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Yesterday, we drove north into the storm on our way up the central coast.  Today, we chased the tail end of it back home.  It rained most of last night but we were cozy in our hotel room with a fire going and no barn chores to drag us outside.  Bliss.  This morning we woke up to this:

My parents met us for breakfast at a little bakery we like in Morro Bay.  On the way over, we took pictures of the two Morro Bay landmarks.  First, and most famous, the rock:

And second, but not nearly as pretty, the smoke stacks of the PG& E power plant:

After our coffee and pastries, Brett and I headed up to Templeton to pick up a couple fruit trees I had ordered.  There is a wonderful nursery near there, Trees of Antiquity, that sells heirloom fruit trees.  Our orchard is full of their trees -- fun varieties that you can't find anywhere else.  I think this is my 7th apple tree and I also picked up a fig tree to replace the one that gophers destroyed.  The pick up location is at a market in Templeton and not at the actual nursery. 

We drove around the vineyard lined roads (California Central Coast wine country) a bit before heading to the freeway and we came across a flock of wild turkeys:

Then we reluctantly headed for home.  After drinking in the beauty of the vineyards and moss covered oaks, heading back to LA just didn't excite us.  We did stop in Santa Barbara for lunch at our favorite restaurant on the harbor wharf.   I had some amazing mussels; plump and sweet with crusty sourdough bread to sop up the broth.  My kind of heaven.

It was beautiful in Santa Barbara and the storm clouds were still far enough ahead of us that they just created a beautiful picture.

From there, it was the dreary depressing slog through LA and then into the desert to our mountain.  We caught up with the rain as we started the climb up the mountain.  Figures.  Fitting, I thought.  We kind of felt that way.  Grey and gloomy.  We both love the central coast and spent most of the drive back talking about our dream  -- pulling up stakes, getting out of the LA rat race, and living surrounded by vineyards, cattle, horses, and green oak dotted hills.