I was going batty, cooped up in the house.  For the past few weeks, it’s done nothing but rain and when it wasn’t raining, it was gloomy.  I don’t mind rain, but there’s this psychological thing that goes on in my brain when suddenly I’m told I have to stay indoors and then when weather forces this issue on top of  it, it’s doggone depressing!

So last night I suggested to hubby that tomorrow, maybe we can go for a ride?

In the morning however, he announced that one of our favorite destinations, Julian, an historical community tucked in the mountains had asked tourists to stay away. Wow!

He said, they (the city) said, “We appreciate tourists and company, but asking people to stay away.  We are so isolated and medical services are so far away from us, should anyone get ill, it would be an extreme hardship to our community”  I hadn’t thought of that.  Understandable.  My quotes are actually a paraphrase.  OOOkay then, that’s out.

So hubby suggested we go up the coast to San Clemente and maybe go for a beach walk and maybe stop by this little cheese shop we like, if it were open.   It was. So, we did.

We had avocado toast and a Marconi almond and cheese sandwich slathered in honey.  It was a gooey mess but so worth it. Sorry, no photos.  We were relegated to eating on a bench outdoors because of indoor restaurant closures so taking a photo – not easy.  Just take my word for it. <Big Smile>

Other than a pup bakery, everything else was closed. Normally these sidewalks would be full of people, especially on a beautiful weekend.

It was a gorgeous day, sunny and bright and I guess everyone had the same idea.

 

Lifeguards were on duty. People walking the beaches and trails.  Young surfers abounded… and I mean young.  A good many of them couldn’t have been more than about 10 years old!  Our beaches have old geezers, with a splattering of young men and women but not generally kids.  They were darn good too!

The trains were running and people everywhere walking their dogs. Even the ground squirrels were out.  I saw so many tempting dogs to pet, but refrained from doing so, thinking, just maybe several others ahead of me may have ruffled that doggies fur. Several others, who just could be “the one”.

The skies were pretty clear and knowing another storm is coming through in a couple of days, it was worth taking advantage of.

We even saw storm damage where the earth had been sucked out from under one of the precariously situated mansions on the hill overlooking the sea.  Scaaaary.

If you haven’t been to San Clemente, it is quite lovely.  It’s clean and quaint.

And picturesque.

In San Clemente, we even stopped in at a garage sale, if you can believe that. We even bought some treasures. It was a good day.

The downside, was on our way home,  these two jerks in their “muscle cars” came racing by us on either side just as I was commenting how nice it was to see so little traffic on the highway.  They scared us half to death and swerving around the cars ahead.  When they thought their path was blocked, they went wide in opposite directions, one even went on the shoulder then swerved right back in and collided with another car.  My heart was racing a mile a minute.

See?  hardly any traffic, but up ahead, you can see a cluster of cars and soon those two idiots are going to infringe on someone’s right of way.  I don’t know why it is, but sometimes heavy traffic is better than no traffic, because when there’s no traffic some  idiot is bound to think it’s their own private raceway.  Fortunately, no one was killed or hurt, but the young man did have to pull over with the car he hit.  It could have been totally disastrous.

Anyway, we’re now safe at home and despite that, it was still a good day.

Like we don’t have enough to worry about these days.  Idiots!  Grrrrr!