Friday Night Field Trip

I survived my first week of summer vacation...just barely! I have to admit, even with a laundry list of things I could be doing, I still found myself a little bored. Particularly when our Internet connection went down Friday morning. (Thankfully it is back up and running this morning!)

By the time my husband got home from work on Friday night I was not in the best of spirits, but being the spontaneous kind of guy he is (sometimes) he suggested a plan the would be "just the thing" to get me out of the funk that I was settling into. I'm not big on spontaneous adventures but then he said, "it's something you can take lots of pictures of and blog about"....OKAY, now I was on board for his adventure.

We have been talking about going to the ocean to catch a 'West Coast Sunset' since before we even arrived in California. At 7:00 PM we left our house and headed towards the coast. We would have gotten there in under an hour, but I still have a lingering fear of highways and interstates, so we took the 'scenic route'. We popped out onto the Pacific Coast Highway just north of Santa Monica about 8:15 PM. We thought that if we drove north we'd have a better view of the sunset if we could just get past the next cliff that blocked our view. But, every time we came around a cliff there was another one...and another one....and another one. We were chasing an unattainable sunset.

We finally gave up and just pulled over at a small beach just in time to walk in the sand and watch the sky change color. I took my shoes off and rolled off my pant legs and we made the most of it, sun set or no sun set.

Our next mission was to find something to eat. We were planning on getting fast food on the way, but neither of us saw anything en-route that enticed us. So after our stroll we headed south on the Pacific Coast Highway and came across a Pier in Malibu called 'The Beachcomber Cafe'. They had a live band playing and it seemed to be a petty popular spot.  Unfortunately the wait was really long and we were starving. We toyed with the idea of eating at 'Jack in the Box' that was across the street, but I'm not a huge fan and it looked equally as busy inside.

Although we did not intend to go into Santa Monica, that's where we ended up. When Carl's mum was here last month we had spotted several British Pub's in the area that we would have liked to try. We settled into a very cozy both at 'Ye Olde Kings Head'. It's one of those places that has 1000 pictures and nick nacks on the walls, so I struggled to focus during dinner. We did happen to sit under a large replica of a painting of Maria Antoinette, which now has made me think my next reading adventure may me take to her era.

We drove home the scenic route again which is an extremely curvy dark road though the mountains. However, when we got close to civilization again the view from the top of the mountains out across the valleys of lights was AMAZING! Unfortunately, there is no where to pull over for photos...plus Carl had had a few pints on an empty stomach and really wasn't in any position to be standing on the edge of any cliff taking pictures...fence or no fence! We did however agree that next weekend we will be taking the nighttime scenic route on Mulholland Dr to see the lights of LA!

A big thank you to my husband for getting me off my butt on a Friday night! Love You!