion, after their children and grandchildren. They own a beautiful 5th Wheel motor home which they store at the coast and when they want to go camping, they make a reservation and the RV park picks up their RV and moves it to the campsite they will be in, they set it all up and hook up the water, sewer and electricity, they just come in and organize the inside and relax. 

    They had an annual tradition of coming the week of Halloween as all the RV's are decorated for the holiday. Because of the popularity of the event it books up fast so they had made and paid for their reservations months ago. Lisa wanted to go ahead and come, I was not so sure. I felt it was too soon, but if she wanted to do it, then I was coming with her.

    We left on Friday morning and her son Sean Jr came by to see us off, he's such a great young man and I'm so proud of him. You can see by the smile on their faces how much they still hurt for their dad and husband.

    We always stop at TJ Maxx in Paso Robles to shop. Lisa doesn't really enjoy shopping and even less now that she is grieving, but she made the effort. We didn't buy much, but Lisa did buy me a beautiful coffee mug with Nutcrackers on it, I'll share that when I put up my Christmas decorations sometime in December.

    We headed to Pismo where we had lunch at The Sidewalk Cafe where we each had the most amazing Asian Salad. It was huge too, we actually had it that night for dinner and I still ended up throwing about 1/4 of it away. 

    We got to the campsite soon after and I was so worried that Lisa was going to be devastated seeing the RV and walking inside for the first time without Sean, but the people that were supposed to set up the sewer, water and electricity had done nothing and all the hoses and pipes were strewn about in the back of the RV! Lisa was LIVID!  I think it was a blessing in disguise, she was so focused on getting everything fixed that she didn't remember to pay attention to the fact that this was the first time she was back in the RV without Sean. Death sucks so much, this is such a hard time for her.

    After all that drama we decided to walk to the clubhouse and then to the small store next door where Lisa bought two beers and some pretzels and we headed to a small table where she and Sean used to go when they came together. We said a toast to Sean and sat there drinking our beer. We then realized that we are Arizona girls and we don't do beach weather well (it was cold) and we headed back to the RV.

Beer in a can in a brown paper bag. Sean's favorite beer would have been Bud Light but they were out of that so we had Michelob Ultra. It was a beautiful spot but way to cold to stay long with the wind blowing.

    We set everything up and organized ourselves and decided where we each were going to sleep and then we watched some TV and played some cards and finally decided to get some sleep as we had plans to go to lunch the next day with two cousins that live close by.

    The next morning we slept in for a bit and woke up and had coffee, we planned our day because we knew we were meeting our cousins Diana and Vera at 1pm for lunch. We ran a few errands and cleaned up some more and then met them for lunch at this lovely place, Marisol at the Cliffs Restaurant. You can see the ocean in the background in the picture below.

Enjoying a Jalapeno Melon Margarita with the cousins. My sister Lisa in front taking the photo. Left to Right is our cousin Diana, daughter to my dad's sister Leonor and Elvira aka Vera daughter to my dads brother Manuel, then me.

    We had such a great time, there was a lot of laughter, a few tears and many shared memories. 

    For dinner I had the Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps, which were fabulous!

    Lisa had the bacon and eggs, the bacon looked really good, but she didn't share! 

Cousin Vera I believe had fish tacos with potatoes.

Cousin Vera deep in conversation.

    Cousin Diana had the nachos which she shared with us all and still had enough to take home!

Cousin Diana enjoying her nachos.

    Afterwards they wanted to come and see Lisa's motor home, so here's a picture of the four of us. We had such a great time and can't wait to get together again!

Great shot of the four us and Lisa's motor home. Left to right: Vera, Diana, me in the front and Lisa behind me.

    There is nothing like family. We never spent a lot of time with my dad's side of the family, but my mom and dad both used to say to us all the time that "blood calls" and it does. Even though we seldom see these cousins there is a bond that we can't break, our ancestors blood runs through our veins and calls for us to be family even though we are literally strangers.

    I'm not going to lie and say that this has been a great trip, Lisa is here in body, but not in spirit or in mind or heart. Her spirit, mind and heart is with her husband and she is going through an agony that is unimaginable. Earlier that day we were driving through a busy part of town that has a lot of little shops and I had a memory while passing a bead store of my sister in law Connie and I bringing mom right before Covid to Pismo and taking her to several bead shops and there is one we particularly enjoyed with her and as we drove by I remembered that day and how happy my mom was and how special she felt and I also realized that someday my mom is going to be gone and my heart clenched in pain and it was brief, maybe a few seconds, but I then knew exactly how Lisa is feeling, it's an incapacitating pain and you feel as though your heart will explode  and there is nothing that you can do....except to be brave like my poor, dear sister is being brave. 

    More to come as I'm writing this several days later. Dinner with the cousins was Sunday afternoon. I'm writing this on Wednesday afternoon, October 26th and this morning they invited us to get together again with them for dinner and drinks tonight.

Sock it to Me Baby!!! A Blast from the Past

Do you remember the Bee Gee's, John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever, Disco, Donna Summer? Do you remember Pop Rocks, Pet Rocks, Mood Rings and Lava Lamps? Do you remember Flower Power, Polyester, Smiley Faces and The Hustle?

Well I'm about to show you pictures of people who dug way down deep into their memories and returned us all to the "1970's".

The CAPC put on a great party this past Friday night where the theme was the 70's.

First, the grooviest of chicks, my sister Lisa!

Peace my Sista!

"Make Love, Not War"
Unknown

We had so much fun, from the picking out of the costume to the hair and makeup session before the party. This was the first time Lisa had worn fake eyelashes and she picked some gorgeous, glittery purpley ones! She added the bright green eyeliner and she looked perfect!

When we got out of the elevator and turned the corner we ran into these characters and I don't think we quit smiling and laughing the rest of the night! 

"Old hippies don't die, 

they just lie low until the laughter stops 

and their time comes round again."

Joseph Gallivan

"I do my thing, and you do your thing. 

I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, 

and you are not in this world to live up to mine. 

You are you, and I am I, 

and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful."
Frederick E. Perl

We also had a surprise guest join us. 
The one and only Gene Simmons from K I S S !
(Not the real Gene Simmons) Like my disclaimer?

C'mon people, now 
smile on your brother, 
ev'ry-body get together, 
try to love one another right now.
Chet Powers/Youngbloods 

"I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one.  
And I believe it could be someday it's going to come."
Cat Stevens  

"Imagine no possessions, 

I wonder if you can, 

No need for greed or hunger, 

A brotherhood of man. 

Imagine all the people 

Sharing all the world. "
John Lennon

There's No Place Like Home! But Seaside was pretty Close!

Well I'm home again. For those of you that didn't know I've been AFK (Away from Keyboard) since Thursday morning. I was in the beautiful city of Seaside, California staying at the beautiful, luxurious totally comfortable Embassy Suites pictured here. It looks exactly like that.

Before I show you more pics I did want to mention that in my previous post I used some chat lingo and I wanted to translate for you now.

AFK of course is Away from Keyboard.
BRB is Be Right Back.
LOL is Laughing out Loud.
AAS is Alive and Smiling.
TTFN is Ta Ta for Now.
H&K is Hugs and Kisses.

My sister Lisa is a District Secretary for our local cemetery and the reason we went to Seaside is that she had to attend the CAPC Annual Conference, for the California Association of Public Cemeteries. My wonderful sister chose to take me as her date. We left on Thursday as we had to be there that evening for a "Meet and Greet" at the hotel. After that we went out to dinner with her boss and his wife and two members of the board and their wives. We went to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in Monterey.


When we arrived it was still daytime outside and this is the view from our table.

Here's a picture of the nicest group of people EVER! I had such a great time with them. They were so much fun!

From the left beginning with the man in the red shirt; Bill Prout (board member) and his wife Kathy (Mayor of Shafter); Beeb Anderson wife of board member David Anderson pictured right across from her. Vaughn Unruh wife of Tim Unruh (Cemetery Manager, my sisters boss) and Tim Unruh; then that's me peeking out way in the back on the right and my sister Lisa then David Anderson.

I just can't say enough kind words about these people, my sister is so blessed to work with them and they are so blessed to have her!

Then we went back to the hotel for the evening, here's some pictures from the hotel room, this was the view we had.

Some pictures of our room which was amazingly confortable. The staff in the whole hotel was great. I would highly recommend staying at an Embassy Suite next time you need a great hotel!

The next day, Friday, my sister had to attend the conference and I was on my own so I set out early with my Starbucks Coffee and three Vanilla Bean Scones. I know...lots of carbs, but hey! I was on Vacation! I decided to drive North on Hwy 1 just to explore and see what was out there. What was out there was a gorgeous drive! Unfortunately because I was driving I didn't have opportunity to stop and take photos, but there was one time that I glance out the passenger side window and I saw this beautiful field being plowed by a big green tractor and less than a mile away you had a gorgeous view of the ocean and the waves breaking against the rocks. I envied that tractor driver...trust me!

I headed back to Seaside planning to do some shopping at a shopping center I saw on the way up with a Ross, Marshalls, Target and Cost Plus World Market, but my sister called and said she was done for the day so I picked her up and we headed to Cannery Row in Monterey.

We walked around looking in all the little shops but I still hadn't had lunch so we decided to go to El Torito. I know...here we are on the coast with lots of fresh seafood restaurants and we go to a Mexican food place. What can I say, we love chips and salsa and margaritas more than anything. Plus they had an El Torito right on the water with a great view from our table...plus did I mention Margaritas?

Here I am outside of El Torito. As you can tell it was pretty windy.

Here's my sister Lisa...

And here are the both of us together...

Here's a picture of us in the restaurant waiting for our drinks and food.

A view from our table at the ocean. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful state.

That evening the CAPC had planned a costume event. The theme was "The 70's". We headed back to the Embassy Suites so my sister could get into her costume and we could do her hair and makeup. I'll follow up with a post tomorrow with photos and stories from that evening.

The next day, which was a Saturday my sister again had to attend the conference and I had made plans to meet my daughter in Gilroy, CA so we could do some shopping at the largest Outlet Mall I had ever been to. The Gilroy Outlet Stores. We had so much fun traipsing in and out of all those stores. Gilroy also has a Home Goods and I now know I love that store...my daughter loved it as well. Plus she brought my sweet little grandpuppy Chorizo. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures :-(

I headed back as that evening was the Awards Banquet for the CAPC and I wanted to be able to have time to dress and touch up the makeup and hair. The food was great. We had Pork Loin Roast with Roasted Baby Red Potatoes and Broccoli. Dessert was a piece of Opera Cake. I didn't take pictures but it looked something like this. 

None of us had ever had this type of cake. It was good, but I would have rather had Creme Brulee! According to Wikipedia, Opera Cake is a type of French cake. It is made with layers of almond sponge cake (known as Joconde in French) soaked in coffee syrup, layered with ganache and coffee buttercream, and covered in a chocolate glaze. The cake was popularized by the French pâtisserie house Dalloyau.

We returned home on Sunday but we took our time driving and we took the 17 mile drive and visited Carmel and downtown Salinas before finally heading home. I'll post pictures of that later on the week also.

This was one of the best vacations I've had in a long time. The past two years I've used my vacation time for surgery for Thyroid Cancer and also for Radiation Treatments...so it was nice to take some time off and actually visit somewhere and have a great time.