Missing cars, Tsunamis, and Costal Vacation

For reasons that are too complicated to explain, I am a City Car Share member.  Which means I can use a variety of vehicles for short or long periods of time.  So, we thought we would reserve a Mini Cooper Convertible for a weekend trip down the coast.  We arrived Saturday morning at the pickup location, no Mini Cooper.  I call City Car Share, and after some time the nice woman confirms that while I have a reservation, the Mini Cooper is "missing"!  I don't think this happens very often.  So we decide to take our perfectly nice (but very messy) car on our mini vacation.

But then, Tsunami warning!  Should you drive down Highway 1 during a tsunami?  Was all this a sign that we should avoid our little vacation?  We saw a sign "All San Mateo County Beaches Closed."  As we drove along we saw closed beach, after closed beach.  We stopped for lunch at a nice little place at Gazo's Creek, and as we were finishing up the fire marshal called and suggested that they close up for a bit.  So we wondered, should we stay on the road on the coast or perhaps play it safe and head a bit inland for awhile.  So we detoured inland to buy some wine and chocolate, and returned a few hours later (supposedly post-tsunami).  So we survived the tsunami.  I gather that there was some kind of small surge, and a fisherwoman we met the next day did remark how churned up the water was, but who knows.

 At last we arrived, Costa Noa, our favorite little retreat, just past Half Moon Bay.  We stayed in a little tent with two beds.  As cute and small as can be, with heated mattresses to keep you warm and bathrooms just a short walk away.  Not sure why exactly we thought this was vacation seeing as how right now we live in a tiny space, with bathrooms just a short walk away.  It must be the heated mattresses that lured us there. 

Ari and I have spent some wonderful weekends at Costa Noa.  There are hiking trails to the beach, a nice restaurant, and no cell phone service.  For the two of us iPhone addicts, the lack of email, phone calls, and texts seems to be an important feature of a nice getaway.  This time we did some nice walking with Yemaya and generally enjoyed the time away from the rest of our lives.  Yemaya did quite well on her first (kinda) camping trip.  She slept great and enjoyed every flower, bird, and kitty cat that we met along the way.

 

On Sunday we drove back and stopped in Half Moon Bay.  We saw many interesting things there.  A boat covered in stuffed animals.  We don't know why, but it does get my imagination going.  An octopus caught by cab fisherman, that ate all the crab in the pot.  And most interesting of all to Yemaya, a baby that looked just like her.