“We Are Family!” and more “Red, Red Wine!”

West Coast RV Adventure 2023 ~ Day 12-14

Before we broke camp this morning, we had to walk down the eucalyptus road, across Highway 1, through the quintessential central coast beach dunes to the beach. Mom says there’s nothing better than a morning walk on the beach. The walk through the dunes was much longer than we expected, which made for an invigorating morning walk! Do you know how hard it is to walk through sand when your legs are only about four inches long? It’s exhausting!  

 

Then we packed up, left Costanoa RV Park and kept heading north. Boy, that walk wore me out, so I hunkered down for a nice morning nap. We passed the lighthouse in Pescadero and took Highway 1 as far up the coast as we could before heading to South San Francisco. Mom and Dad decided to deviate from Highway 1 at this point on our trip to go visit family. Family is really important to us, and all three of Mom’s brothers live in Northern California. So since we were going to be close by, we had to head inland for a few days to spend time with them. As we were getting on the Bay Bridge, Dad told Mom to roll down the window. I poked my nose out the window, and there was such a weird smell. And it was so strong. Dad laughed and said I was getting baked in the LHOW just breathing the air in San Francisco!! I’m not sure what that means, but Mom sure laughed. I just went back to sleep. 

 

We stopped in Vallejo, which was Mom’s hometown, to visit her childhood neighbor. Norma, and her now deceased husband Bill, lived across the street and were very close family friends for a really long time. Norma was best friends with Mom’s mom. Now she’s 94, still lives in her home and is lucky to have her son, Steve, help her. Mom, Dad and all of Mom’s siblings always try to visit Norma when they’re in the area, so that’s what we did. It made her really happy to see them. Of course, I had to stay in the LHOW, but that’s ok. I understood. 

 

 

After that, we headed to Napa to Mom’s oldest brother and SIL’s home. Ironically, Al and Mary were in Georgia for their grandson’s high school graduation, but they graciously offered their home for us to enjoy in their absence. Mom’s youngest brother and SIL, Buzz and Debbie who live in South Lake Tahoe, met us there. Mom’s niece and her husband, Anne and Jeff also joined us for dinner that night and over the next couple of days for meals, merriment, cigars and golf ball hitting. I really like all of them. They’re nice to me and seem to have a lot of fun together. It was really nice being in a big house to zoom through, and their yard had all sorts of interesting new smells! I liked just laying on their deck in the sun too. 

 

The following day, I got left in my little wire house while Mom and Dad went out playing with Buz and Deb. They enjoyed wine tasting in the Napa Valley at Foley Johnson (very impressive) and Odette (very full of themselves) and then an early dinner with Mom’s other brother and SIL, Doug and Helga at a family favorite restaurant, Rutherford Grill. When they got home, Anne and Jeff came over again for dessert, drinks and cigars. 

 

Mom, Dad, Buz and Deb continued enjoying Napa Valley the next day. After meeting friends for coffee who were in town for BottleRock, they enjoyed a wine tasting on Silverado’s beautiful terrace overlooking the valley. Mom said it was a lovely sunny day and the terrace was really peaceful. They all came back happy, that’s for sure. 

More family fun was in store for us that afternoon when Mom’s grandnieces Joy and Natalie both visited and stayed for dinner. It was fun to meet these family members, and of course, they loved me! Joy couldn’t get over how little I was. 

That night for dinner, Anne surprised Mom by bringing a champagne cake! Remember that pink cake from the Madonna Inn? Well, evidently there’s a bakery in Napa that still makes champagne cakes! Mom was thrilled to taste one again. She said that pink icing was pretty sweet though. The last silly thing they did together was a blind bourbon tasting. Dad brought several bourbons with us, and Mom poured blind tastes. Debbie helped. They testers had to rank the bourbons and decide which ones they liked the best. They all seemed to enjoy the experience. Deb and Mom said they were the smart ones though, as they abstained. 

I think tomorrow’s the day we get back “on the road again” in our LHOW. It’s been really nice having a break, meeting new family and Mom got some laundry done too. But I’m ready to get back into the traveling groove in our LHOW. I wonder where we’ll head next? 

 

#HopeTravels

#MakingMayoMemories

#WestCoastRVAdventure2023