And a Fine Time Was Had by All, pt. 2

Surf Check in Santa Cruz

Sunday around noon we hit the road, heading north on Hiway 1, past the artichoke stands in Castroville (which were all of course on the wrong side of the highway where stopping would have necessitated crossing traffic twice), up to Santa Cruz, where we stopped in at step-brother's place for a BBQ and cake to celebrate his birthday. He still surfs daily in between his construction jobs, 50-mile bike rides, and girlfriends (most of whom also surf). After cake, we walked down to the bluff for a Surf Check (TM), then we packed up, hit the 1 again, drove north to Pescadero, then east to Woodside.


Sam Rides The Horse

And he enjoyed it so much, we saddled up and led him around a few times during our two-day visit. The horse's name is Binti, and she's one of my favorite riding horses. Even though she's 24, she still had plenty of giddyap, and her canter is as comfortable as a rocking chair. The dogs were also fascinated with the horses (and the horse poop, which dogs universally love to eat for some ungodly reason).

We also got to meet my sister for lunch at one of our favorite burger-n-beer joints,
The Alpine Inn, Formerly Known As Rosatti's. It will always be Rosatti's to us. On weekends the place is packed with the motley assortment of bikers (both pedal and motor), people on horseback and college students quaffing beer by the gallon, but on a weekday we pretty much had the place to ourselves and were able to visit and catch up. It was nice. And the burgers are great.

The folks have started cleaning out the closets, and sent me home with some family heirlooms: three San Francisco cable car paintings from the 1930's (which I just love because they were my grandma's and always remind me of her), a book of tinted Japanese photos from the 1880's, a portrait of an ancestor upon his commission as an officer in the Navy in the 1870's, and some various other documents. I think the Ancestor Portrait will have to be hung near the dining area for a nice bit of kitch, but I'm not sure yet where I want the cable car paintings. We don't have a lot of wall space in most of the house, so they'll probably end up in our bedroom, where I can enjoy them daily.

The trip home was delightfully uneventful. We've learned that our dogs are really great little travellers, and that we need to learn to pack bags more efficiently so that we don't have to completely empty the car when we're only staying somewhere for one night.