Respite

There's still plenty of bad news to go around, not the least of which is my dear friend Julianna's heartbreaking outcome to her last IVF...and this isn't helping any either.

But I wanted to do a good news post. This past Wednesday I had the pleasure of meeting another fellow blogger, Mellie from Why Not Us?, who was here in Northern California with her husband from New York. Being from Boston and living in New York, I fully expected to need an interpreter to understand her accent, and was more than a little surprised to find she had nary a trace of one. Maybe they cancelled each other out?

I picked her up in front of the surfing school where I would later return her for a lesson. She's a braver soul than I -- even in a wetsuit, the Pacific Ocean around these parts is cold. Damn cold. It was a bit cloudy at first but within an hour the sun was out, I told her I ordered the rain to stop just for her visit. I don't think she believed me. We had a lovely lunch at one of the many small, charming restaurants downtown.


Photo credit: Grace Davis

After lunch I took her on a short driving and walking tour of the beach area, which includes California's oldest amusement park and the first pier she'd ever driven on, where we watched and listened to the seals beneath.

Then we parked along the seawall and took in the view and some of the amazing flora. These are called Pride of Madeira, I've seen them on 10 foot-tall bushes, quite spectacular.

This is a view of the memorial surfing statue...many people have lost their lives over the years along this stretch, referred to by the locals as Steamer Lane.

None of these pictures were taken on Wednesday, but it looked just like this. It's been pouring since then, so I guess at least the weather goddesses were giving me a break. I hope the surfing goddesses were good to Mellie that day too.