Our plans turned around on Thanksgiving Eve and we were unable to join family out of town today. Disappointed not to be with others, yet it was a stunning day in Los Angeles and we drove up the coast for, what else does a Californian do when the weather turns magnificent? And magnificent it is in the Southern California fall: no fog, no rain, the ocean and the mountains reach for forever.
With dog and husband, we drove for 120 miles from the Santa Monica beach up through Oxnard. Not that far. There and back. But what a range: from black lava rocks at the beach below Pt. Mugu; to the end of the '50s/'40s? Wagon Wheel Restaurant & Hotel, the old road tourism passed by and forgotten by concrete freeways and finally demolished to make way for condos; to the Missile Park by the Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station - a somewhat surreal reminder on this American holiday of that which we wish to forget - the air power and missiles of our defensive world - standing stationary and silent.
In the end, a day perhaps not of family but certainly one of thought. An American road trip of sorts.
