11-12 March 2024 Dad & Barb!

claudianmurray
Mar 12, 2024
2 min read

I left LA on Monday, March 11 and headed north to Santa Maria to visit Dad and Barb.

My day began by going to breakfast with Kristen's college friend Anna - we had the biggest, prettiest, healthiest breakfast bowls ever! Upon returning to Kristen's apartment I had to reconfigure all my clothing and repack my car – had brought all my suitcases and bike into Kristen and Peter's place to keep my stuff safe while I was back east. Once everything was organized and loaded I headed north. Made a brief pitstop in Santa Barbara – what a beautiful seaside town with lots and lots of very tall palm trees.

Driving up the Pacific coast highway is such a treat – tall rugged mountains that are so steep and plunge right into the ocean. Just beautiful!

I arrived in Santa Maria shortly before 6 PM to the beautiful Santa Maria Inn. Dad and Barb live just a short distance away and as they have no guest room they kindly put me up in this beautiful historic hotel. They met me at my hotel for dinner and it was so nice to see them both again! We spent several hours sharing stories over cocktails and dinner.

The next morning I went over to their place for a delicious quiche brunch after which we went exploring. Went to lake Oso Flacko and had hoped to be able to walk the long boardwalk over the lake but sadly it was closed for repairs. We got my daily mile in there and then headed to Pismo Beach for a cocktail, snack and a little more exploring. Made a pitstop back at their house to feed the cats and then headed to a great Italian restaurant where I enjoyed Cioppino for the first time - a seafood stew with a tomato base that was full of muscles, clams, octopus, fish and other goodies from the sea. Barb also ordered a calzone for the table and it was hands-down the largest calzone I have ever seen! What a feast!!!