Pete and I needed a vacation. Actually Pete was needing a vacation even more than me, and we had heard about a special deal for locals at the Cambria Pines Lodge which was half the normal price and included breakfast, dinner, and a bottle of the house wine in the price. It was a very good deal and even though it isn’t all that far, we pretended it was a long trip and just played tourist in Cambria. It was very fun. An excuse to get out of town before I have my big surgery at the end of the month. It was too hard to really plan a big trip with doctor visits and treatments and especially with the expense of medical bills. At least the balance after the insurance paid. It was good to get away even if it was only one night and a day.

The food at the Lodge restaurant was good, and we visited a wine shop in Cambria and did the tourist wine tasting, and enjoyed it very much. There was another couple there and of course they were from out of town from Sacramento. I am sure they loved the cooler weather here and the beauty of this area.

The lodge had a small walking trail around the property so it was fun exploring there, and then today we walked on a pretty bluff trail in Cambria called the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve. It was a lot shorter walk than the bluff on Montana De Oro, but it was actually just right. It was one mile one way, so it was not too strenuous at all. There are more trails there, so we will have to explore them again soon. I love hiking and walking.

I have been feeling really great the last couple of days and have not been fatigued at all. I am tired now, but it is a normal tired from being busy all day. I was so glad to feel normal again and hope that I feel good up through my surgery date at the end of this month. Praise God!!

On our way back from Cambria and our lovely walk, we did a couple of errands in San Luis Obispo, then headed down to Walmart to get some different cell phones. The two new Sprint phones we upgraded to last week have been awful and I have missed many calls. The worst is that I can not use the phone at all in my house and I never heard the rings. On Saturday, I finally discovered that I had a message on my voice mail from last Thursday from my oncologist and she wanted me to call her back. I was not happy with our service at all! Today I called and left a message, but since we were driving around, we stopped at the office as one of our errands for me to find out what they were calling me about. Rather goofy way to have to get my cell phone messages, so we are now going to try a new service on Verizon. I hope we have better service with this time around. We will see. Regardless, we had to upgrade since our ancient Boost/Nextel phones had technology that they were eliminating completely.

I hadn’t been to Woods Humane Society for a while since I had been diagnosed and started treatments with the chemotherapy, so we thought we would stop by and say hello to Steve and then go see the dogs and cats that are there. He was pleased to see us and we met a new director there and saw some new employees there as well. So many changes. Steve gave Pete and me shirts for advertising the up coming Wiggle Waggle Walk for Woods that is in October every year. I recommend anyone who has a dog to join in the activities, because not only is it monies that go to Woods Humane Society, but it is great fun for dog owner’s and their pets to be involved in fun dog activities. When our dogs were alive, we took them and they absolutely loved it. Now, Pete and I help with the handling of dogs at the event, and walk the dogs at the Wiggle Waggle walk-a-thon. I am hoping that I will have the energy to do it this year. It will be about a month and a half after my surgery, so I may be able to only do a couple of hours rather than the whole day. We will see how I feel by then.

We went to see the dogs first and all the dogs we had known at the beginning were all gone to permanent homes. There are a lot of wonderful dogs and cats to adopt there. I noted two dogs that looked very depressed, so if I am still feeling well later this week, I am going to go see if I can perk them up a little with some attention. I enjoyed going to see them and there are some real sweethearts there. I am guessing that they will be adopted quickly. There were a lot of children there, which means Woods is doing their annual “Critter Camp”, where kids come and work with the dogs. They learn how to train them in simple commands and pretty much poop the critters out. The dogs I mean of course. A pooped out dog is a happy dog.

Tomorrow I will be enjoying an outing with a friend and celebrating her birthday. I will go into those details after I have experienced our fun outing. I hope I am as energetic tomorrow as I have been these last two days. How wonderful it is to feel good for a change. Yes!!!