cook & content: vacation, all I ever wanted, vacation, have to get away

I was just thinking how much vacationing has changed for me from my 20s to my 50s. Camping and cheap motels or couch surfing and stays in the dorms or apartments of people I knew were all I could afford whenever traveling up and down the Pacific Coast Highway during my early adulthood. I was telling Helen, my road trip mate, what I appreciate about vacations I take now is the ability to afford beyond a no-frills hotel or a basic place to sleep. I could never have envisioned being able to rent this VRBO with its amenities a decade ago. It’s been over 30 years since I’ve toured the Central Coast and its sleepy podunk beach towns with just suburban ranch houses, piers, and occasional fish houses. The coast along Highway 1 is now burgeoning developments with more seafood restaurants, souvenir T-shirt stores, boutique gift shops, and boardwalk type of attractions. I’ve so far just been wanting to stay at my vacation rental, reading and practicing my ukulele on the deck or on my bedroom balcony.

And my travel mate, Helen is likewise content to do the same though I did venture into Cayucos to possibly hear a surf band. 

The band there didn’t perform any Dick Dale tunes, but I listened to the four older male hippies play 50s and 70s rock songs while their friends, all locals danced. I then came “home” to cook and eat dinner. 

While Helen read and lounged, I bustled back and forth between the kitchen and the outdoor grill on the deck. I hadn’t made my way yet to any dock to find locally caught fish and instead bought salmon and and other groceries from the chain supermarket earlier to eat with summer squash and green goddess dressing I brought from home. Oh and we also brought 4 bottles of wine, and so we sipped Chardonnay with our fish the first night. While waiting for the beach cottage to be cleaned, we stopped at a local seafood shack where Helen had ordered a clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl while I had ordered a calamari sandwich. She had me grill a couple hunks of that sourdough bread for dinner.            

The evening was chilly, and so we ate outside by the fire pit. I love that, and I so dig this little beach town of Cayucos. 

The next day our dine out to Morro Bay was in the morning rather than lunch or dinner, and we interacted with dogs and their owners while waiting for breakfast at a restaurant called Frankie and Lola's.   

 

I wanted from the menu, a dish called the Leroy Brown with crispy potatoes, cheddar cheese, scallions, guacamole and sour cream, but didn't want the bacon it came with and instead wanted the turkey chorizo that's on their chilaquiles. Yeah I was one of those demanding customers who requests substitutions. However, my breakfast was delicious. Next we walked the harbor of Morro Bay in view of its rock or dormant volcano.

Walking the embarcadero, I stopped in at a fishing charter and finally found a fresh fish counter. Unfortunately I had already bought seafood at the supermarket the day before. No ling cod or vermillion for dinner. And then it was time to head home and just rest. We drank rose this time while I pondered going on a deep sea fishing trip on the bay. If I caught my limit of 10 plus Helen's limit, could I bring home the 20 fish and where could I store them before giving away? 

Patrick messaged no! when I asked him. He then sent me a picture of our packed freezer. Ha! Okay so no deep sea fishing charter on this vacation. Earlier before breakfast, I had cut pork shoulder into bite-sized kebabs and then showed Helen how to make an Asian marinade for proteins. I bought soy sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar, garlic paste, and ginger paste. I told her fish sauce, lemongrass, banana ketchup are also good additions. But we were gonna go with the Asian basics without access to my pantry at home. I took the marinating meat and skewered them in the afternoon. I so appreciate that our vacation rental has all the serving and cookware for entertaining.

I suppose I'll get a gas grill when my charcoal grill dies and make myself an outdoor kitchen some day.

An outdoor dining room too. Again we ate by the fire pit, and we'll probably be dining al fresco for the entirety of this trip.

Instead of buying shelf stable rice, I bought frozen sticky rice which I microwaved for 5 minutes. And for a vegetable, I served sliced tomatoes sprinkled with Himalayan pink salt and a few drops of soy sauce. So we're pretty much eating out only one meal a day, usually lunch and our one breakfast to satiate Helen's craving for pancake or waffle (she got bread pudding instead) and staying at the cottage much of the time with a drive along Highway 1 and exploration by foot of a beach town. 

On the next day, I drove to Harmony, which if you love raclette, grilled cheese, and ice cream is a good--and inexpensive I might add--food pit stop. But I wasn't hungry because of my leftover potatoes with a poached egg. I perused the ceramics as well as the glass stores, but I wanted nothing except the vase pictured below. I love its shape, sort of roundish and stout, but sort of squarish too AND the glazing is gorgeous. It looks like the Stormy Blue glaze that Debbie used to concoct in our community studio dipped at the bottom and then dipped at the top into a Val's Turquoise. This glaze has a lot more glass in it because there's a bit of a crackle on the turquoise and it's glossier than our community glazes. I love it, and it cost only $18. This vase certainly deserves to join my other bud vases on my kitchen windowsill.                               

I had forgotten my wallet (Thank you Helen for lending me the 20 bucks for my vase), but decided anyway to drive further north to Cambria because I wanted to do some souvenir shopping at a business called the Garden Shed, which was full of lovely and interesting displays of succulents, gardening implements and ornaments, and the usual sundry of gift store items. Helen and I are being very selective of souvenirs we buy for ourselves and her sister and our neighbors because we know the majority of stuff in stores are mass manufactured in China rather than slowly and thoughtfully handmade. I had set aside the 2 succulents below, and she clutched a glass flower pinwheel while we walked around the 4 or so shops under the one roof. However, we ended up not buying anything. I want to keep looking at other nurseries, and Helen decided the garden ornament wasn't unique enough and could probably be found at a Ross or Marshall's.          

 

If I see these succulents at another nursery, I'll get them. I'm pretty sure I'll run into them again. Here are some other cacti and succulents I admired.                                

I think that the Rosularia is so cute, but $16 seems a lot. The Aeonium Zwartkop I’ve seen and plucked and planted, but I appreciate now knowing its name.

I've got so much Aeonium and sempervirens and would like some more variety, so I wonder how specialized is the Sedum Hispanicum and aargh, I forgot to include in the picture of this plant (cactus? succulent?)above the label indicating what kind it is. While at the Garden Shed in Cambria, there was also this art gallery which I would've explored had it been open.                       

I wonder what constitutes an art emergency? Can't stop sculpting or painting or making?

But hey I admire her ethic of upcycling materials into her art, and her paintings looked appealing through the window of which Helen made me take a picture. And I looked for inspiration and pricing of the ceramics inside the shopping compound. Pricing was interesting for this sandstone pot.                

 

Of course, the unglazed striping is giving me ideas for my speckled buff. Glossy white on the interior and on the rim and top of the vase, but white stripes that are just under glazed and not overglazed on the rest of the pot.

 

The pots above are giving me ideas for textures. I love just black and white and texture. And I've got to remember to raise my pots with a ring adhered on the bottom.

 

I loved the square fountain above and still want to create a small fountain like it for my atrium. And the square pots look contemporary and different enough from the round cylinders I usually make my succulent planters in the shape of.

And above is another pot decorated with just colored underglazes that's giving me ideas. After our morning in Cambria and Harmony, I needed beach. We sat on the sand and looked at the Rock in the distance. The fog and the cool temperature outside the sea made the waves look too cold for boogie boarding.

And then it was time for Tuesday evening dinner. I found two of these clam shell dishes in a cupboard in the cottage which I thought perfect for a salad shrimp supper accompanied by the Sauvignon Blanc I'd been saving all month for this beach vacay and to sip while grilling.

 

I was glad I brought salad greens and mozzarella and tomatoes for this meal while Helen had bought salad dressing and dip for her raw vegetable munching. And golly do I like dining outside.

Yeah I love these clam shell dishes. I need to make a plaster mold of one.

As we watched the sun set down into the ocean, I told Helen I wanted to return to Morro Bay to eat seafood.

Back to the Rock! I like the working class vibe of Morro Bay and the plethora of commercial fishing that still exists in a beach city.

I chose to eat lunch at the Dockside Too, which has outdoor dining next to its fresh fish counter and workers outside packing fish and cleaning the dock.

Nothing says beach vacation more to me than a cup of clam chowder and baskets of fried clams and calamari with hot sauce, cocktail sauce, tartar sauce, and wedges of lemon.

Helen said the chowder was too thick and that all she could taste was breading on my fried seafood. Yeah I wish I had only gotten the fried calamari (not enough clam and too much breading in that basket) and grilled fish appetizers with my chowder, but I thought the chowder tasty and Helen liked the ambiance and the guitar playing of a guy folk singing Jimmy Buffet and Dionne Warwick. Plus we got a view of the Rock without the markup prices of indoor dining. I wanted soft serve ice cream from another favorite business in the embarcadero and to walk around some more.

 

We had earlier spied some sea cadets, probably from the university or a naval junior reserve officer training program . Why hadn't I majored in marine biology like I had originally intended? I could have gone to Cal Poly too with my high school friend, John, who had wanted to major in forestry. We had both talked about attending Humboldt State University after high school graduation. 

 

I'd once fantasized about working and traveling on boats or ships.

                 

I kinda wished I had done a stint in the military like the United States Coast Guard. Where would I have been stationed? Could I have pursued a marine biology degree as a recruit?

  

What would my life trajectory had been had I made other choices?

We made our way from the gritty docks of the waterfront to the touristy shops. At the Garden Gallery, I saw lots of succulents I liked but that were still more expensive than I preferred.

I should have taken more pics of the succulent planters, but here are a plethora of some I admired on the web for comparison and inspo.

 

After browsing the Garden Gallery, where the 5 succulents I bought were kind of pricey at $5 each but a store which I loved because the showrooms were large, clean and stylishly merchandised (there was even dinnerware I admired), we headed to a nursery more inland in Los Osos, where the pots were 20% off and the 2" to 4" succulents were $2.49 to $4.99. And once back at our rental, it was my turn to make some mini succulent gardens.

I loved the pots we found, aptly two of them from a line called Palm Springs and Midcentury Modern.

 

Not too bad. And super fun. After my crafternoon, was Tarot time before grilling another salmon dinner. I decided to draw for past, present, future.

Upright Three of Cups Meaning

The meaning behind the Three of Cups represents a period of happiness. You will be able to forget the worries of your daily life and spend quality time with family and friends.

To see the Three of Cups can indicate a happy reunion with a long lost friend, relative, or loved one. It can also mean a celebration, whether it is your own or for someone who you love. The event can be a birthday, wedding, or any other happy occasion. In general, it is about spending quality time with people you cherish in your life. 

Five of Cups Reversal Meaning

When the card is reversed, the Five of Cups shows a significant recovery from the regret as well as proper acceptance of your past. You are beginning to realize all of the implications of your actions, and you have finally come to appreciate the lessons which can be learned from that experience.

You may even start to recognize the overall value of the painful experience you had in the larger scheme of things. You are seeing that the suffering and grief that you endured gave you strength and imbued you with resilience. You are ready to pick up the two remaining cups which are still full and go on with your life in full force.

Nine of Cups Reversal Meaning

When the Nine of Cups is reversed, you need to think more carefully about the things that you really want in your life. The Nine of Cups reversed can signify that you are looking for a more authentic feeling of fulfillment.

Your path has been a hard one, and you've arrived at a period where you may have the appearance of fulfillment, but something else is missing. This may outwardly appear as smugness, and can indicate your desire to receive attention and recognition for all that you have achieved. But you personally still feel dissatisfaction in yourself - it seems as though your desires are never-ending, a black hole. Where does this stem from? In what parts of yourself are you lacking confidence?

The Nine of Cups reversal denotes that it is time for you to stop placing a value on all your blessings, and instead pay attention to the quality of your life. The true treasures lie in your relationships with your family, friends, and community.

Like astrology, tarot is just about interpreting what is there for ourselves. What was interesting about my draw was that the numbers were all odd, which I think are my favorite numbers (7 though was my favorite birthday party) though I innately seek symmetry and balance and to make numbers even. And my cards were all of the suit of cups. "The suit of cups rules over all that is associated with emotions, the unconscious, creativity, and intuition. They frequently talk about relationships, whether romantic or otherwise, and one's imagination and inner world. They are associated with the element of water, which becomes a frequent visual theme within this suit. At their worst, the cups suit is fret with uncontrolled feelings, fantasy, and a disconnect with one's inner voice." I journal privately over what I choose for these cards to indicate of my past (I have been happy and have had some amazing experiences and been graced with caring and wise people in spite of my lack of kindness in a lot of my actions), present (well duh! I'd been lamenting a lot about things I'd done but can't change and am trying to make my peace with), and future (again duh, given my dwelling on what retirement is going to look like).

The next morning of our final full day of vacay, I couldn't help but evaluate my crafting. This planter below is mine, and I was lucky that Helen spotted this pot behind others. I like its round asymmetrical shape. I want to scatter white pebbles on top of the soil when I get home. The container sort of became the home for the discards of the plants I used in the other planters I made for Cecilia and Nancy. I find it kind of imbalanced, and so I'll seek out some miniature plants or sedums to replace some of the 4” plants in this container.                

Here's the pot for Nancy I kept fiddling with by putting white sand and tumbled glass in between the succulents and over the soil. It also looks imbalanced to me. I feel like it needs some miniature plants like mine. What would have made more sense would have been to buy two more pots and just to put one succulent in each. But whatever. I'll make similar pots like this one because there's lots of Bmix scrap clay in both studios where I hand build, and I've pints of matte blue and green glazes.

And here's the planter into which I put the most effort with lots of input from Helen. It's got a bit of spreading sedums and a kalanchoe as well as a few echeveria. More white pebbles atop the soil when I get home, and the tumbled glass and sand dollar and oyster shell in it are reminders that it was created in a beach environment.

Yep, if I were not keeping or giving these away, I would sell these at the pop-up the day after tomorrow. I think succulent planters are the raison d'être for all my making. Can I consider becoming a landscape designer in my next life?

And it's now the last night in the vacation rental after napping at the beach today. I'm not grilling tonight but merely heating leftovers in the microwave and maybe roasting vegetables to accompany the other night's Asian pork kebabs. I just hoovered the rest of the shrimp green salad and roasted salmon and summer squash. Helen's waiting for me to set up the tarot deck after I listen to my Downtime and 70s Essentials playlists and blog. This blog is really for me and no other audience. When I've Alzheimer's or some other form of dementia, I want to be able to view this blog for any memory lapses that may happen and hopefully I'll still have cognitive ability and a faculty for reading and comprehension and still be able to marvel that I was once young, curious, active and engaging with the world. I'm not really looking for traffic or business opportunities or to make money (really how does one do that? how does a side hustle become your income? and would I then hate what I love doing if I monetize it?) from this blog though I am looking to tell a story or rather figure out what is my story.                            

I had forgotten about the two beef and chorizo burritos I had brought. Ate one last night after eating the rest of the leftovers and the other this morning along with the last tomato. And then I looked at all the sand dollars I picked up on beach day yesterday. They whitened considerably after washing and then leaving them in the sun to dry. There were so many sand dollars on the beach that I could have picked so many more.

I wish I had walked the beach in the mornings or afternoons, but I was either so lazy or didn’t want to leave Helen by herself without a car and then feeling guilty if I didn't take her with me. In Palm Springs, I was stuck at the house when I didn't rent a car and not inclined to walk or hike inside a gated golf community. And so in Cayucos, I took shopping instead of state park field trips to Harmony, Cambria, Morro Bay and Los Osos, and walked very slowly so she could keep up. She kept thanking me for waiting for her. I didn’t want her to feel abandoned though she might have preferred to have been left alone at the beach cottage. I wasn’t as physically active as I usually am during a week, but that’s okay on vacation. Helen asked me to go in on a vacation rental with her again at Christmas, and I said I would if we could ride up in separate cars (because I wanted mobility) to which she said she didn't want to go to San Diego then if we weren't all riding down together in one vehicle. Nope then. Last sunset from the deck of the beach house.

 

Returning home, I drove the PCH from Cayucos to San Simeon and then Big Sur, hopping over to Highway 101 in Monterey. I was a bit ill at meandering Highway 1 in and up the cliffs of Big Sur. I would’ve gotten out at some of the vista points to marvel and take pics of the views, but Helen kept commenting how we had such similar spectacular views where we live near Half Moon Bay and Pacifica, which kind of hinted to me that she wished I had taken the faster and less scenic highway home. That was a bit of a damper. I would’ve also liked to have eaten lunch at Nepenthe. If I had been on my own, I might have spent a night in Santa Cruz or Carmel by the Sea and walked more beaches. I think I would like to do this trip again at Thanksgiving all over again but stay in Pismo Beach and explore Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo or just Avila Beach and Oceano with lots of hiking at the state parks and a day of deep sea fishing in a bay. However, I’m glad I went and got to explore a tiny bit of the Central Coast.