Packed and prepared to leave

Blurry-eyed I grabbed my purse

Sat and buckled in.

Relative quietness hung upon the town.

Entering the freeway

Ribbons of white or red lights

Streamed down the roadway.

Who would have known so many

Would be on the road long before light?

Dawn presented first signs of the day to come.

Heavy clouds hung on the mountain tops.

Light peaked through revealing the foothills 

beneath the shrouded peaks.

Spots of pink adorned the clouds.

Traffic intensified.

At times its pace was a crawl

Resembling more of a parking lot than streamers.

Drawn back to the coast—

We stand on the rocky shore

Listening to the crashing waves

Watching sea lions bob and play

Surveying crumbling walls

Succumbed to an earlier hurricane.

The air, the light, the beauty of the sea

on such a day as this.

To town we travel

Where we traipse from one art shop to another.

Early dinner on Main Street, then off to the lodge

Where we enjoy a hot drink, a fire and live entertainment

With other guests of the establishment.

We fall into bed, drifting off to sleep.

Morning comes.

Opening the shutters, I find the marine layer

And local ecology all decked out in preparations for

Halloween.