328. Sunday surprises.

Last week I wrote about a remarkable coincidence of a rainbow appearing outside my apartment window as I was listening to the Carpenter's Rainbow Connection.

No pictures, no camera to document the event. The best I could do was share the experience in this post.

(When Sleep Goblin expressed her disappointment at seeing no pictures, I had an Electron Microscopy 101 flashback of describing the excitement of seeing mitochondria to a lab assistant and not having any micrographs to back it up. I ran out of film taking pictures of other cool cell stuff.)

Anyway.

If you've been following my blog, you probably gathered I took a day trip on Sunday. I woke up to what seemed like the 10th year of straight rain, and even though I knew sun was in the forecast for Monday through Friday, I bloody well had enough rain. I set out to find the sun. I decided that I would drive to Mexico if I had to to find it.

I was on a MISSION.

I filled up the car and packed it with snacks, water, and sunscreen. I brought a change of clothes, my camera, and sun hat.

And boy did the drive suck. It felt like the scene from Caddyshack where a senior golfer continues to play golf in a horrific downpour and in defiance of God. I was worried that I, too, would meet his fate: killed at the hand of wrathful God lightning. Brutal.

The rain was coming down in sheets. Normally a confident driver, even I got nervous, went to the slow lane and dropped my speed down to 45. Traffic in San Jose was just as awful. (Is there ever NOT traffic in San Jose?! What's with you people down there?)

Knowing that I wanted to eventually cut over to Highway 1, as well as I could in the wrathful God downpour, I kept a watchful eye out for directional signs. Fitting for the wrathful God, numerous freeway warning signs tried their best to send me back home in defeat: Devil's Slide Pass Closed.

As well as it should be. I was sure that was the pass I needed, too. Undeterred, I kept driving.

Signs pointing the way to Monterey heartened me. Monterey was in exactly the direction I was heading: West and South. There were other signs, too. The rain let up from 500 thread count water sheets to a pressure and frequency firemen would expect from their fire hoses. It lightened up even more, and even the clouds were losing anti-sun forcefield power. Even though it was still very cloudy, it was bright enough for me to reach for my sunglasses.

When I finally arrived in Monterey, I was beat. Fighting the rain and Easter Sunday traffic took more out of me than I care to admit. Monterey is beautiful. There was no sun, but at least it wasn't raining.

I popped into a local café for a latte and book break. I remembered that I'd stashed a couple of Cadbury Creme Eggs in my purse, and happily devoured them, too.

Caffeinated and on a sugar high, I explored Monterey on foot. I'm no stranger to Monterey. Various science and business conventions, Laguna Seca motorcycle races, romantic weekend getaways, spontaneous solo and not-solo day trips... Monterey and I have history.

At most, I spent 3 pleasant hours in Monterey and headed back home up Hwy. 1.

The drive home was amazing, as evident in the previous post photos. I was pulling over every 10 minutes. At times, the sky was nearly black, and yet there'd be a brilliant glow shining off the ocean's surface.

All of my youthful summers were spent on or near the ocean. My father was an avid scuba diver and had no qualms leaving me, my sister, my brother, and my mother on the side of the road in the car for hours. If we were lucky, he'd choose a diving spot near a public beach. Thankfully, more often than not, we were lucky.

Never have I seen the ocean and coast so magical as I did on Sunday. I'm at a loss for adjectives to describe its beauty and magnificence that day. My photos only do it partial justice.

On one stop, I took this photo...



and then I turned around and took this photo from the same location:



At the next stop, I was able to put my car-top down. My mission was accomplished: I had found the sun. Or, did it find me?

When I got home, another unexpected gift appeared. This time, I had my camera: