Wedding Fun!

Dog was dressed and ready for fun!

Happy cute couple, Wayne & Carol!

Beautiful decorations!

Friends from afar ~ Lupe from our 1998-2000 Puerto Vallarta days!

Harvest moon over the bay.

And my wonderful friend, Carol!

And on to The Wedding!

Of Carol and Wayne!
Of "Crapricorn Capricorn Cat"!
Of my best "La Paz how the hell are we going to survive this hot, sweaty summer" girlfriend!
To the crazy Wayne!
Oh the stories...
We'll save those for another day.
Or just look back into my La Paz and cruising life...
If that really existed.

So over the hill on Highway 17 - oh yay, another fun drive dragging a trailer...
And through the woods San Jose and the outlying conglomerous of roads, freeways, highways, interchanges and concrete beltlines.
And into the little ghost town of Brisbane.
Geesus, talk about quiet.
Empty office buildings and a quiet, but full marina.
Uh, not so quiet that night however...
Remember who the bride and groom were...
And if you don't remember, this might give you an idea of what the night entailed:

Pitstop in Santa Cruz Redwoods

Still had a night to "kill" before the dreaded drive into San Fran, so a stop at an RV park in the Santa Cruz mountains was in order.

But first we had to get there...

Here is a draft letter I am working on:

Dear City of Salinas,
Thank you for the "warning" on the side of the road that the BlahBlahBlah Offramp was closed and to please use Plan B Offramp.
Thank you.
Really.
Plan B worked great.
We were able to get off the freeway and took the frontage road right on up to BlahBlahBlah Street.
And saw that the entire BlahBlahBlah street was closed, not just the offramp.
That was great.
Really.
We were dragging a trailer around on unknown and pretty poorly marked streets and ended up on a teeny tiny street with crappy little houses.
Which in reality was ok, because we were dragging our own teeny tiny crappy temporary house.
So the teeny tiny street took us right back onto the freeway.
On to Plan C.
Thanks City of Salinas!
You suck!
Sincerely,
The People Who Had Two GPS's in Their Vehicle and Still Had to Drive in Circles Due to Someone's Lack of Understanding Proper Closed Street Signage

But we got there.
With just a bit of "shit I'm trying!" and "stupid streets going in circles" and "it's ok, we'll just go to Plan J"...
And a bit of "oh crap, Santa Cruz traffic is crazy" and "oh shit, really, seventeen hairpins up this 6' wide road?" and "are you sure you are taking us the right way?" which in the end, I wasn't as our GPS's (two, remember we had two) were telling us to use Plan S Road, when trailers are forbidden on Plan S Road (and there was a reason... seventeen hairpins on a 6' wide road) and we really should have been on Plan R Road.
But the turn onto Plan R Road was so filled with stoplights and crazy traffic that we missed it.

With a final hairpin turn onto Big Trees Road (aptly named) we made it.
Kind of a chock-a-block RV in a row place along one side, but we had handpicked by the nice girl I talked to on the phone when making our reservation, a GREAT SPOT!

Loved it!
Set up camp.
Walked the dog.
Had wine.
Oh, and had electricity so hung the trailer trash lights.

Avila and Quick Stop at Pear Valley

As our friends, Wayne and Carol of "Capricorn Cat" were having a wedding party in San Francisco we planned a vacation around attending.

Research.
Research.
Research.
As usual.
A little shopping, a little preparing and a little leaving work early on a Thursday.

First stop Avila Beach.

Not much to write home about, but a great view.
A level spot.
Far away neighbors.
A place to bbq.
A spot to sit and sip some wine while knitting.

Second stop, a wine club pick up at Pear Valley Winery.

Had to make sure we wouldn't go thirsty...

Next Stop ~ Vacation!

Fall Sunrises...

Quite lovely.

The sunrises, sunsets and weather are great!
I don't like the shorter hours of daylight or walking the dog while it's dark.
I do love the feel of fall though...
The oranges, pinks and shimmering golds.

I love fall, however would prefer it to be followed by either spring or summer.
Skip winter.

What Not To Do With A Boat...

Really, it's best to keep them on top of the water.

You, know "above", not under...

Makes it hard to sail, anchor, park and haul out.

Four Adults, One Child, Two Labrador Retreivers Island Trip

Which really equates to a lot of dog hair and a lot of towels.

And a lot of fun!
Yellowbanks with Dawn, Neil, Nina and dog Amber.

 

We all swam.
Some of us dove in.

Some jumped.

 

Some were pulled in.

Some watched.

Perfect weather.
Perfect guests.
Perfect food.
Perfect wine.
Perfect good time!