I had a nice sleep at the hotel Holiday Inn Express. I got some extra zzz after a few nights of broken sleep. For some reason I woke up my usual time at 6:45 and read in bed. Then when just about everyone woke up, O remembered I was supposed to run 30 mins.
It was 8:00 when I started my run. My family stayed behind. I ran through to the other block. The wonderful smells of breakfast cooking at the next door restaurant made me dream of fancy future dining experiences with my husband and kids if we were to stay there again. Lots of cars just exiting the freeway drive past. It seemed they were staring at me as if they’ve never seen a Filipino woman running on that desolate exit before. Or maybe they noticed that I’ve lost weight and like how slender I’ve become. I doubt the latter but it’s a nice thought 😆
The neighborhood next door was so cute! It was a modular home neighborhood but they decked it all out like they were from the Palisades in Poway!! They had an eye for architecture. Plus every home was nicely decorated. They each paid attention to their details. It was a very interesting inviting sight. Apparently there was a community dog well known that they had a well built memorial just for him.
My 30 mins was not up yet when I finished that culdesac so I went uphill. These were older homes with decorations subpar the previous modular area. But it was all uphill. I loved the uphill challenge. My heart was beating regularly. My muscles were getting used they wanted. But I think I just about ran out of steam after 1/8 mile of running it. About a dozen cars past by. Must have been rush hour and this could have been a cut through street to get to the freeway entrance. It felt nice to a show off that I could run uphill that long. Proud of myself. It was nearing 15 minutes and I decided to cut my run 10 mins short so I could spend breakfast with my family.
By the time I got to the breakfast area, lots of tenants were piling in and out with plates of food. They were going back to their rooms. Not enough room to sit and eat at the breakfast nook. But we are there. I chose mostly the high protein foods. Eggs, sausage, yogurt, breakfast burrito. I was full.
The next place we drove to was the butterfly exhibit where thousands of butterfly’s rest in clusters before they head to their final destination. I think it’s Mexico. I forgot. It took me a while to be mindful about the exhibit we were enjoying because I was hooked on making a monkey fist with my orange rope. I admit O have a problem with the challenging knot tying strategies. It’s like how I sometimes got addicted to playing video games. I get so into it. I finally finished somewhat of a monkey knot and told myself to be with my family. Chloe was complaining the entire time that she wanted something more active and not have to stare at a bunch of branches that look like strange eucalyptus leaves mixed with strange leaf formations m that we’re in fact butterflies resting.
It was cold and we about had enough staring up. We found a short hike that the locals take to exercise for trail runs. We saw black Berry patches and random solo butterflies fluttery past. I could tell David was enjoying watching me and the girls enjoy ourselves. I learned to see the look in his eyes. Plus he would take random picture of us when we are all into the amazement. It’s moments like this that he is proud to have made out family. Our short hike ended when reached the end of the campground. We turned around and looked at the butterflies one last time. But this time I was all warmed up and actual ready to see butterflies.
This second time around though it was slightly different. I’m addition to being more prepared to see the butterflies since there was no monkey fist distraction, I eyed the monarch butterfly store. They had stickers, enamel pins, shopping bags, cards, a blanket and everything else one could think of to be a gift shop. It inspired me to want to set up a themed store of all things of one subject. I was viewing the store in action as a consumer and loving it.
Adter that sanctuary we found the cinamon bun factory. This place “Old West Cinnamon Rolls” is so popular. Also they have so much cinnamon that when cars pass by, it kicks up dust from the ground. It’s not dirt… it’s cinnamon!! When you step inside they have tile floors. It’s so slippery. Can’t hear your footsteps. So much powder underneath 😆 There were no nice seats to enjoy our food but the beach was near and it had a pier. After we enjoyed our dessert we walked the pier. Again…distracted. This time Chkoe wanted to play with my rope and I wanted to challenge myself tying a new knot. I sold myself to stop, and I did. There was a cool cement skid for kids. We slid down there before heading off to Morro Bay.
We visited a few key places at Morro Bay. We saw Thordis old yellow house. I remember shadow 🥲. We saw the placard to the first station the first Filipinos landed. We saw Morro rock and the spot that Daddy re-proposed to me and I had to tell my kids that story all over again and we all laughed. I was having all kinds of love buckets filled in this stop. I am proud David and I made it this far in our marriage because of my new understanding of him and his personality. I accept him more now than before. And our kids are happy with our interactions more so. I couldn’t not smile.
At the end of as far as we could go in Morro rock, we hung out at the edges of the jetty and did curious mermaid stuff with the tide pools and enjoying the rock amd waves and watching a sea otter enjoy our company.
Lunch time was a bit hard. Many places near Morro rock were not good stars. We visit 3 places before we settled at Giovanni’s. The food was okay and the seating was meh. Our family was split. I wanted a breeze and Breanna wanted to just sit already. Chloe at with me. The birds liked us and our food drops.
By the time we left lunch it was time to see the elephant seals. Those animals make funny raspberry sounds and just funny sounds in general. They hung around the regular sea lions but were huge maybe like small walruses. We stayed and watched the animals as well as watched the sunset until we had to pee. We found pit stop at a nearby park. They only had port a potty but it was doable. That’s when I realized chkoe was not drinking enough. She didn’t pee as often as we do.
Next stop Paso Robles to eat. I found a place on Yelp that had a high rating. It was new. I chose it based on the photos of the food and when we took our first bite…o realized why they named their business “Taste craft eatery”!!! The food was so tasty!!!!! We ordered 4 salads with 3 proteins and one Mac cheese. They served small portions. I would go there again. I used their restroom and was immediately wowed by their wall paper. It was illustrated flamingos in a semi realistic painterly style. My style. With bold bright colors. Monochromatic. Breanna reminded me that I tend to not finish projects as if I’m all talk and no action. She could be getting somewhere.
Next we tried to find a grocery store to replenish our water reserves. We first tried Smart and Final, but their lines were too long, the cashiers were few, and customer’s baskets were filled to the brim. The we found grocery outlet. No lines. Every register was open. Few items per customer. I found instant soup for Chloe and I to munch on. I felt a bit guilty buying it since it was off my diet list, but fortunately when it came time to eat she and I split it. The taste was all I wanted. It was my comfort food.
Our hotel was quaint. It looked like the hotel run by the character of Adam Sandler in Bedtime Stories. It was clean with old furniture and moist carpet (probably from being so cold?). Chloe and I did quad workouts with barefeet on the carpet and I could feel my feet absorbing some of the moisture in the carpet. Maybe it was freshly shampooed?
We all went to bed just about 11pm. My legs weren’t tired so I wiggled so much which bothered Breanna. Eventually I got up and did lots of stretching. Then o felt all better.
Tomorrow we do lots of hiking and end the day at Virgil’s.
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