One for the Bucket List, Part 1

Guess ...

where ...

we ...

are...

going?!?!?!

Did you guess California?

If you did, then you would be right!

Sometime last fall, my sister invited me to go along with her on a trip to California. Time with your sister on a fun girl trip? Sign me up!!

By the time December rolled around, life was definitely in full motion - in some respects on overdrive - and on the way to the airport we had to make each other laugh about how even the prospect of a good thing has to fight the gravitational pull of life as we know it.

We both live in Texas. We've lived in Texas most of our lives. We are Texas girls.

But we have California Girl roots.

So going to California is extra special for us both.

We flew to San Francisco and rented a car to drive down the California Coast.

Here's our rental car. It's the silver one.

No, silly, not the corvette ...the other silver one!

But who cares what you're driving when the road ahead looks like this ...

It was probably at this point when Sandy realized I was not going to stop exclaiming over the beauty of it all. Every other word was "beautiful!" or "gorgeous!"

Our destination was Cambria, but we decided to take a jaunt through Pebble Beach, as we were on the "Let's do Everything!" tour. It was on this little side trip that Jeremy Piven walked right in front of our car, and although my camera was in my lap, I did not take the picture.

The picture probably would have looked like this if I'd had the presence of mind to take it:

(source)

Well, okay, he was not so nicely dressed on the street. Nor did he have his Golden Globe with him. For the record, I don't have a thing for this actor. I have a thing for my husband, Lt.Dan . I will, however, be perpetually amused that I had the camera right there in my lap, made eye contact with the movie star walking 12 inches from our bumper ...

and did ... not take ... the picture.

Anyway...

You pay to drive through this neighborhood ...

But it's worth it ...

We got peeks through the trees and between fence posts at oh-so-grand houses.

Most homes were gated. Here's my favorite gate ...

How cute are these little round headed people doing gate duty?

If you live in this house ...

your view is this ...

And your neighbor's house would resemble a hobbit house ...

Such a lovely, charming little seaside house ...

I would love to cozy up in front of one of those windows.

Because the view would be this ...

Our original plan was that we would be in Cambria by the time the sun went down. Pebble Beach to Cambria is about 100 miles. In Texas, you can cover that in not much over an hour. But curvaceous California Highway 1 is no place for speedsters. Besides, who wants to drive fast when you have such gorgeous views?

So we picked a spot to pull over and watch the sun go down. We figured these people probably knew what they were doing when they put a wall of windows facing out to sea ...

And sure enough, they did indeed have a spectacular view ...

And the sun is going ...

... going ...

... gone ...

And we are back on the road again.

We had to stop just one more time. Because there was the dusky sunset,

and the sea, and the hills, and the moon ...

it was an overdose of gorgeousness.

Cambria is a lovely little seaside town, quaint and quiet.

We stayed at the Pelican Cove Inn ...

Where you are just across the street from a leisurely stroll on Moonstone Beach ...

this is the path to the breakfast room, featuring the best. waffles. ever.

Cambria is the kind of place where you would have a hammock in your front yard. Because your front yard is practically on the beach ...

Our ties to Cambria started with this house, built in the 1960's by my Uncle Weyman and Aunt Nell. They called it 'WeyNell'. When they lived here, there were perhaps two houses to the south of them. And there were hippies living around the corner.

You can see the ocean from the back windows.

As kids, we'd spend hours on what our family calls "Nell's Beach". I'm sure there's an official name for it, but that's how we'll always think of it.

I'll leave you here for a bit to wait for the sunset. You can listen to the waves ... watch for seals ... or maybe even migrating whales ... soak up that glorious California sunshine ...