FUN IN CARLSBAD
Rod had a business meeting in San Diego on tuesday, so after visiting Corey at the camp until 2 pm (monday, the day after New Years Day) we drove on down. I had found us a hotel in Carlsbad this trip, so it would be closer to where Rod had to drive tuesday morning, and it turned out this Ramada was just mere blocks from where my friend Susie lives. We'd been in touch prior to our heading down and had made plans for her to come by around 10 am to pick me up, after her morning spin class. It was good to see her again, I can always count on a relaxing, and interesting day when Susie and I get together. She keeps a blog on all things San Diego - great tips, places to see, restaurents, recipes, and also posts personal stories, check it out at www.susiesays-susie.blogspot.com







After a quick stop at her house so I could meet Pepper, her new 18 month old Schnoodle, who she and Ron rescued from the shelter, we headed over to the Self Realization Fellowship Hermitage & Meditation Gardens. It is actually located oceanside at Encinitas, the community just south of Carlsbad. Admission is free and these amazing gardens are open to the public. It's beauty took my breath away, and after wandering around, exploring koi pounds, amazing twisted trees and every possible kind of exotic plant and succulent, everyone talking in a whispered hush, we left feeling lighter in spirit, and refreshed from, I'm sure, breathing in all that pure oxygen generated by so many plants in a relatively small space.



Our next stop was Pipes Cafe, a few blocks away for piled high, egg salad (Susie) and turkey avocado (me) sandwiches and a fabulous frothy orange drink concoction similar to an orange julius. The days weather could not have been more perfect, sunny, clear, temperatures mid 70's. We enjoyed our lunch on the outside patio, streetside, catching up on our lives, what had transpired in the last month or more since we last saw each other. Everytime I see Susie we just pick up from our last conversation it seems, there is always so much to talk about and always too little time. Her husband Ron had spent 18 months at the Taft Camp, which is how Susie and I met, through another mutual friend who would visit her husband Michael there as well. Ron has been home now for several months and adapting, adjusting to being back in society, along with dealing daily with demands from the justice system, and all the obstacles they cement firmly in place making, for just one example, finding a job next to impossible. Something has recently opened up however and he has every reason to believe his job search may be over, at last, and this has given him renewed optomism and greater sense of well being.

After our lunch Susie and I hit the beach for a vigorous stroll. I'd heard on the prior evening's news the surf was supposed to be fantastic today, and everywhere I looked I could see groups of surfers waiting to catch, or actually riding, that perfect wave. The vast, mostly empty, beach spread out before us as we strolled and took in the magnificent views and salty air. How I love southern California beaches!

All too soon the afternoon had come to an end and Susie took her leave, while I settled in a poolside lounger to await my husbands return.