Relics

(copied from Morgan’s Livejournal)

Better late than never? Depends on if anyone actually cares. 😉 I’ve interspersed Roland’s commentary with my “outline,” which is based on time stamps from the cell phone and various receipts. Links to photos from said cell phone are included. (After seeing how big this was getting, I’m going to do separate posts for each day. This is for Sunday, 10 Feb. Since I know quoted text shows up different on different style sheets, I’ll note that the quoted stuff is Roland’s, and the other is my notes.

The photos are also in a gallery on our site.

Sunday morning was a bit more sedate than we’d originally intended, but that really wasn’t a problem. We wanted to make our trip a laid-back one where we really enjoyed ourselves and didn’t sweat a schedule. We packed, got disgustingly lovey (a theme that would run through the entire weekend) in our “His Princess” and “Her Hero” T-shirts(*), and got moving around nine.

(*) The CafePress links — cafepress.com/hisprincess and cafepress.com/herhero — don’t work anymore.

9:04 and 9:07 am: photos of Cucamonga Peak from the westbound 210

9:30 am: photo of Arcadia sign

It didn’t take long for the magical aura to set in. Somewhere around San Fernando Valley, we saw what we think were eagles — we see hawks somewhat regularly, but these were larger, and the underside of their wings were almost entirely white. Magnificent.

We stopped for gas, bio-necessities, and had a yummy lunch at Quiznos in Santa Maria, but I think it’s fair to say that our honeymoon (or garlic-moon, as Morgan puts it, thanks to the copious amounts we enjoyed) truly began in a little town called Halcyon. We stopped at the “Temple of the People,” a New Agey ecumenical church that started its life as a Theosophic outpost. We wandered the pretty site, too late for noon healing services but not too late to enjoy the serenity in the air. That’s when the Monarch Butterfly chose to grace us with its presence. It fluttered around us for a short while, completely unafraid of the two giants watching it, then flew off. We walked around for a bit longer, basking in the wonder of it, and then the butterfly came back. It flew around us again, and when it left, it flew towards the car. We knew it was time to go. 🙂

10:22 am – bought gas in Thousand Oaks

12:06 pm – Lunch at Quiznos, 2202 S. Bradley Rd, Santa Maria, 93455

1:56 pm: photo at Temple of the People, “Creeds Disappear, Hearts Remain.”
906 S Halcyon Rd, Arroyo Grande, CA 93420

2:06 pm – recorded note about the butterfly

Our next stop was the Madonna Inn, and that’s where the trip went from mystical to downright fairy-tale-esque. The Madonna Inn is a crazy, patchwork wonder, a modern Castle Falkenstein, built half in a pseudo-Bavarian style and half with an Old West feel. We stopped there and bought some cinnamon pull-apart bread from a nice young man named Deva. The bread was quite good, by the by. Morgan also noticed a poster for Ronnie Lott, a home-town hero [and with jersey number 42], doing some kind of sports clinic in town.

2:37 pm – Cinnamon bread at the Madonna Inn Bakery
100 Madonna Road, San Luis Obispo, CA 93405

2:46 – 2:52 pm: photos along Hwy 1, north of SLO

From there, it was on to the Yew Tree, a Celtic/New Age store in a long ribbon of a town called Cambria. It was a wonderful place, but Morgan didn’t end up getting anything there. I did. I replaced my dying, beat-up old wallet with a fabric one bearing a triquetra on the outside, and a dream box with a cougar on it.

4:07 pm – Triquetra wallet and dream box, Yew Tree
734 Main Street, Cambria, CA 93428-2816

That was the last major stop on the way up, since the sun was setting, and we were heading into the winding, mountainous section of Highway 1. It was a bit treacherous and nerve-wracking. It was also worth it, because along that coastline lies some of the most beautiful terrain in the world. Towering peaks, majestic forests and fantastic shorelines run all the way up this extraordinary coastal region. I can’t do this area justice with words; it is, simply, magnificent.

5:25 pm: 2 photos of coastline along Hwy 1

5:29 pm – recorded note that the last pic shot was the Big Creek Bridge

It was nevertheless with great relief that we pulled into the Knights Inn on Munras in Monterey. Nice place, very clean, you could use the bed for a swimming pool with a little work. We settle in, buy some forgotten essentials at Safeway, stop for some fast food, then head back and snuggle in, disgustingly happy honeymooners/anniversary celebrators/Valentine’s Day sweethearts. It’s a good thing the drapes and door were closed, because we probably would have sent every diabetic for miles into insulin shock otherwise.

8:17 pm – personal items and snack, Safeway
1212 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove, CA 93950

8:48 pm – dinner, Carls Jr.
1142 Fremont Blvd., Seaside, 93955

Now, on to Monday…

Ref:

• Day 1, 10 Feb
• Day 2, 11 Feb
• Day 3, 12 Feb
• Day 4, 13 Feb