Amusement Owl

We told our house-sitter that we'd leave early, but of course the post office left me no time during the week to prepare. I didn't even have time to blame procrastination! Though I did read the Sunday paper, watered the plants, put some art up on the wall...then I started cleaning and packing. We left at 2:00 p.m. Add sandwiches and the bank and it was 2:30 before we got through most of Eureka.

Our car's dashboard shrine: that's Wishfrog, our parking deity, hanging from the rearview mirror, with Our Lady of Juquila clipped to the dash mat, our keyring wishfrog, and the Amusement Owl tucked up by the windshield.

Since we got such a late start, we skipped crashing at my daughter-in-law's place in favor of finding a random hotel at the airport and calling it a day. I am so fortunate that not only does my husband thrive on spur-of-the-moment travel decisions, so does the rest of his family! We are always dropping in with minimal lead time. Even so, coming in for a visit, maybe some dinner and Oh can we stay the night and can you drop us off at BART the next morning? Monday morning? A bit much. Then Greg says, Well, maybe I can stay a few days to visit after we fly back next week. Which is a big deal when you're talking lots of animals and a wife who works lots of hours. But it's a good idea: unrushed family time, see some friends...it'll be a good opportunity to share some time with our grandson and allay his fears about Da's surgery. Well, I say "we," but it'll not include me. Same old song!

So we decide, yeah, no crazy rushing around trying to hook up with family on the way down. Instead, we will just find a room at the airport.

I think at that point many people would pull out their smartphones and head to Yelp, TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, something. We just drove to Hegenberger. Only I got off an exit too soon. Then we changed our minds and said, Well how about those motels near 23rd? Oh, there's a detour...and so on.

But Greg and I have our system down, and whoever is driving does what the navigator says. So when he said Turn! I turned and voila, a row of three executive traveler hotels. Which one, Navigator? ... Best Western it is!

All this room for little ol' us?

We waltz in and five minutes later we have a shuttle arranged to take us downtown to Everette & Jones BBQ and are wandering around a hotel room that is almost the size of our tiny mansion--700 sq. ft! It even has its own porch, which I am using now.

We had our own porch! And it came not only with a view of the estuary but a goose promenade.

...and foggy, just like home!

Tomorrow, Adventures in Airport Parking (did we make advanced plans? No!) and Los Angeles.