Playing Hooky

Recently I was driving on the freeway, after doing something I had to do, and on my way to do something I needed to do. Blah, blah, blah. My life seemed so monotone and filled with have-to-dos. Driving south on the 101, I noticed a sign above the freeway that said "Los Angeles" (which is 6 ½ hours south of where we live). I knew Disneyland and carefree times were down that road. It took all my mental energy to make my responsible self take the next exit off the freeway—to my home—where my “Have-To-Do” list would continue. Even after taking the exit, I longed for that imaginary day at Disneyland—away from cares, worries, and responsibilities.

Spent. Yes spent is how I felt. That is when life becomes all have-to-dos with no want-to-dos. A shiver of panic rattled me, a panic that my days may begin to blur into “sameness” and the sameness may melt into years. Dramatic, I know, but spent days have a tendency to be that way. I think it was just my heart saying, “Wake up and don’t let life pass you by!”

The cure? I decided to play hooky (Merriam-Webster’s definition: one who shirks duty :-D). No, I didn’t get back on the freeway and head to Disneyland, but a couple of days later I took the day off to go to the Monterey Peninsula. You may have found a theme to my blog posts; I often go to the coast when I feel emotionally bankrupt. Something about the ocean air and the beauty of the sea is medicine to my soul. It reminds me there is more--wonderful and inspiring more--just outside my routine-driven life.

So, the following Monday, after dropping the kids off at school, my hubby and I headed to Monterey. This is a place where famous people like John Steinbeck and Robert Louis Stevenson lived, and probably played a bit of hooky themselves. The beautiful Monterey Peninsula. It was easy to imagine Steinbeck’s words echoing from the past as we drove down Cannery Row, “Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, . . . a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream." (John Steinbeck, opening sentence, Cannery Row. 1945). Come along with me, as I share some of the sights we saw that day.

Monterey has enchanting trees. The one above is by Dennis the Menace Park. The exotic Monterey Cypress trees below are at Lover's Point.

To put the size of the trees in perspective, my hubby is almost 6' 6" tall. The above 3 photos were taken at Lover's Point where we parked our car, then walked west along the coastal trail.

Memorial benches are scattered along the path, allowing one to rest as well as to sit and drink in the view of the ocean. A bench that we passed on our walk (below) had an engraved saying that perfectly fit our day of escape. It read, "May the beauty of the sea give peace". Yes, thank you, it has!

Above and below: Large bushes of aloe vera plants garnished the trail.

Above: Remember those large Monterey Cypress tress my husband was standing by earlier? Those trees are now the small trees you see in the distance, in the center of the photo.

There is so much to do and see on the peninsula! Our time was limited to just a few hours while the kids were in school. So we jumped in the car and headed over to Pacific Grove's Butterfly Trees, only a few blocks away. The weather was in the low 70s, so we knew it would be a great day for viewing the migrating butterflies. I know I just made a blog post about the Natural Bridges State Beach monarchs, but there are actually three main areas to view the migrating monarchs in California, the two places I have mentioned here, as well as an area farther south in Pismo Beach. After being so amazed by the butterflies in Natural Bridges, we couldn't pass up checking out this monarch refuge, located by the Butterfly Inn on Ridge Road in Pacific Grove.

How incredible it was to be able to view the migrating monarch butterflies in two different locations, both on days they were active and flying around. How blessed we are to live so close to such amazing places!

The few hours we had passed by too quickly. We brought our trip to a close by eating lunch at a quaint outdoor restaurant on Lighthouse Avenue before heading back home.

Ahhh, how nice—to play hooky for the day—to re-group, to re-fill, to re-generate . . . to re-fall–in-love with life!