My girlfriend Liz lost her dear husband Mike in March of this year and we planned to take a trip of some kind to get her out of the house. When some planned group trips fell through due to COVID, I suggested a road trip, which is what she and Mike used to do a lot of. We’d never traveled together so it was a bit of an experiment. We waded through construction traffic in Malibu and had to take a room in an expensive hotel just to get a room for the night about 8:00 pm. The next day we traveled on to Pismo Beach and stayed in a motel that was a far cry from the previous night. A 2nd class motel, noisy people, but near the beach and pier. We found a lovely restaurant, rather upscale, near the pier and had a great dinner and one of my occasional glasses of wine. We enjoyed the view and the ambience and then returned to our less than elegant room. Oh well, the sheets and towels were clean. The next day, after a stop in a delightful thrift shop, we arrived in the charming town of Cambria. The town boasts unique shops and restaurants and we stayed two days. Traveling up the coast about ten miles, Liz introduced me to the elephant seal rookery. Young males practicing fighting in the water with their unique sound, a cross between a drum and a tuba! Over 50 of them lying on the beach dusting themselves with sand. It was amazing. We then checked out the beach at Cambria that boasted one of the largest deposits of smooth rocks and driftwood I’d ever seen. I filled a bag with pieces I just had to bring home. Saturday morning, we started home and drove the entire 365 miles back to San Diego. We enjoyed each other’s company, felt we worked well together, and decided to do it again one day soon!
