Back at Home after a nice, short three day vacation to Aptos, CA. We rented a beach house about a block from the beach access. I say that because the area that we stayed is on the bluffs above Rio Del Mar beach. The address was on Sea Cliff Drive if that gives you some idea of the topography. We were able to walk to the beach, but had to hike down a fairly steep set of stairs from the bluffs down to the beach. Frieda and Charlie are both close to 70, so it was tough sledding for them, but I loved the location. The house itself was very comfortable. It was a three bedroom home and the only problem was that the two bathrooms were both located outside of the rooms. One of the bathrooms was right next to the front door and all of the bedrooms were upstairs. Essentially, Charlie and Frieda used the downstairs bathroom to shower and get ready for bed and the upstairs bathroom overnight. That bathroom was right outside our room.
We drove in Saturday morning and they met us at our house at 8:30 and we were off on our trip. We drove down through the Bay Area and across to San Jose and Highway 17 into Santa Cruz and on to Aptos. We got checked into the house and drove into town to have lunch and get some groceries. We decided to eat out Saturday night, but to barbecue some steaks on Sunday night after golf. We found a little eclectic bar by the name of "BURGERS." It was the type of place that lived up to it's name as it had a plethora of choices on burgers. Darla and I had the Hank Williams Sr burger and Charlie and Frieda had a Cowabunga and a Moon Doggie burger. The food was excellent. We went across the street from the restaurant to the shopping center and picked up asparagus, potatoes, bagels, mushrooms, ice cream, garlic bread and Caesar salad.
We put away the provisions when we got back and headed down to the beach. It was a beautiful 82 degree day and the beach was crowded. We relaxed and I even got a short nap as the girls talked and Charlie was Charlie. We walked the beach a bit and watched the waves and let the salt air do its thing with our souls. We climbed back up and got showers and readied for dinner. The owner of the house had a nice book with menus and reviews of the local restaurants. There was one for the
Sea Harvest Fish Market in Moss Landing that had really good reviews from guests. It was on the water in Moss Landing. It was about a 17 mile trip up past Watsonville and the turn-off wasn't well marked. I almost overran it as the GPS was yelling that we had arrived and I pulled in to a dark parking lot. As a restaurant, the Sea Harvest Fish Market was a better fish market than restaurant. They failed to greet us when we came in and then left food on the floor next to us after they bussed a table. The food itself was fresh and delicious. I had a Caesar salad with fresh grilled salmon that was incredible. Darla had deep fried calamari, shrimp and chips. Frieda had a crab Louie salad and Charlie, who doesn't like seafood, had a Caesar salad with grilled chicken breast. We had a fried artichoke heart appetizer and ach had clam chowder (except Charlie). The food was fresh and delicious, but we realized when we had the appetizer that the oil they were using was old and had a smell to it. It kind of ruined the dinner for Darla who had the fried calamari and prawns. She didn't even eat the prawns and the calamari was very lightly breaded and not heavily fried so she enjoyed that. Charlie is a bit of a Hoover and finished up all of the leftover chips, bread, salad and even tried the prawns, most of which were eaten by Frieda.
We got up early Sunday and headed over to the course for breakfast. The Seascape resort is tucked in the middle of an upscale residential community and is very nice. The breakfast we had was excellent and we met the other golfers as they slowly trickled in for their tee times. The golf for me was not the story of the weekend as I struggled mightily, actually DQing from the tournament after my ball had hit a tree and barely trickled out of bounds to the left on the fourth hole. I had started bogey, triple bogey, triple bogey and none of us saw the ball go out of bounds so I hadn't hit a provisional. When we got up to the ball and saw it was out of bounds, the group behind us was already on the tee box and I decided to DQ, rather than go back and hit another tee shot. I was losing the ball left on my drives and struggled all day, shooting a 98. Neil shot 97, Charlie had 100 and Frieda shot 108. Bob shot 96, so we all struggled. It is a great course, but very narrow and the houses are close to the course boundaries. I had a great time seeing and spending the day with Bob Pando and we had a lot of laughs which we always do. I was pleased to hear him say to Darla after the round that he couldn't tell how I was playing based on my demeanor during the day. I have been a little demonstrative in the past when I'm not playing well. I guess I've either matured or I just don't give a rip any more. Hopefully, it is the former.
I will take next weekend off from golf and we will drive down to LA and see Daniel and Becky. It is Daniel's 26th birthday today. He has arranged a hotel for us near their home and it looks like David will join us on the trip. The weather down in Los Angeles has turned HOT and it was in the 100's over the weekend. It is supposed to turn more seasonal next weekend and will be in the 80's.
Work is starting to ramp up again and our numbers this month are really looking good. All of the teams have started the month strong and we are looking at a record month if things remain as they are right now. Things tend to settle in, but I'm hoping for a big month as the company is all about "what have you done lately?" and I'd like to show up in Detroit with a month that is not only over budget, but significantly over budget.
I will return to the keyboard next week with pictures of Daniel and Becky. I haven't seen their home or spent time with them in their domain, so look forward to a nice visit this weekend. The blog may or may not be late next week. It depends on when we get back from So Cal. I hope you are all doing well. I'll be back at it next week. Ciao.
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