No Room in the Inn
This last Memorial Day Weekend when we went to Yorba Linda for Zach and Elie's birthdays, we had planned to take a leisurely trip up the coast either going down or on the way home, but things didn't look like we would be able to take our adventure afterall. Regardless my sweet husband kept it as his goal and even though we got a late start, when it came time for the two freeways to diverge, he took the one heading for the coast. We thought we had enough time to make it to the coast by nightfall and we'd just catch a hotel and then start up the coast the next morning. Little did we realize how bad things are on the coast on Memorial Day Weekend and when we started looking for a hotel the common sign was "No Vacancy" or "No Room in the Inn". When it was getting around 1 in the morning we saw one hotel from the road that didn't say "No Vacancy" so we took a sharp turn to the right to zip down the side street and in taking the curve a little wide, who should be coming the other direction but a policeman. Sure enough he turned around and pulls Dave over with the question on his lips, "Sir, is there a lawful reason why you swung into my lane back there?" to which Dave made a sarcastic enough reply that I thought for sure he was going to handcuff us and take us into the pokey....would that mean a bed to sleep on? So as I started rifling through the glove box for registration and proof of insurance, Dave explains our situation to which the nice policeman asssured us we did NOT want to get a room in the flea bag hotel we were aiming for. He even called his Sheriff to find out if he had heard of any lodgings still available that he might know of. To no avail, we were sent on our way further up the coast even looking for just a spot to pull off the road and sleep in the car. By 1:30 we were desparate and as we drove along, there was a side street to our left that looked like apartment buildings in the trees but what should catch my eye but a hotel sign. So we swung back around and sure enough it was a whole row of hotels with beautiful signs saying No Vacancy....No Vacancy....No Vacancy.....No Vacancy until what to our wondering eyes should appear but one sign saying an ever most welcome "VACANCY" sign.....Surely a mistake we decided but nonetheless we drove in anyway. Out Dave gets and returns several minutes later as I stay in the car praying...Oh please Heavenly Father, let there be a bed and let it be without fleas and let it be affordable. Dave gets in the car and says, guess how much??? $250 I said figuring an exageration....Very close was his reply....and that's with a 30% discount because it's after midnight. So we contemplate for a few minutes deciding if we want to pay more for a hotel than we ever have before for just a few hours sleep and decide....YES, YES WE DO!!!! So Dave goes back in and is in there for like ten minutes I guess signing his life away and comes back out with key in hand just as a guy drives up to the office and as we see him speaking to the manager, he drops his head and shakes it ever so pathetically and I told Dave, she must have told him what it costs and Dave says, no, she just told him we just got the last room. Then we see him drive off down the remainder of the row of hotels and back out to the road. Dave said we should've tracked him down and offered him our room for $500. But we retired without a second thought to our room with it's warm fireplace and hot jacuzzi tub and Wonderful bed and the sound of the ocean waves hitting the beach just outside our French doors and the quaint little patio. And in the morning we got up to THE most wonderful breakfast I think I have ever had and then took a nice little stroll down the path of the ocean. It was beautiful and PRICELESS!!! and we felt so rested. Next time we go through, we'll have to try out the spa and exercise room that we never even got to see and try the evening "dessert buffet" served at dusk. I think we'll pass on their wine tasting though. So if you're ever in Cambria, stay at the Moonstone or Pelican something I think it was. Then we traveled up the coast stopping often along the way to enjoy the wonderful ocean, took a little nap on a grassy knoll by the beach and saw several California Condors, one of which was perched in a tree and we saw it's little transmitter on his wing for tracking....he was Condor Number 8 by the way. I don't know what it is about the ocean but it always is so relaxing. And even for a busy Memorial Day Weekend, it was peaceful. Thank you Mr. Beasley for taken the low road this time.
