Day 22 – Morro Bay – Paradise by the Sea

Once again, Chris woke early and took a 5 mile hike by himself. Hey C-Mac, he’s turning into “nature boy”. We had a quick breakfast - Carrie’s delicious homemade scones - and got back on the road. This was a transition time for the Walsh family. For the past 5 days we have enjoyed the luxury of family and friends’ homes. We are greatly appreciative of everyone’s hospitality and know that opening your lives to the Walsh clan is no easy feat. “Thank you” will never be enough!
Our plan was to drive up the California coast, stop at Hearst Castle for a tour and continue to Monterey. However, our motto on this trip has been that no plan is a final plan. After pondering the idea of driving up the beautiful, but very hilly coastline, and fearing that if Torey were to experience car sickness, we would have no alternative but to continue driving up the coast, we decided to come up with Plan B.
And what a terrific plan it was! After driving 4 hours, we stopped in Morro Bay for an unplanned visit with my Uncle Dave and Aunt Jean. Morro Bay is truly indescribable. When we got out of the car we were greeted with 70 degree weather, abundant sunshine, no humidity, a cool breeze and spectacular views. Oh yeah, it’s not crowded here like most shore spots as the population is a bit over 10,000. Their home sits on a hill overlooking the bay with the golf course only a few miles away- a poor man’s Torey Pines is what they call it. They had never met Chris or the girls so they had the opportunity again to meet more people in their ever-expanding family. The girls had a blast picking carrots, beets and strawberries from their garden, washing them and enjoying their abundance of flavor. I think a garden at the Walsh house is now in the planning stage! We enjoyed looking at old photos and Jean surprised me with a childhood photo of my dad. Jean – I’ll treasure that forever. They are wonderful people which reminded us how lucky we are to have the family we have on both the west and east coast. Uncle Dave raised my seven Smith cousins who we hung with last week in Newport Beach. After enjoying some scrumptious brownies, we hugged and said our good byes. We were headed to Monterey for a restful sleep. Another seven hours in the car with the kids never felt so good. How bizarre?

Thanks for traveling with us,
Debbi

P.S. Our odometer now says 4,482 miles already…