Took a drive north to San Simeon Island this afternoon in order to visit a Marine Museum that is located up there. The drive up was uneventful, although it did take longer than originally intended. It seems that my GPS gives the distance to a future destination in miles that are calculated 'as the crow flies', that is until you actually punch it in, when it then tells you the actual distance you will end up driving. The end result is that the trip that I thought was going to be less than 30 miles away actually turned out to be more than 50..... but what the heck, it was a nice day for a trip anyway.
    So I get to the museum site, which is just off of one of the beaches up there, and find that it is located in an old Coast Guard Station that had been closed down. The main building was a wonderful old two story structure that had all of the design elements of many other CG buildings, so it was really neat to see it. However; when I walked up to the front entrance door there was a notice there stating that the last day it would be open for several months had been last Friday. It seems that they are going to be doing a major restoration of everything in the museum, so it won't be open again until just before the summer season beginnings. So that was a great big fat bummer! But it does mean that it will be even better the next time I try to come over and see it.
    With that part of the day changed it suggested that there was still the beach to visit since it was indeed a very nice day out. So I walked out on the beach where several hundred other people were enjoying the day, took off my shoes, and walked up and down the seashore for a couple of miles. The water was still pretty cool to the touch, even this far south, but it was nice to see the waves coming in and dumping on the beach there.
    I managed to kill a couple of nice hours doing that, and probably got more sun than I should have but it was an awful nice way to spend an afternoon.
    I'm just finishing up here at Micky D's as there was some paperwork and other stuff that needed to be taken care of. I'm about ready to take off to the trailer where I'll spend some more time reading and maybe watching another movie. Last night I watched the movie 'Dazed and Confused', one that I would normally not watch, but which was one of 4 on a set of DVD's I had bought. I really had gotten the set because of the movie 'Animal House', which I have always liked, but since D & C was there too, I took a chance and watched it. Actually not that great of a movie overall, it seemed to me to just be an updated, read 70's, version of the of the classic 'American Graffiti', which was of course based on the 50's and was much better. It was however interesting to note some of the unknown kid actors that starred in the movie that later went on to pretty big careers, in particular Matthew McConoughy and Milla Jocovich. (sp) Tonight, if I get to it, will be 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High', I'm hoping for at least a little better movie this time.

*brk