All By Myself
I had a very surreal experience last week. The Husband and The Assistant went back east to visit family and I was totally and completely on my own for seven whole days.
Those without kids are reading this, shrugging and not understanding the significance. Those with kids are shouting Oh my god what did you do with all of that glorious free time?!?!
There wasn’t quite as much glorious free time as I’d hoped for, what with clients letting deadlines slip so all of the critical path items hit squarely in the middle of that week, but I still took two days and went to the Monterey peninsula to ride 17 Mile Drive.
Yes, it was in the heart of our summer fog, what we call June Gloom. The coastline is largely buried in a cold layer of fog. The coastal temperatures will be in the 50s (17 C) while just 20 miles inland they’re roasting in the sunshine and temperatures that are pushing 100 degrees (38 C). It’s perfect weather for a bike ride, but less so for being a tourist.But I did get lucky: one afternoon, the sun made an appearance and revealed the bay in all of its glory. I even got to see a beach filled with harbor seals!
The whole town was so colorful as they were gearing up for their annual lantern festival. Nearly every house and storefront was decorated with colorful lanterns.
When I got back home, I decided to do wild things like go out for ice cream.
I even went to the coffee shop for breakfast, taking just a novel — no work — with me. I read. A lot. In fact, I managed to read 2.5 books (more than 800 pages of text) in a week. This beats my normal totals by about 750 pages.
And one night, when I realized that it was nearly 7:30 PM and I was still working, I decided to walk to the local pub for dinner and a televised ballgame, and was rewarded with an excellent sunset on the walk home.
But in the end, the best part of the week was when The Assistant came down the escalator at SFO, ran towards me at top speed and jumped into my arms. Can’t beat that, really.
Tags: biking, cycling, family, free time, reading, travel, walking
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