Cambria to Cayucos

We took small trips each day to local hiking paths and parks I had researched and found open.  On our first day, we walked the coast-hugging loop at Fiscalini Ranch Preserve in Cambria.

The path was easy and super scenic and had a great perch from which to watch a whole rock full of entertaining seals.

 

A little ways south of Cambira is the tiny town of Harmony.  Blink and you will miss it and its 18 residents!  Harmony is known for its artists, though, so we made a pit stop to admire the pottery and glass blowing studios.  Delia and I got some pottery souvenirs.

 The last stop on this string of coastal towns was Cayucos, where we found the only open pier in the area.  Good to see the girls still love each other enough to naturally choose to walk like this, even though they endured non-stop togetherness since March! ;) 

A Walk on the Beach

Because this trip to Pismo will end up being our big vacation for the summer, and because it really was so lovely, I took a million pictures and will stretch the experience into several blog posts.

The best thing about our hotel was that we could walk right out onto a miles-long stretch of beach.  Every day we took at least 2 walks.  We came back often with soggy jeans cuffs and a bucket full of shells and sand dollars.  Dave and Delia count their steps with devices and after our morning walk on the beach each day, they blew their goals out of the water!

Our beach had cool caves to explore and rocks to climb.

It had treasures galore!  Above, Delia holds half a sand dollar, which we got a kick out of calling "50 cents".  Below, Ella holds a big crab, which surprisingly helped clip one of her fingernails!

Our beach had mounds of sea spaghetti that, when unraveled, made very fun jump ropes!

It had the Pismo Pier as a landmark for us to walk to each day.

And our beach even had swings! 

We were getting so familiar with our beach walking path that Dave suggested we do a late night hike on it one day!  This was SO cool.  We grabbed some flashlights and walked to the lights on the pier.  As we walked we listened to the waves roaring in the blackness.

You might think a simple walk is not that big of a deal, and taking a vacation centered around a walk sounds silly.  But one thing I've learned this season is to appreciate the little things in life.  An otter sighting, the fireball sun sinking below the horizon each night, the sound of waves, winds that make us snuggle together, a handful of artistically-painted shells, and squishy sand in my toes were SUCH tremendous treats.

The SeaCrest

If you caught my post a few weeks ago, it is no secret to you that we were dying for a getaway.  Dave's job has had extra challenges this season and the girls and I have literally been looking at the same living room scenery for months.  A break was desperately needed, so I started researching.  I learned two things that led me to Pismo Beach on the Central Coast.  One article I read said this summer "California was for Californians" since no one is really able to travel here from other states or countries right now.  Another travel tip I read from a favorite blog advised us to "travel small".  So, we looked local, at beautiful places not far away and at spots where the daily activities being something as simple as a walk on the beach would still be very satisfying.  

A bunch of church friends love the SeaCrest Oceanfront Hotel in Pismo Beach, so I grabbed a 5 day reservation there.  This hotel was AWESOME.  It now ranks in my top 3 all time favorite hotels-- gorgeous grounds, right on the beach, and a different cozy fire pit around every corner you turn.  Because of Covid, it was not busy at all and with the changes and precautions they had in place, we felt totally safe.

Many things about staying in a hotel during a pandemic were a little different, but nothing we didn't get used to right away.  For one, we had to make a reservation to use the pool.  This was easy and ensured our family got the whole thing to ourselves!  Also, there was no housekeeping service, and our free breakfast each morning was a grab-and-go style.  We had to wear masks whenever we were inside, but that was rare because 99% of what we did was outside!

Pismo is chilly!  With highs in just the upper 60's each day, we bundled up in sweatshirts and took advantage every day of those many fire pits!  I was totally in my happy place reading, warming my toes, and listening to the pounding surf.




We did try to patronize small business for our meals, but sometimes dinning rooms were closed.  No problem!  We just got carry out and ate it on our hotel's rooftop garden...where there were, you guessed it, more fire pits, and amazing views!


Our hotel had a 97 step staircase (yep, we counted) leading right down the beach.  We climbed these stairs multiple times each day and watched sunsets from the lookout deck off of them.



Anyone looking for a beach vacation, we'd definitely recommend Pismo Beach and the SeaCrest!!!

Lavender Fields Forever

While Ella spent a day working on a Robotics project at school, Delia and I went on a little date.  My purple-loving girl and I strolled though the lavender fields and had our senses awakened.  Our eyes feasted on the vibrant color.  Our noses breathed in the heavenly, floral scent saturating the air.  Our ears admired the buzzy bees busy at work.   Maybe because our scenery has been so much the same for so long, this little outing felt extra special.

Summer Memories

I must confess that I've been having a hard time with a summer that has no plans on the calendar.  No time with far away family.  No baseball games.  No visits to National Parks.  No camping, Mount Hermon, service trips, or hikes scheduled.  Summer is all about travel, being with the people we love, crossing cool things off our bucket lists, and enjoying experiences that cause simultaneous growth and recharge.  Coping with these losses, re-calibrating my expectations, and ultimately accepting another season of sitting home has admittedly been a challenge.  

It has been some comfort to relive some of the memories we've made in God's good creation over the years.  I amuse myself by typing "waterfall" or "wildlife" or "sunset" or "redwood" into the blog search bar and feel thankful for all the glimpses we've had in the past of God's general revelation through creation.  

One day, my daily devotion even assigned me the "homework" of worshiping God through experiencing nature-- suggesting I listen to ocean waves, chase a sunset, watch birds, hike through a forest and admire the leaves, etc.  Instead I spent a long time digging up old pictures and creating these collages of: 

bald eagles

moose

whales

monarch butterflies

sea turtles

otters

seal pups

pelicans

banana slugs

ladybug nests

Joshua trees

cholla cactus

waterfalls

rainbow eucalyptus groves

blow holes

black sand beaches

red rocks

sun flowers

poppies

Monterey's famous "purple carpet"

columbine

fields of wildflowers

glassy streams

rushing rapids

sunsets

turquoise mountain lakes

tufa towers

volcanoes

hot springs

coastal redwoods

trees impossibly growing from rocks

tide pools

snow-capped mountain ranges

sea glass

rainbows

and shimmering Great Lakes

This summer may be a dormant one, much to my disappointment, but I remind myself that God's glory in nature awaits our exploration in the future!

Farewell, Friends

If you are someone who enjoys reading this blog and staying up to date on the happenings of our family, there is one person you can thank for that-- my friend Amy.  Way back when I met and quickly connected with her at a shared play date in 2007, she told me about her blog.  Blogging was completely foreign to me at the time, but it was with her advice and encouragement that I launched our own.  I'm thankful on a regular basis for this organized, thorough, chronicling of our family memories-- complete with a handy search bar for us to easily access whatever random picture or story we want from the past 13 years!

I'm feeling nostalgic about Amy because our family just said, "Goodbye" to theirs this week.  They soon leave to move to another state.  We know we will see them again, and are thankful for the way God opened doors and revealed calling, but it's still hard to bid farewell to someone who has been an important part of your life for so long.

In a season of staying at home to raise our little ones, Amy was such a gift!  Before our kids were in school, I think we must have gotten together weekly to do little things like go to the park, host play dates in our living rooms, share swim lessons, or walk around the air conditioned mall.  Our families also did big things together like make trips to the coast to go to the aquarium or the Artichoke Festival.  

We've ridden the Mount Hermon train to the Boardwalk together countless times.  We've celebrated New Years Eve, and Thanksgiving, and birthdays together.  If you tallied up all the cookies we've decorated, books we've read to each others' kids, and LEGO creations we've made, it would be quite a huge number!

My most special memories with Amy, though, are probably the new baby hospital visits!  How I love that she was one of the first to hold Delia, and I was honored to see her and her miracle babies, Grace and Benjamin, shortly after they were born.  I took a little longer to meet Ivy, but was just as quickly charmed.

I cherish these memories and delight in the fact that typing "Amy" or "Jonathan" into the search bars of either of my blogs yields literally dozens of posts.  I look forward to future posts describing the new adventures and memories we'll make with this dear family in their new home!

Ella's Birthday

Yesterday our oldest turned 15!  It was a busy weekend with our church suddenly deciding to pursue in-person worship services again, so we had to get a little creative in our celebrating!  Good thing our oldest is super chill and said all she wanted for this strange birthday was a couple hours at the newly reopened coffee shop to visit with her friends outside while treating them all to their favorite drinks.  So, we made that happen!

We celebrated all weekend, with a Support Small Businesses kinda theme! :)  Above, yummy Mexican food on the patio, below presents from our town's cute little home goods store.

 Ella also received generous and perfect presents from her far away family too!  Thank you!

Back in February, Ella had said, "All I want for my birthday is to see Hamilton!" She was very cool about that not happening, but we tried to surprise her with some fun Hamilton stuff still!  This is what I was most excited about.  Our good church friend, Katie, makes THE most incredible custom cookies.  She did a set of Hamilton cookies for Ella.  Aren't they fantastic?  Katie is also Ella's small group leader and Ella babysits her kids.  It was fun to swing Ella over to her house and have her open these cookie works of art in front of their creator.

Ella's actual birthday had 3 church services in it so we didn't do much besides lead (Dave) and serve (me) at those.  She was cute to be excited that "getting to go to REAL church" was her big birthday activity.  Sweet church friends showed up on our doorstop before the first service to gift Ella this giant birthday donut, knowing what a busy day it would be for our family.

 It was a low key kind of birthday, with plans changing a few different times, but I think 15 might actually be a birthday Ella will always remember because the little things (Time with friends! Dinner OUT at a restaurant!  Church with people!  Kindness of church family making disappointments fun!) were actually huge gifts.

Mother's Day

A couple weeks ago a couple different friends tagged me for "The Motherhood Challenge" on Facebook.  Not really wanting to fill everyone's news feed with my own photos, I chose not to play.  But, just a quick flip through my profile pictures gave me more great mom memories and pictures than I could even fit in a collage!  I'll share the photos here, along with some gushing on what a blessing it is to be the mom of these awesome girls.  They are funny.  They are smart.  They are talented.  They are compassionate.  They are servants.  They are independent.  They are creative.  They are leaders.  They are loved by their teachers, friends, and church family.  

The end of school was bittersweet.  We are sad that it had to end the strange way it did, but we are happy to see how both girls met the challenge of distance learning and thrived!  The girls received almost perfect report cards.  Ella got a Presidential Excellence Award for keeping a 4.0 this year.  She also demonstrated her faith in such a way that she was invited to lead the high school girls' Bible Study, Daughters of the King, next year.  One of Delia's teachers was so taken by her this year, she reached out to tell us what a blessing Delia was and offered to continue mentoring her.  I'm just bursting with pride!  

So, with my Mother's Day gift already being my amazing kids and the ways they delight me on a daily basis, along with the parenting partnership of Dave, I didn't really need anything else.  But, the new gold, velvet couch for our whimsically decorated study sure was fun!  It replaces toy shelves and the guinea pig cage and is perfect for reading, talking to friends on the phone, and Zoom meetings-- our new grown up stage of life.  It becomes a bed too, so come sleep over! :)