re-thinking getaways

When we lived in Gilroy going on a getaway was easy. If we wanted to visit our good friends Emily and Raymond at the (now closed) Goose & Turrets Bed and Breakfast in Montara we would head up Highway 85 to Interstate 280, take Highway 92 to California Highway 1, drive a few miles north and we were there. The drive was less than two hours.

If we wanted to go to another favorite destination, Cambria, we hopped on U.S. 101 and drove south to California Highway 46, headed west, and connected with Highway 1. Then it was only a few minutes to Cambria. It was a manageable three-hour drive.

Here in Hemet it’s not so simple. It’s easy enough to get to the San Diego County coast, but it is more crowded than we would like. We could head to the San Jacinto mountains or the low desert, but those don’t offer the getaways on the water that we love.

Terry decided that we needed to go back to Cambria. Our favorite motel, the White Water Inn, had gone all upscale on us, completely refurbishing rooms and doubling their rates. So she found us a room at a place called the Fog Catcher Inn. She reserved a partial ocean view room but we got a full ocean view room instead. That was marvelous. It was also halfway between our two favorite restaurants, Moonstone Bar and Grill and the incredible Sea Chest, both in walking distance.

But to get to Cambria from Hemet we have to go through the Los Angeles basin. There is simply no way around it. The drive to Cambria was six-and-a-half hours. We had a wonderful time and being at the ocean is always reinvigorating and healing, but we ate too much rich food and both our digestive systems made that clear to us. We just can’t eat rich food in the way we once could.

The drive home took seven-and-quarter hours. We made more stops and longer stops than on the drive north. My first thought when we arrived at home was the same as it was when we would get home to Gilroy after a trip down here to Southern California, braving that infamous, unforgiving Interstate 5: “Oh, Aunty Em, I’m so glad to be home and I’m never going to go away again!”

After catching our breath upon our arrival here Terry said that we need to find getaways closer to home.

She’s right. We do.