darlings

we emerged sleepily onto the back streets and then (pepped up by the dark embrace of caffeine) roared onto the freeways and Headed South.

despite leaving *almost* at Dawn the traffic was unbearable so we told the lady-voiced-global-positioning-system to DETOUR! and she came up with a much better route that was very long and winding and……

took in many trees……

and sunlight kisses through branches and ground cover of delicate varying shades of pink floral blooms…

and a tiny train station with just one platform and a sneak peek of the OCEAN beyond…..

and the MOST DELICIOUS vintage shop in a tiny bungalow called The Wish List.

here’s the address in case you happened to be in the locale one fine day.

2945 Madison St
(between Carlsbad Village Dr & Grand Ave)
Carlsbad, CA 92008

and they even have a page on that chap Mark’s hangout: https://www.facebook.com/wishlist.carlsbad

treasures galore!

hat boxes and over-stuffed drawers with family wedding photographs and the sort of cases that Laura Ingalls Wilder probably had when she left Ma and Pa and went off to be a young teacher and had just a few changes of clothes (which she had sewed herself having bought the materials from that general store with the daughter with the unfeasibly bouncy ringlets)

the owner of this treasure trove of beauteousness is called Kristin and we had a few moments so we stopped and had a little reverie at her story (everyone has a good story if you only ask and then put on your nice listening face and the magic tumbles into your head and stays there all happy it has found a new home) – there was a tale of Nashville and Another store that was there and then coming back to the place she was from – which is here – 98.1 miles south of los angeles in a hamlet called Carlsbad – and creating a place that looks awfully like Andie’s bedroom in Pretty in Pink. 

and there was even a cat (we think her name was Olive). 

and signs and aprons and a general deliciousness of “Enter Here!”

and words to stop and make you think. 

it reminded us of Albert Camus.

(you didn’t see that coming did you?)

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

and then, later on – after we had tagged along behind who-we-are-in-RL as she did her Consulting Work and sat with a pen and made notes and some (rather insightful) suggestions and there was laughing and new people and a coffee break and meeting engineers and lists and much paper inside manilla folders – it was time to go – and we took a walk to stretch our legs and eat a little supper and have a most glorious foot massage and generally avoid the traffic on the way back to L.A, leaving after dark – and suddenly, out of the darkness, we heard a WOOT WOOT! and it was the Pacific Surfliner Train rushing onwards and further up the Coast.

it was a lovely moment.

so we waited a while to let the feelings sink just beneath the surface and rest awhile before we got in the perfectly silver Prius and drove allthewayhometolosangeles.