scenic sightseeing

most folks have heard of hearst castle, the ginormous estate built by william randolph hearst in san simeon.  we've actually been there a few times, choosing a different portion of the house to tour each time (the property is so vast that there are several different ones to pick from).  but a lot of people have never heard of nitt witt ridge - essentially the polar opposite of hearst castle, located just up the street from where we were staying.

back in the 20s, this dude who served as the town's trash man managed to scoop up a couple of acres along a hillside in cambria.  and then he spent most of the next 50 years building this crazy ass house using just a pick and shovel and all sorts of shit he picked up during his trash collection around town.  he took advantage of natural materials, crap that washed up along the beaches, and rumor has it that he even swiped some stuff from hearst castle.  he passed away in the early 90s, and then a handful of years later, a couple bought the property, fixed it up a bit, and opened it up for tours.

folks who see this place typically find themselves either fascinated by what this eccentric man created, or turn their noses up at it and deem it a pile of worthless garbage.  i bet you can figure out which side i was on, and what the hub thought of it.  what do you think?

and as i stood in front of it to take that picture, i glanced down and couldn't help but follow the simple instruction.

since no one actually lives here anymore (in fact, i hear that the owners left the place exactly as it was when the original owner died - with his ratty clothes still hanging in the closets and everything), tours have to be scheduled in advance.

haha at "please do not steal the clock" in faded letters along the bottom.  and despite the fact that his neighbors despised having this thing in their fancy oceanside neighborhood, it's safe from demolition because it's been declared a california historical landmark.

with the bean snoozing away in the back seat a few minutes after we pulled away from nitt witt ridge, we headed down the highway for a nice scenic drive.  along the way, we passed the city of harmony, population 18.

a bit further down, we found ourselves in cayucos, a cute little beach community i'd only really heard of because i'd had to book my boss' vacation rental here every summer.  but because it'd been featured in the AAA magazine a few months back, i knew there was at least one stop i wanted to make there.  and of course, it was food-related.

you're shocked, i know.  and their little shortbread-y cookies were worth the trip.  i scooped up a few different flavors and then we headed back up highway 1.  views like this remind me of how much i love living in california:

when we got back to the hotel, it was time for a little fun.  luckily, the sun finally made an appearance - which had the bean clamoring for a bit of pool time.

i got to soak my sore muscles in the hot tub.

a little dinner in town and that was the end of another day in sleepy ass cambria.

keep on truckin'

you may have noticed in that countdown ticker i've got going there to the right that my next half marathon is coming up quick.  like, a little too much so.  damn.  i've started my training, doing several short runs during the week and then a long run over the weekend.  and luckily, even an unexpected vacay didn't get in the way of my routine.

and i gotta say, staying on moonstone beach offered a pretty damn sweet course for me to run on.

i actually managed to cut my pace by a good 30 seconds per mile over here!  because i had no idea what the distance was from one end of the boardwalk to the other, i opted for a distance run on my nike+ app instead of plugging in the mileage i wanted to cover.  and i was pretty stoked to see that in 40 minutes, i managed to go 3.75 miles.  that's pretty darn good for the slowpoke that is me.

and then when i got back to the hotel, i dragged the teen outta bed and we hit the boardwalk for a training walk.  after all, we're going to be doing the equivalent of a marathon and a half for that avon walk in a couple of months.  just for fun, we headed down onto the beach for a portion of our walk via these stairs:

it was fun crunching our way down the beach, stomping over the bajillion little rocks along the way.

we had a good time, joking and giggling our way through about a mile and a half together.  i'm excited for the fun we're bound to have on that walk, dressed in tutus and tiaras.  i can hardly wait.

killin' time in cambria

our first full day in cambria was a cool and cloudy one - definitely not unwelcome, as we'd driven up from 100-degree heat.  we'd checked the weather forecast and packed accordingly, so we were excited to rock some long-sleeve tops and jeans for a few days.

since it was still a weekday, the hub had work to do.  thanks to the beauty of laptops and wireless internet, he's basically got a mobile office and can get 'er done from damn near anywhere these days.  except for the fact that our free wifi in the hotel was kinda shitty.  and so while he headed off to a coffee shop in town, the bean and i decided to take a stroll and check out what there was to see (the teen wasn't having it and stayed behind to sleep in and get ready whenever she damn well felt like it).

it wasn't hard to pick a shop to browse in first.

because i knew we had a good chunk of time to kill, i was really hoping this would help keep the bean occupied for a while.  alas, while it was a super cute store, it wasn't very big.  although this doesn't mean we didn't have fun looking around.

hello kitty.  she's errrrywhere.

there was a display of every flavor of malt ball known to man.  i figured maybe the owner had a thing for 'em.

our next stop was here:

inside, we were greeted warmly by a volunteer who invited us to come in and look around.  i made it a point to tell the bean not to touch anything, and the lady immediately said "oh no, she's welcome to look and touch things if she wants."  so, cool.

except that as soon as she played a few notes (very gently - i swear she wasn't banging on the keys or anything obnoxious like that), another lady emerged from a nearby room and pretty much chewed us all out for daring to touch the precious piano.  i whipped my head around and glared at the other lady, who smiled nervously and apologized for the mixup.  eff that noise.  we dropped a couple of bucks into the donation box and hightailed it outta there.  hmph.

to soothe her hurt feeling box ("mommy, why did that lady tell me to stop playing the piano?"), i steered the bean towards this shop - she dug the rainbow - and told her she could pick anything she wanted out of the bakery case.  i think it helped.  heh.

as we munched on our snack (come on - i wasn't going to let her eat a cookie the size of her freaking head all by herself), the ILs and the teen caught up with us at last.  we walked up and down the street a bit, checking out the few shops that caught our eye, and ended up here:

yes, that is a knitting store.  knitting is one of those things i've always wanted to try, but haven't had the time (or patience).  and by coincidence, i'd just opened an e-mail offering me a series of ten 1-hour knitting lessons at a shop close to home for $49.  i was actually considering it, until the nice lady behind the register said "if you've got about 15 minutes, i'd be happy to teach you how to knit!"

sold.

and not just me, but MIL, the teen, and the bean got in on the action too.

a couple of minutes later, we'd learned to "cast on."

and not long after that, i'd actually knitted a little square and learned how to "cast off."

we were invited to peruse the rest of the shop and pet all the yarn.  ha.  that sounds kinda dirty.  but we did it.  and it was really fun.

after we made our selections, we got to pick needles.

here's what i ended up with:

later that afternoon, i'd completed the first step - opening up that skein and winding the yarn into a nice ball, to keep it from getting all tangled up as i worked with it.

i'm not very good at this.  i swear, i'm all thumbs.  the bean is doing a better job of this than i am.

oh, well.  i'll just have to keep practicing.  it gets better, right?  RIGHT??

calling all local party people!

the teen and i have been fundraising since mid-may for our upcoming avon 2-day walk for breast cancer now, and we're just about halfway to our goal.  we've sent out e-mails, blasted out a link to our page via twitter and facebook, and lots of our friends and family have responded with generous donations to our cause.  i've also managed to fulfill a good number of cookie orders, with a handful of pending ones coming up within the next few weeks.

but we've still got a long way to go.  and now we have something else that we're working on to help us raise more money - a mani/pedi party at bellacures nail salon in pasadena.

after trading a handful of e-mails with the bellacures management staff, the teen and i headed out after dropping off the bean at school to check out the space.  i've been to the beverly hills location once before (yikes, that was in 2007??) and this one is just as nice.  it's in a cool-looking brick building in old town pasadena's mills alley.

the shop is a great size - modern and sleek, with pretty chandeliers that caught the teen's eye the moment she walked in.

the shop's manager was super friendly and answered all of our questions as she explained how they typically do private parties.  there's lots of super comfy chairs, and most of the layout can be easily rearranged to suit whatever's required for the event.

we've decided to ask for a $20 donation at the door, and then attendees can choose from their extensive menu.  we're going to bring in snacks and drinks, provide some fun swag bags for everyone, and if we can finagle some fun stuff from surrounding businesses, there'll also be a raffle/silent auction-type thingy.  oh, and the best part?  bellacures is donating 10% of all services for the duration of the shindig  to avon on our behalf!

our date is set for saturday, august 11th from 4 to 7pm.  if you're local and are interested in joining us, drop me an e-mail and i'll make sure to add you to the evite that i'm putting together.  we're happily accepting donations for the raffle and swag bags too, so if you've got a business that you'd like to promote, let me know!

oh, man.  i sure hope this goes well.  what am i getting myself into??