hello, cookie

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I feel a new obsession coming on. It's probably only temporary, as obsessions will tend to be, but I don't mind. I'll ride it out and see where it takes me. After living in the desert for what seems like far too long, I'm suddenly completely smitten with the deep, wide, salty pacific ocean, and everything connected with it. I'll spend as much time walking along its edge as I can get, or gazing off into it from the pier of any little town we find ourselves in. The hems of my pants are always wet, and I don't mind. I restrain myself from pointing out every seagull, sandpiper, and pelican that does anything remotely interesting, including flying, and I allow myself to point out all the seals and dolphins, because I don't recall seeing so many of them when I was on this coast as a teenager. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention, or maybe there really are more of them now. It looks like a healthier ocean than I remember, and I'm happy to see that.

We pulled into the village of Cayucos, just a few minutes north of this week's base camp in Morro Bay, and parked in front of an outdoor wedding about to happen on the grounds of the historic sea captain's house. Parking spaces being as precious in Cayucos as anywhere along the California coast, we locked up the truck and skittered away, so as not to interfere with the festivities. The first open door we came to was the Brown Butter Cookie Company, which was much nicer to find than, say, a live bait shop might have been. We were immediately offered a sample of the famous Brown Butter cookies, something like shortbread, with a sprinkle of sea salt on top. Oh yeah... I'm still thinking about them. So good.




Wanting something a bit "healthier", we bought bundle of six big oatmeal-raisin cookies and a couple of coffees to go. The pretty woman at the counter - one of the sister-owners, I think - told us how to pronounce the name of the town (ki-YOU-cus), and went on to tell us all the nice things about the place. A few minutes later, standing on the pier, devouring our cookies, we took a good look around and wondered if we might like to settle in and stay a while. Every place we go is a candidate for Home now, but most especially, at least for now, small towns on the coast. I sure didn't see this coming. But what would be so bad about hanging out in a place with the best darn oatmeal cookies on the planet, and a nice long beach kicked in for good measure? Hmmm... I wonder...

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 9, 2009 at 9:55 PM

    really enjoy your blog! So much in fact I linked you, hope that's ok. You can see it at http://northpolemama.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownAugust 10, 2009 at 10:49 AM

    I love Cuyucos! We have been going there for 30 years. I can think of nothing better than a spot in the trailer city on the hill with that spectacular view back to Morro Rock. Unless it was a waterfront space, but no chance for that one. The nice thing about Cuyucos is that there is not much to do there, so you can relax and enjoy the view. And it isn't overrun as much with vacationers. Back in the 70's this was really true. My kids and I spent many happy hours on the beach by the pier where the playground equipment is. And there was a little Mexican take out almost on the sand, that made flour tortilla chips. I can still taste them. They were yummy. Great salsa too. They are probably long gone. I didn't check last time I was there. My sisters and I spent a great week there last year, just knitting, beading and relaxing.
    Enjoy your time there. You couldn't find much better. Oh, don't miss Cambria if you haven't been there. Great yarn shop there.

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