Hello there again! If you aren’t aware, we posted just a short while ago, so be sure to read this post and the one right under it for a complete idea of the happs…including 2, that’s right -2 surveys! We cannot believe it, but we spent the past week going through our months of our adventurous journey, then forgot to post our “bests” in the blog…so, without further ado, here we go!

Favorite place we visited in the past 12 months –

Arbor = Devil’s Tower

Calvin = All of San Diego

Ivy = toss up between Danish Alps and any beach

Larry = Garden of the Gods, CO

 

Favorite boondock –

Arbor = Grandpa Pete’s (that counts, right?!)

Calvin = Carlsbad, CA

Ivy = Round Lake Vineyards

Larry = Carlsbad, CA

 

Least favorite place or thing –

Arbor = eye smash (when she ran into the open undercarriage door of the RV)

Calvin = the casita we stayed in Albuquerque, NM

Ivy = that dang logging road, MI

Larry = the giant fish from afar, MN

 

Favorite roadside attraction or activity –

Arbor = petting the stingrays, AZ

Calvin = Rodeo Drive, CA

Ivy = all the bikes, SD

Larry = tidepools

 

Most fun or WOW! –

Arbor = airplane restaurant, CO

Calvin = Las Vegas, NV

Ivy = totality eclipse, NE

Larry = Meteor Crater, AZ

 

Favorite animal seen along the journey –

Arbor = horse

Calvin = prairie dogs

Ivy = Sea Otters

Larry = Elephant Seals

We posted our Tour Builder a while back, but in case you’re interested… https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/tour/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgIDA-839tQsM

Happy Friday!

Greetings from the West Coast. Hope you’re all well. We realize some of you are feeling somber about this being our last ‘regular’ post, but cheer up, buttercup! – we’ll still post (just less frequently). So, if you haven’t subscribed to the blog, do so and then you will receive an email when we post.

Okay, we’ve created 2 surveys. If you really like – or even mildly like – our surveys, please do both! If they’re barely tolerable, don’t tell us ☹, but still do at least 1 of them, will ya please?!

Survey 1, AKA The Hardest Quiz is here – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZJX9FS2 and Survey 2, AKA The Easiest Quiz is here – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5NX3F8B . When you fill these out, they’re like a gift to us, as some of you aren’t so good at keeping in contact, amIright?! We love hearing from you and this is our fun way of doing it.

Not much new to report here. We had some super-hot days in Paso Robles this week, so the kids made their crayon art. Arbor’s can be seen here and we hope to include a pic of Calvin’s next time, as it was still cooling.

As usual, we had unusual visitors at the coffee shop this week. There were lots of folks from France. A few of them were wearing Space X attire…so we had to ask. Sure enough, they are living in the US for now and working for Space X. They were preparing for a launch that occurred early in the morning (for us on the west coast) on the 25^th. We almost woke up at 4am to view it, but opted instead to watch it recorded a little later, as Larry needed his beauty sleep.  The French people would not tell us what they were all doing here, as it was top secret, but we think it had something to do with the giant gray boats that were being convoyed out of here a few weeks ago. Conspiracy theories abound, but one thing we think for sure…Elon Musk will drop by here any day now.

We leave you on this (almost) eve of Larry’s 576^th-month birthday. It still seems surreal with all that has happened over these 12 months…he began to walk and talk, then potty training finally occurred…and he got in that terrible fight at school. Oh, wait – – that was Larry the puppy. You can see him in the photos too. He’s so cute – just like the 576-month-old human Larry.

A big smooch goes out to you. Please keep in touch and we’ll do the same!

It has been thoroughly amazing watching the buzz about Highway 1 (aka PCH) as it opened…2 days early! People can once again get to Morro Bay, among many other fun stops, staying on PCH the entire trip. We don’t notice increased traffic yet, but we hear things will pick up. In one sense, it is fine with us if it stays less busy. That’s why we chose this area. It’s a lot less congested than San Fran, L.A., and San Diego and still has a small-town feel.

We did have a newlywed couple come in today. They had arrived from England and were traveling from San Fran down to L.A. They had no idea, but they had driven the new portion of PCH only 1 day after it had opened. We told them how fortunate they were, and only then did they realize what amount of road they were able to avoid backtracking.

We learned that the county fair is in our town, Paso Robles. San Luis Obispo is the ‘big’ city (48,000) in the county, so we can’t figure out why they chose Paso as their county fairgrounds (31,000). We hear the fair will make it pretty busy in our little town, but so far we’re not noticing a change, except maybe for the seemingly older/classic planes flying around. We have seen so many seemingly older/classic cars since our time in this state. It’s just such a common thing around here that we forget how very old cars can last an eternity out in Cali versus dank, humid, rusty Michigan.

We know we are probably driving you crazy always bragging about the weather, and also by always comparing the differences in climate and temps of Paso and Morro, but it continues to amaze us. While it appears that it will be 106 in a few days in Paso, Morro will boast low 80s. It is kind of like living the dream…perfect days in Morro and perfect nights in Paso. We have not seen rain or clouds that might rain since spring. Calvin thinks we should buy a boat and “use it on the weekends,” but we like the idea of mooring it in the bay and walking out each morning to the coffee shop, just steps away. Of course, there is that tiny problem of funding a purchase like that…time to play the lottery!

You may recall that on our drive to and fro Morro Bay each day, we pass the dinosaur ranch. Today was extra interesting when passing through, as there were probably 10 Turkey Buzzards hanging out near one of the dinos. It looked like a prehistoric feast fest. Turkey Buzzards are some of our favorite birds around here. It makes us think of the Jungle Book, though we think those were some sort of vulture. But that’s the sort of personality these avian authorities have in CA.

We keep sharing footage of the Dragon Boat wannabe; sorry about that. Larry keeps thinking it’s the real one, so Ivy rushes out with her photo taker and then has to lecture him about how the real one is so much more. We’ll definitely share if/when we see it again. Speaking of sharing beyond August…Linda suggested we do an “occasional blog” which we think could work. We know it won’t be the same and we have heard from several folks who want us to keep going on the weekly basis. Maybe this alternative will help with Ivy’s sanity, but also help us to keep in touch with ya’ll. Please keep in mind that we LOVE hearing from you too! If you reply on the site here, we always read it, but can’t figure out how to reply to you via the site. So, whether you are willing to trust that we’re reading and loving hearing from you, or if you’d rather send us an email once in a while, please know that this is a 2-way street and your feedback and support are mucho appreciado! (A little Spanglish since we’re so inundated out here.) Fun fact – Ivy spent over half of her elementary years in Spanish immersion classrooms…and another fun fact – While she remembers the colors and most of the days of the week, she could not say, “I love nectarines in my coffee,” to save her life…or much else, for that matter.

You will find some pictures of the moon in its waxing stage here. We were too lazy to go downstairs that night, go outside, and snap the shot. Yet it was so neat, we still had to try to capture it because Jupiter was right there next to it, shining so brightly. It was kind of cool how it resembled the flag of Turkey. Hmmmmm…is there a theme developing among turkeys in this blog entry?

One warmer day when Ivy and the kids stayed home, we tried that crayon art project that people do, where they secure crayons to a canvas, then blow hot air from a hairdryer onto the crayons, causing them to melt and hopefully create an artistic piece. We decided to try this without the hairdryer, and wanted to see if the Sun’s rays and heat could melt the crayons. The kids chose the ‘ugly’ colors out of the box for our experiment, saving the ‘lovely’ colors for their artsy canvases if the experiment worked. It was a 95-degree day and it took a while, but almost all of the crayons melted to some extent. It was fun discussing why the white and light orange didn’t melt. This Wednesday is supposed to be 101, so we’re planning to try the advanced version of the art with the ‘lovely’ colors then.

As you may recall, Larry is a coffee drinker. He loves a good cup ‘o joe each morning. Ivy may enjoy coffee scents, but she does not enjoy any hot drink of any kind (Really, world, do we need more heat?!?). So, if one is going to talk her into a coffee, it had better be an iced or blended something or other. This all makes sense with her history of the Taste-Test Game from her childhood with those cousins of hers. She’d say yes to most anything being thrown into a smoothie-type drink…yes to throwing in some kale. Broccoli? Okay! Ginger? Why, yes, of course! You know, ginger is a great anti-inflammatory agent, acts as a pain reducer, and anti-nausea – and so much more! If you can stand the somewhat overpowering taste, throw it in your next smoothie. Incidentally, Ivy’s maternal grandmother’s (the one who would actually allow us crazy cousins to play the Taste Test Game, creating much more repulsive combinations than one would willingly choose) name was Ginger. If you’re learned on gingers via the Urban Dictionary or elsehow, you know we’re feisty, fun, and somewhat fanatical. (Surely, Ginger passed her redheaded freckle traits onto her offspring.) So, with Ivy’s Greek (paternal grandfather) and Ginger combo, Larry is a lucky lad, wouldn’t you agree? Ivy’s always spraying Windex on everything. Ivy’s students used to ask her where the red in her hair went. She would tell them the solid truth…”My grandma went gray when she was 16. It’s genetics, kids, aright?” Truth be told, Ivy had a few streaks of red in her almost entirely brown hair as a child. Happy now!? The secret is out! (That’s her feistiness coming through.) Don’t mess with her anymore.

Can you believe summer is half-over? We can’t!!! Be sure to enjoy it before it has slipped away completely.

That title is just the sound you’re supposed to make on Friday the 13^th. We hope your ominous-but-not-so-ominous Friday the 13^th in July went well. It’s hard to believe just 10 days ago Ivy was celebrating her 29^th birthday again. While we may have had trouble celebrating on the third, we did find a day the week after this busy time. We went back to Ivy’s fave beach, Moonstone Beach! It’s a long stretch of the beach, so we tried a different area than we had gone to in the past. There were fewer Moonstones, but many more big rocks, which made Calvin’s day, as he loves to climb on them. It made Ivy’s day because she thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Harbor Seals lazing about…kind of like she does on the sofa at home…kindred spirits. And then there was Arbor. We thought ahead and brought along a thick, sturdy paper cup. By the end of the visit, the cup was pretty much mush. That’s okay because it kept her quite happy and took a long time to break down. What did Larry enjoy most? It was low tide, so he found tons of little creatures, like hermit crabs, other crabs, anemones, and small fish. See a video of his two favorite little hermit crab tykes here.

On our way back to Paso Robles from Cambria (Moonstone Beach’s town), we took a splendid drive through the mountains. It was packed with a little surprise. At the apex, we could see all around us and to our right, we could see all of Morro Bay, including the (usually giant, but now tiny looking) Morro Rock. The fog had come in, so the pictures turned out pretty sweet! There were pull-offs to get out and take a scenic view, but we were still astounded at the change in temperature from the beach (probably around 70 degrees or a little warmer) to the climb up the mountain, just a 10-minute drive from the water, at probably 95 degrees. By the time we got up to the top, we’re guessing it was over 100 degrees. It never ceases to amaze us the ocean’s ability to keep a steady, perfect temperature.

Do you recall the massive landslide that occurred North of us, near Big Sur? It happened in May of 2017 and took out a portion of Hwy 1 and they expected to have the road rebuilt by September of this year…almost 1 ½ years after the rains, and subsequent landslide occurred. Now they are thinking they’ll have it open by the 20^th of this month. Woohoo! Why such a big deal? Near the Morro Bay area, there are a lot of small beach towns, including Morro Bay, of course. When PCH (Pacific Coast Highway, aka Hwy 1) closed, it kept the riff raff and everyone else from fulfilling their dreams of traveling PCH from San Francisco to Los Angeles and beyond. Morro Bay, along with many other beach towns, is right off of PCH, so we get a lot of people stopping into town on their vacay treks. With that portion of PCH being closed, local business owners say traffic and crowds have shrunk. There is a big sigh of relief coming from this community as the opening approaches. In fact, the City of Morro Bay will begin a campaign called “Morro Bay is #1 on Hwy 1” and they asked local businesses to offer a special food, drink, or other take-away for this fun event running August 1 through the end of September. We created our blended PCH (Perfect Coffee/Cookie Happiness), but one can get it in hot version, and/or uncaffeinated too. Ivy is finding that this is her favorite part of the coffee shop business…creating new, fun drinks. Gotta channel that creative outlet somehow!  BTW, that is marshmallow fluff, not whipped cream. It matters!

Lately, Ivy’s life has been increasing in busy-ness. She is gradually (Larry might say to replace the ‘gradually’ with ‘rapidly’) adding the teacher life back into her days. Since she sold and gave away almost all of her school stuff, she has been creating, grabbing, refining, and tweaking others’ work. It’s amazing what Teachers Pay Teachers offers as far as freebies.

Meanwhile, Larry has been working often to try to sell our RV. We kind of knew it would be difficult to sell, because when we bought it, we heard stories of many people who wanted to buy, but banks were not willing to loan such a large amount for an ‘older expensive’ vehicle. We had/have great credit and MSU’s Federal Credit Union is the best, so it was no problem for us to acquire a loan. As of now, we are consigning the RV with an RV sales place. Maybe they will give someone a loan. Of course, they’re not willing to pay us nearly as much as we were hoping to get out of it, but desperate times…so we’ll at least be able to pay off the loan, we think. Funny how prices are so much higher out in Cali, but our (very good condition, very low mileage) RV’s value/price is way lower than what we paid in Michigan.

At our home, the hippie commune (just kidding! It’s far from it, but still…let’s say unique or rare), Ivy has been helping a lot in the orchard. It is so rewarding to spend time growing some of our own food. The kids and Ivy planted pumpkin and watermelon seeds a few weeks ago. We transferred them to be ‘under the fruit trees cover’ with help from Jean (Ivy would call her the Mother of the Orchard). When planting, Arbor kept calling poor Jean, Jan. Ivy would correct her, and she would do it again and again. Luckily Jean-Jan was an educator for many years, so we think she understands. We’ve also been keeping an eye on our neighbors’ cat, Chika while they’re away for a month. Chika will come to our doorway each morning and greet us. Arbor greets her, “Good morning Keecha.” Aside from the names of local folks, she’s settling in well. Both kids have practically zero body fat, so they’re not minding the heat at all. We wish we could say the same, but this dry heat thing has not been too bad…aside from the 105 degree stretch where it only got down to 60 at night for a few nights. Yes, we’re a bit embarrassed to report that we did indeed turn on the air conditioning. But now we’re back down to the high 80s, munching on more fruit than a frugivore, chillin’ with a blended PCH…life is good.

We’re looking at saying goodbye to the blog on its 1-year anniversary. We know there are some of you who will be sad to see it go. But we all know that Ivy will soon become too busy and if we left it all up to Larry, it would sound like a car talk show with some coffee and beer bonus reels.

We leave you now with the scent of coffee in the air. Can you smell it? If not, come on over!

Do you love a good celebration? We know you do! We’re guessing you celebrated this week at least one time. We hope it was a blast (like that pun?)! We learned so much this week. For example, there are not many actual, true fireworks in these parts. It’s just too dry. The county fairgrounds arranged to do fireworks, but individual towns just wouldn’t take the risk of fires. They find other ways to celebrate, like with light shows and drones. We did not actually see any of those this year, as we had to get to bed early so we could wake up early to be at the BCS. It’s okay…don’t feel bad for us…we enjoyed a great “non-motorized” parade in front of the coffee shop. You can see some pictures here. Next year we plan to participate! There was also a “non-motorized” water parade, but it was not as hefty with participation. We did include a picture or video of the smaller of the 2 dragon boats we saw, but they didn’t seem to be where all the rest of the paraders were, so we’re not certain they knew they were even parading. This all backed right up with Ivy’s birthday. She always thinks the fireworks are for her. This year, as you can imagine with limited fireworks, she was really confused.

There is a crew of women (we only heard half of the conversation, but we think they’re all cancer survivors) who run a true Dragon Boat in the bay. We’ve seen them zip past here from time to time. It’s pretty cool to watch their synchronicity and sometimes they chant with a drum to their strokes. One of these days we’ll catch them in a video.

As June Gloom came to an end (in case you aren’t following, there’s Gray May and June Gloom around the coast of CA…lots of fog…sometimes 5 out of 7 days of the week, but it dissipates most mornings…and it often looks like clouds, as it’s higher up in the sky than we find in MI), we began to think there should be some sort of rhyme with July too. But, we are now thinking the word July is like the word orange. Does anything rhyme with those words?! The fog/clouds were omnipresent, but ol’ Ma Nature finally came through with some fully-sunny days on the coast.

We were (surprisingly) not that busy at the coffee shop during this special week with a holiday smooshed into it. On Ivy’s birthday, we left early to…can you guess? No, not the beach. No, not a brewery or vineyard. We went to our roasters. We needed beans, as the male adult who we will not name had not ordered enough. We went to SLO Roasted and picked up more beans, but also asked for a tour. That was kind of cool! They get the beans, mostly from places in South America, and roast them in their giant roaster, then grind some, package them all, and sell them. Of course, we grind our own, but it was fun seeing where and how they roast. We always love the local aspect, ya know?

Most of the time when we head to and fro the coffee shop, we take the shortest route. It’s approximately half freeway and half narrow winding roads through the mountains. After work, once in a while we stop at the Brown Butter Cookie Company in Cayucos, the next beach town over from Morro Bay. After that, we take a different way home that involves even steeper and windier roads, but the drive is even more breathtaking. We included a time lapse version of a quarter of the drive in the pictures this time. If you’re one to get motion sick, we advise that you skip that video.

Coming back that way, we pass so many vineyards. We learned that this area (they call it Central Coast) produces the most wine in the USA after Napa Valley. We suspect that Paso Robles and its surrounding area house the majority of it, but that’s only because we see it everywhere in between here and there. We created a folder within the photos titled “Vineyards in just a 5-mile stretch” just to give you an idea. It is astounding! So, for those of you who plan to visit and are even partly winos, we can arrange to have one of those short transit tinted buses drive us around from place to place like the rich and famous. We’ll tell everyone we’re not famous, but they’ll still think we’re Dan Akroyd and Roseanne. Who will they think you are?

While we are not too into drama (save that for your mama…errrr…wait…), we did learn of some interesting happenings around Morro. First, we should explain the baby tortoise pictures from last week. Thanks, Linda, for mentioning that we forgot to mention the mentionables. So there’s this lady named Lisa. She’s a ‘regular’ at our shop. She works a couple of jobs and comes in before work at the aquarium down the street. One of her other jobs is to help the Morro Bay wildlife rescue, Pacific Wildlife Care do their work. She and her colleagues raise and care for the animals in need. They had just received these tortoises who were going to be left to die because their shells had imperfections. Apparently, breeders cannot sell these reptiles if their shells have an unintended line in a spot where it would not normally occur. As you may have guessed, Lisa is a bit of a hero to us. We asked if we could help somehow…raise one of the tortoises (until we found out that they’re diggers!), but that’s another story. For now, we found a place on their website where we could buy them something from their wishlist from Amazon. Thanks, Pacific Wildlife Care, for taking care of abandoned baby Sea Otters, hurt Sea Lions, and multitudes more animals!

Anyway, Lisa and another regular customer (we’re going to call her Granddaughter because we don’t know her name, but we do know she’s a Granddaughter to the Aquarium owners) come in frequently and tell us the tale that began about 58 years ago with Granddaughter’s Grandfather. He started up the aquarium about 5 doors down from the BCS. As you may recall, Arbor and Ivy went down there to check it out one day and it was looking pretty decrepit. We found out today that the owners of the Central Coast Aquarium in nearby beach town Avila Beach will be building the new aquarium here. While anyone would agree that the place here needs a rebuild, the drama has come with the city not accepting Grandfather’s appeal to rebuild and basically cutting this longstanding family business out of the picture entirely, offering the new Avila folks a very inexpensive rent on the Embarcadero of just $1 per year for 50 years! We pay A LOT more than that for our tiny little BCS each month, including an additional 5% of our sales that goes to the city, just like the rest of the businesses here…and the new aquarium is getting quite the deal of a lifetime…not to mention, they’re forcing out the previous owners for no obvious reason. But there is a subtle reason. It turns out that the vote by Morro Bay’s city council was 3-2 in favor of the new owners and great financial deal. Then, one of those 3 who voted for the new owners left the city council to become the CEO of this Avila Central Coast Aquarium! It left Granddaughter and her family business hurt, surprised, and bewildered. We are not the only local business owners who have heard this tale, and others are bothered by the sweet deal for only one business on the Embarcadero…but what to do? Change the subject; that’s what we’ll do!

We really appreciate those of you who replied to our “11-year-old-son-who-is-too-cool-for-words” issue. Most of you agreed that this is quite normal and suggested we wait it out. Will do! But Ivy loves how the tables do turn. She recalls so many times when her mom embarrassed her. Sometimes her mom didn’t even have to do anything to garner that respect. Now, Ivy is on the other side and she’s finding that she loves to give Calvin kisses and smooches whenever people are watching. What a beautiful thing…being the parent instead of the embarrassed child. But, what comes around, goes around. Ivy also used to love hiding behind a corner in the house and when her mom would approach, Ivy would jump out and scare her. Guess who’s doing that to Ivy now?

Haley, the ice cream shop owners’ granddaughter gave Arbor loads of her old clothes…just in time, as Arbor has been growing a lot lately! Each day, as Arbor heads to the coffee shop with us, she announces, “I’m going to so Shusie my outfit,” (instead of ‘show Susie’). Susie plays along and tells Arbor she remembers the outfit, though we don’t think she could remember them all. Now, if only we could figure out what to do with Calvin. When he wears pants, they’re always like highwaters these days…but we can’t find the only kind he likes…we miss you and your Nike/UnderArmour pants, Ben! Luckily, Cal can wear shorts most of the time right now.

We wish you a wonderful July! Take care and enjoy wearing shorts instead of highwaters.