The Gift

Roger here...   Every day (almost) has seemed like a gift to Dianne and me since we began our new lives traveling in a motor home.  But like Christmas, some gifts are better than others -- especially unexpected gifts.  Yesterday was one of the best.  


We woke up to gloomy, gray skies.  It had rained overnight.  The weather forecast called for a 90% chance of rain throughout the entire day.  It was supposed to be cloudy (like a typical Indiana November day) all day long.  It was supposed to be chilly (high temperature in the mid-fifties).  All-righty then.  We'll snuggle up in the motor home and read.  It would have been a nice, quiet, uneventful day.   But...

Mid-morning.  What's this?  Is that the sun?  Are those blue patches in the sky?  I seemed to recall that a tall sailing ship was scheduled to arrive in Morro Bay.  I spent a few minutes with my new best friend, Google, and determined that the Lady Washington should be docked in the town.  We decided that we could probably walk the few blocks to see the ship before the bad weather returned.  Since this is such a dog-friendly town, we took the dogs with us.  

What a cool looking vessel!   The Lady Washington is an authentic 18th century merchant sloop.  It has been featured as the HMS Interceptor in two of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, as well as the Brig Enterprise in Star Trek Generations.  Fun.  

When we told the "boys" that it was the ship from Pirates of the Caribbean, they insisted on posing in front of the pirate statue on the sidewalk  :-)

It was still sunny at 11:00 a.m. and was actually warming up, so we decided to head for the beach.  You can walk for miles along the beach here, and we did.  The weather was perfect for a little aerobic exercise, and so was the scenery.

We found some truly yucky-looking and large jellyfish on the sand, as well as countless sand dollars.

Leaving the beach, we walked along the boardwalk next to the protected harbor and watched four sea otters frolic in the water while swimming on their backs.  (We did film this, but they were too far away.  Maybe next time.)  You'll have to settle for the pic of the Great Blue Heron, who seems to stake out the same spot in the harbor every day.

It was 1:00 p.m. and we had been walking for hours.  Still blue skies.  Still full sun.  It was pleasantly warm. Where is the rain?  I'm hungry.  Are you hungry?  Let's stop at one of those outdoor places on the harbor for fish tacos and maybe fish 'n chips.  We found the perfect place, and the boys were welcome too!  How cool that the fresh-fish posting included the names of the captains of the  fishing boats next to the fish that each brought to the restaurant.

The fresh, local cod in the fish 'n chips and tacos was amazing.  One of the crew even brought the boys a dish of water.  (What they really wanted was some of the fish, but they behaved themselves.)  (Dianne here:  There were several other dogs dining at the same time; all were well-behaved, and all were served a dish of water.  A black lab seated behind us gave Chaplin a little distraction.)

We sat right next to the water among the fishing boats.  A sea lion entertained us while we ate.  

There was other entertainment, as well.  A local singer played his guitar and provided a background of Jimmy Buffet, Rod Stewart, and Elvis tunes.

A humdrum, gray day turned into a sunny, perfect day.  It was a gift.  Another plus, altogether we had walked nearly eight miles and felt invigorated. 

 The weather was also supposed to be dreary today, but it was not, so back to the beach for another aerobic workout.  We saw horses on the beach and watched the Lady Washington leave the harbor.  We took one more picture of Morro Rock in the late afternoon. We also returned to the Dockside's fresh fish market; this time to buy California Halibut to grill for dinner. 

(Dianne here:  I dropped back to get a photo of  Roger and the dogs walking ahead on our way back down the beach.  We never did get to the end of the beach; each day we used my pedometer to clock how far we wanted to walk before turning around to go back.  

There was a high surf advisory in effect today, so I took a few additional photos of the surf.  The ocean is like the mountains; it looks different every day!)

The Whippet Picture of the Day shows Chaplin diligently reading the posting of what he is supposed to do when it is time to relieve himself.  Unfortunately, Chaplin is not fluent in English or Doggie, so the cleanup continues to be our job.