"You are going to Pismo?! That's awesome!! Where's Pismo?"

(Photo: our view of Grover Beach from our chairs.)
After just returning from a very satisfying breakfast at Holiday Inn Express Grover Beach (hb eggs, toast, cereal, cinnamon bun), I have enough strength to begin blogging about yesterday. But my heart stops when Aaron texts to say he has lost the car keys somewhere on the golf course resort where he's been since 6 am. Argh! Adrenaline kicks in as I start calling AAA and wondering how much this is going to derail our road trip. Cell calls are dropped, Aaron's phone won't work without the headset he left in the hotel room, what is his AAA number??? Finally, I am finally getting it together when he texts me that he has found the keys. JOY!! I would also like to appreciate the fact that he played a great game as his next text message indicates. But I can't really do that right now. I need to take some more deep cleansing breaths....(Aaron says: A great miracle happened on that course... I found a needle in a haystack, really. And, I shot my fourth straight round under 87!)

OK, I think I am ready now.

After recovering from the glasses fiasco, we make our way to breakfast where we fuel up for a great unplanned day ahead. I am so happy that the hotel has a magazine of all the cool sights and towns the area. Score! We decide to head over to our local beach, Grover Beach, just 1.5 miles from the more touristy Pismo Beach.

The fog is still hovering over the dark blue water, but the sun is shining and the air is crisp. The area is surrounded by sand dunes covered with lush growth and pretty flowers. There is a wooded walking trail along the dunes so we leisurely walk around, breathing deeply and marveling at the beauty. We only see older people and their dogs which leads me to believe that Grover Beach may be a retirement community. Could be...After the walk, we grab our beach chairs and head to the sand. It is still chilly as the fog continues to burn off, but the area is so pristine. Few others are around and it really feels like our own private beach. After I fall asleep in the canvas chair (it's really amazing how one can just fall asleep anywhere in the 3rd trimester), I decide I need food. (Aaron says: This is when vacation actually kicked in. Adrenaline stopped and it was just us, the ocean, and our books. Thanks to Uncle Alan, the novel is perfect! I could still be on that beach right now, and pretty darn content.)

I figure that this area must have good fish tacos, and I will find them! I start internet searching on my phone, eventually settling on a nearby Mexican place. I leave Aaron sitting on the beach since he has decided never to move from that spot, and begin my search for food. The experience has left me understanding why the San Luis Obispo area is called SLO...it's about the pace at which everyone moves! I abandoned the fish taco quest in Pismo when it is clear I will not find any that meets our kashrut standard. So, I move on to sandwiches, caramel apples and smoothies. But each place was understaffed or staffed by high school kids who have their own particular time table that is just not the same as yours. But bringing the lunch back two hours later to Grover Beach and having a nice private picnic while discussing baby names made the whole thing worthwhile. Ah....

It's already after 1 when we finish lunch and talk about our next move. We stop in Pismo beach, a quaint little beach town where there happens to be an old muscle car show for the weekend. There always seem to be hot-rod shows wherever we travel, probably because we are stuck driving a Mazda (Aaron's words). As always, we stopped at a beach store so Aaron could stock up on another pair of identical Reef flip-flops, just in case they stop making them one day. (Aaron says: Yeah! Like they are going to stop making the Mercury Grand Marquis. Unreal! I was waiting ever-so-patiently for the hybrid to come out.) I also bought a pair of Sanduk shoes/sandals that make me want to sing the song "walkin' on sunshine... yeah yeah."

I had read about a park near Shell Beach where you could look at sea and plant life of the area. We head over there and are just blown away by the beauty. The park is on a cliff overlooking the sea with other awesome rock formations jutting out of the water. The waves and the wind have calmed and we just sat quietly on a bench, heads together, feeling content, peaceful and blessed. (Aaron says: I fell asleep looking at the cliffs of insanity.)

After a nice nap back at the hotel, we made our way to San Luis Obispo where they have an evening farmers' market. We love farmers' markets!! The fresh goodies, the crafts, the food stands, the entertainment! It is always great and we really enjoyed SLO! The market is deserving of its own blog post because of the vast amounts of BBQ (we have pictures of almost all of the treif goodness), the entertainment (kids playing xylophone and accordion, an orchestra, children spastically dancing to a guitar player and more), the yummy foods and the place that only sells Belgian french fries in a variety of seasonings with a variety of dipping sauces. Brilliant!! We spent the evening sampling, buying and eating and then ended the evening at a used book store. What a perfect end to an incredible day! (Aaron says: The food deserves more wordage. God must hate me, because being on that street was torture. The BBQ was like watching a food network competition.. but live. Argh! I wanted to eat all of it. However, the vegetarian Amsterdam-like fry place was insanely good and the fresh donuts melted. Why don't we have a fry place in LA? Elly, let's do this! We also went to a lovely used-book store where we searched for some treasures. I was intent on finding some old Erich Fromm book for my collection... but didn't. Still happy leaving with Frankel, Dworkin, and Freud.)