Mr Poopers Day Out

Morro Bay.  10 days of (mildly interrupted from the Mr’s work) peace, quiet, and quite frankly, pure bliss.  If you have never ventured up the 1 past Santa Barbara, well, you are missing out.  Pismo is cute, San Luis Obsipo is nice, Morro Bay is paradise.  There is not a whole lot “to do” precisely in Morro Bay. Not at least for those people who need to be entertained.  For those of us that can just be, well it is perfection.

Morro Bay is a bird sanctuary, the whole city, birds and various amazing wild animals flourish here.  The small population and a spattering of government “no go” zones protecting this or that make further development here unlikely, and honestly, it would only ruin this small town.

The beaches are among the most fabulous too.

We set off Thursday morning bright and early, cars packed (we brought both the caliber & the truck as we had a truck bed full of wood from a local ranch, it was cheaper this way!)  we headed up the 101 through crazy stupid traffic, veering off and stopping in Solvang for breakfast. Solvang is an odd little township where in, it’s randomly Dutch looking, feeling, and of course tasting.  We stopped by Olson’s Bakery which is always our stop, no fancy breakfast but honestly, it’s all the better for it.  Next was of course one of the many Christmas shops.  I don’t know why they have so many Christmas shops here, but they do and we always stop and get an ornament for our tree and a figure for the ever growing creche set.  The ornament is a glass clove of garlic which makes me laugh hysterically and the figure is that of St Michael (which was automatically dubbed “The Smiter” by the Mr as the little figure has his sword drawn way over his head looking as though he’s about to smite someone.)  For being distinctively non-christian these might be weird purchases, but my mom started the creche set when I was young, and a figure or two has been added to it every year since. By all estimates we now have the whole town of Bethlehem, a few transients, and the local farmers too. It’s quite a large creche set now. lol

Arriving in Morro Bay was like releasing a long held deep breath.  Suddenly all the cares, concerns and petty annoyances were left behind, left at home, or by the road side, because nothing else mattered now.  The air was crisp (sometimes down right cold at night), the birds sung, and the sea lions barked in the bay.  If there is a better chours on this earth I have yet to hear it.

Our home for the next 10 days

What did we do while we camped? We walked, finding a very public Black Crowned Heron rookery where very few people even noticed it. I can’t understand other people who look and see a tree, never looking to see into the tree.  There is so much in this life that people just walk by, never looking up, looking down, or into. I can’t imagine a worse existence than never having your curiosity piqued.  Never just stopping with jaw dropping wonder that this world around us.

We saw incredible beaches.

We saw Elfin Forests with 200+ year old miniature Oaks.

Me! in the Elfin Forest

We rented a little electronic boat and cruised around the bay “chasing” (we could only go like 3mph) down sea lions and otters and cormorants, and pelicans.

Flight Pattern

Not as much knitting happened as I thought would during these 10 days.  I suddenly on the second day was consumed by the need to read. Read, read and just read.  Thankfully the Mr had many a book along, the first in a series, that I could start. Devouring that we found ourselves in the one and only New & Used book store in Morro Bay. I have to say that their science fiction/ fantasy selection was slim, but I found a few including THUD!by Terry Prachet and in 2 days of reading it had literally laughed myself in to a tizzy. I wish they had more Prachet books but alas they did not.  I definitely need more. After reading Good Omens (which I saw has been reprinted) and now Thud! well, I’m a convert. Even if you are not a fantasy ready, you need to pick up one of his books, the comedy will prevail.

Bought solely because this was, pancakes in a can!

I also photographed most of this trip. I took more pictures in this 10 day period than I’ve ever taken in one haul. Roughly 2000.  I won’t bore you with them all, as many are of the birds of Morro Bay as I slammed my shutter shut making sure I would not miss “the one”.  This also brought home an idea that has been floating in my brain for a while, cementing into a reality and forcing itself voiced.  I really like photography, actually I love it, think about it constantly, and examine everything with it in mind.  This is something I really want to pursue, and with help from a few select people, am going to.  With my bulldog tenacity I’m going to sniff out every outlet I can and see where it will lead.  One day I would like to be the person gathering stares from amateur photographers with my 3 foot long grey lens, sitting on my stool waiting for the shot to come. 

This is my dream, and it will be made flesh.  I doubt that I will ever quit my day job and sit out in the woods all day long like I would want to, but one never knows, and you can not rule out possibilities before even trying.  So I’m going to try, and I may succeed, or I may flounder, but at least I’m going to try.

Black Crowned Heron

Over the next few days I will be posting individual pictures from the trip and recaping my meeting with Mette (alpacaholic) and neverknotknitting These few are just the first upload, as always, no editing, no photoshop.