It’s the land of fruits and nuts with a tidal Pacific Ocean shoreline of 3427 miles including small bays and inlets. It has a budget so toxic that it must certainly qualify for some kind of Superfund status. And of course it has The Governator.
It’s CALIFORNIA!
It seems there are a lot of people who have issues with California these days. Too liberal! Too many illegal immigrants! Too many fruits and nuts! They despise California and everything it stands for. However, that does not describe me. In fact, I LOVE CALIFORNIA! There. I’ve said it. Scary but true.
I am fortunate these days to have two very dear friends living in San Diego who graciously allow me to invite myself to visit them whenever I want to. They give me my own little guestroom and bath and computer access. Plus, it is a scant 2-minute downhill walk from their home to a small winery. It doesn’t get much better than that. They don’t live near the beach but the distance is a small obstacle easily overcome.
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| My buddies |
Of course, the first thing we did yesterday after my uneventful 440-mile drive from southern Utah was to mosey on down to the winery. It was near closing when we walked in (I had been thinking up schemes that morning with MY TRAVEL AGENT for a possible post-Katmai adventure again next summer, and so had left St. George later than I’d planned) but we were able to buy a bottle of chardonnay and sit on the winery patio in the waning light of our late October evening. We caught up with each others’ news until the last drop of wine was gone. We talked about our summers, our families, and our plans. I told them stories about Alaska and they told me about a trip to New England they’d taken in May to re-connect with estranged relatives. We thought of some activities we could do while I am here – sift through tailings at a tourmaline mine, go tide-pooling at La Jolla, visit the aquarium, and hike some of the geology of San Diego county.
Knowing us, we’re most likely to do all those things and more. We’ll find our way to the beach somehow. Cheers!
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| Yours Truly, Cathy, and a bottle of Chardonnay |
