A Cup Of Pumpkin Spice Hodgepodge

Welcome to another week in The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then hop over and leave a comment for your neighbor there. Here we go...

1. What's something that scares you? 

Besides our government you mean? I kid. Sort of. 

I'm going with bats. They give me the heebie jeebies. 

2. Do you care where the food you eat comes from? To what degree? 

Do I care? Yes. I read labels, am on the lookout for the GM tag and do my best to steer clear, we eat very little processed foods, and if I were ever to have dinner with Bill Gates I'd tell him real meat only please, none of that synthetic stuff he thinks Americans should be eating. 

Just to be clear, Bill Gates is not someone I'd care to have dinner with. 

3. What's something you wish you'd spent more time doing when you were younger? 

Oh wow, lots of things I suppose, but realizing that is part of growing up. A few things that come to mind would be speaking French, asking my dad about his childhood, keeping up with a journal, and learning to play the piano. A few more serious bits too but I don't think they're for sharing here. 

4. Let's play autumn this or that....pumpkin spice or apple cider? Corn maze or haunted house? Horror film or Hallmark movie? Blanket or sweatshirt? Watch football or watch the World Series? Foliage-red, yellow or orange? 

I'm not a pumpkin spice fan at all so cider it is. I've never cared for the scary elements of Halloween so I'll go for the corn maze. I definitely don't watch any horror movies, but it's also a rare day I watch a Hallmark movie so really neither. Hallmark if I have to choose. I love a cozy blanket, and college football is what fall Saturdays are all about. As far as the foliage goes, I love a mix of all three colors. 

5. This time last year where were you and what were you doing? 

This time last year hubs and I had just returned from a fabulous trek up the coast of California (mucho posts about that trip starting with the link here).

On the first Tuesday in October of 2022 we were finally back in the southland. I spent that morning in the orthopedic surgeon's office having my fractured elbow assessed. Good times. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

October, 2023. It's not the coast of California...

...but it's awfully pretty here too. 

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Going Coastal

An alternative title might be 'How I broke my elbow on the coast of California', but I'll let you decide. 

Day 6-Cambria to Carmel 

The day started with a 9 am tour of Hearst Castle in nearby San Simeon. George Hearst traveled his land on horseback but his son William Randolph grew tired of camping so he built a 'little something on the hill' and now we have buses and tickets and tour guides to help us along. 

Entry to the property today is with a timed ticket and a bus ride from the visitors center (located just off the highway) all the way up the mountain to the house itself. 

What an incredible place to call home. 

While a visit to this remarkable 'castle' sounded like it might be a little too touristy, hubs and I both really enjoyed seeing this amazing property and hearing the story behind its construction.  

The house is over the top in terms of decor and detail, not to mention the views which are absolutely stunning. 

Before leaving San Simeon we stopped at the nearby state park to see the sea lions who call this beach home. 

These are not creatures we see lounging on the East Coast beaches and it feels a little bit amazing to stand so close and watch them sunbathe. 

It was another ideal convertible day, perfect for a drive on the twisting-turning coastline road that runs through Big Sur.

We spent most of the day with our mouths agape at the magnificence of the coastal seascape and the natural beauty that is everywhere you look. I really am beginning to get why people live here. 

We stopped for lunch in one of the few restaurants we passed on this stretch of highway (The Whale Watchers Cafe) and then made another stop to see McWay Falls. You couldn't get back as far as we would have liked because some of the cliff was perilously close to falling into the sea!! and was roped off. McWay is an 80 foot high waterfall that drops right into the beach beside the Pacific and pictures do not do it justice.

We arrived in the picturesque town of Carmel late afternoon and after checking in to our hotel set out to explore the area. We walked to the beach, browsed the shops, and had a drink in a little bar tucked away in one of the many nooks and crannies this town possesses. The bar owner recommended his favorite Italian restaurant for dinner so we headed there next. We find the locals generally know what they're talking about and he did not steer us wrong. (La Balena) Fresh pasta in the garden with wonderful service and a most delicious tiramisu for dessert. 

Carmel left its mark, in more ways than one actually. We were walking to breakfast the next morning, struggling to find the address we'd been given, both of us looking up, when I somehow caught my foot on what I guess was a low landscaping curb around a tree in the middle of the sidewalk. 

Honestly I don't even know how the next few seconds happened, but down I went in grand fashion, breaking my glasses, bruising my cheek, scraping both hands, skinning my leg, and evidently fracturing my elbow although I didn't realize it at the time. 

I was shaken up for sure and I took a little inventory of all my body parts before getting up. I was most concerned about my cheek which was throbbing and especially my broken glasses because we weren't heading home for three more days. 

I wanted to cry and maybe I did, mostly over the broken glasses, but I did pick myself up, or maybe hubs picked me up???, and we went into the restaurant. They kindly brought me a bag of ice for my cheek and I cleaned my bleeding hands before mentioning to hubs that my forearm was pretty sore although nothing actually felt broken.

I texted my daughters because I knew they would be sympathetic, but also because my oldest is married to an orthopedic surgeon. He was out of town so after a series of texts relayed through her, questions asked about moving all my fingers and level of numbness, etc he recommended I find a doctor and get checked out. 

That all sounded like a lot so we got in the car and drove to Half Moon Bay to meet up with our friends and see their daughter get married instead. 

I should've listened to the doctor major. 

I have a non-displaced fracture which thankfully did not require surgery. Personally I think walking around with it broken for three days, dancing albeit cautiously, and maybe that lemon drop I sipped at the reception all helped keep it from becoming too stiff as broken elbows tend to do. 

We're almost home in terms of these posts. We still have the wedding, Sausalito, and the orthopedist coming up. In that order. Oops!

The Golden State

I've posted a few pics on my Facebook page this week, but you know I need all the words too, so here we go. First things first-I spent the morning at the orthopedist and am happy to report my fractured elbow will not require surgery. Whoohoo! If you don't know what I'm talking about I mentioned it to Hodgepodgers in a quick post yesterday (linked here) and will likely mention it again when I get to the end of my trip recap. 

If you're new here you should know I can make blogging about a trip longer than the trip itself, but I'm still a little wonky with the typing so maybe my injury will inspire me to be less wordy. 

Maybe. 

See, here we are three paragraphs in and I haven't even gotten started on the actual travel. California. It seems a little bit crazy to make a road trip in California just now, given the price of gas there (7$!!) and really just the price of everything (how do people live here???), but we had friends hosting a wedding and we were not going to miss that. 

These are special friends. Friends who go all the way back and have known my girls since they were babies. We both started moving here-there-everywhere, always keeping in touch and seeing one another in person from time to time, until one day, in an absolutely wonderful display of God's amazing goodness, we ended up living in England at the very same time. 

Our babies who were born just a few weeks apart (her first, my second), and who moved three or four times in the middle years, ended up graduating from high school together while living in the same small village across the pond. This friendship has been such a gift and no matter the miles we always pick up right where we left off. 

When we received the invitation to their youngest daughter's wedding on the California coast we decided to make it a holiday. When in Rome and all that, right? 

Hubs and I have driven the northern California coast all the way from San Francisco to Tacoma Washington (recap link starts here), but I had never seen any of the southern coast. We added a few days to the front end of the wedding date so we could take our time meandering through some of the loveliest little seaside spots in America. 

We went total cliche and rented a convertible because why not? The weather was absolute perfection (is this why people live here???) and we rode with the top down most of the way, hence baseball caps and crazy haired pics. C'est la vie. 

This was our first flight since pre-Covid days and we had a connection both ways so opted not to check bags. We've heard too many nightmare stories of lost luggage and since we were hopping from one spot to the next we worried delayed bags might never reach us. The travel itself went so smoothly in both directions, something of a rarity these days and we were grateful. 

We arrived in San Diego on a Friday afternoon and by the time we rented the car, got out of the airport, and checked in to our hotel it was time for dinner. An early dinner as we were definitely still on East Coast time lol. We stayed at The Westin in the Gaslight District because we wanted to be in that part of town, but also because we had hotel points. Gotta make up for that 7$ gas somewhere now, don't we? 

We spent part of the day in San Diego before driving to our next locale and chose a couple of things to see that would give us a feel for the city. 

We started in Balboa Park and really enjoyed that. It was a gorgeous day (probably going to be saying that a lot) and we walked around soaking up all the beautiful scenery and sunshine. 

After seeing as much of Balboa Park as we could we headed next to the Embarcadero for a tour of The USS Midway museum. 

It is absolutely something to see and as you read the placards and hear the stories of so many brave, mostly young, servicemen you remember what you love about America. 

There was a quote beside one of the placards that really touched me. Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer is cited as the speaker who said this, " What we share...is a pride for having sacrificed together for a cause greater than our individual pursuits. A pride for having our courage and honor affirmed and tested in one moment in history. Pride for having replaced comfort and security with the inconvenience of the unknown and not being broken by the experience." 

Our friends own a condo in San Clemente and we planned to spend the next two nights there. We stopped en route for an ocean view late lunch in La Jolla. Hubs likes this town a lot and wanted me to see it. Parking was a bit challenging on a sunny Saturday but we found a spot and had a wonderful relaxed meal at George's at the Cove. 

Rose all day. 

I mean I could have but there were places to go and people to see. 

Next stop...sea lions, surfers and San Clemente. 

And sunshine of course because it's the California coast.