After what felt like way too long, I finally have a date for my father’s funeral. Closure is needed and it’s really a crappy feeling to have a memorial or funeral so up in the air. I’m grateful to have that settled.

The day after his funeral, I’m leaving Southern California behind for the central or northern coast of California. I haven’t decided where. There is 400 miles of coastline to work with. 🙂 I don’t have tons of time – 4 days & 3 nights. I want to pick well. There are a few reasons this trip is so important to me.

– I want a few days of rest. I need it.

– The novel I’ve worked on the last few years is partially set along the central/northern coast, I could also use a boost of creative energy to get through (what I hope) is the final round of edits on the novel. I’d hoped I’d feel up to it when I got home. I might feel like it in the next couple of weeks, but if I don’t, I hope the trip will help.

– Maybe most important of all is that this is the trip, though shorter than I would have planned, is part of a promise I made to my brother – for a trip for our April 2023 birthdays. If you’re a first-time reader, my brother passed away 11 months ago. I honestly didn’t think it would work out to go on a trip, for him – in April. But God knew it would work out.

I’m honestly very unsure right at the moment where I’ll head to. But I’ll make up my mind this weekend (I hope). It’s nearly impossible to pick. 🙂 I have to keep telling myself I have a lifetime to take more trips. Hopefully next time it will involve some camping. By the way, if I could pick the perfect place to live, it would involve the ocean & the mountains – pine forests (Redwoods? I mean…😍) and sea salt air. I mean, how much better can it get? I can’t wait to enjoy a little bit of that for a few days.