Driving to Devil's Beach & Meeting Jeanette & Greta

Driving along the iconic 101 pretty much all the way from the peninsula where I live to the very popular tourist beach town destination on a Saturday was an amazing experience. People go to the beach on Friday and leave on Sunday– so traveling on Saturday and Monday was a dream! Easy traffic, no “jams,” and very few frustrated drivers zooming around us to pass!

Meanwhile, Mike and I had hours to talk and catch up on some things in private. We discovered that we were both hard core against driving along freeways if we could avoid them. He told me he took regular cross-country drives from California to New England with a friend during one point of his life, and they always took the smallest rural roads they could find– it once took them a month to cross America that way. He said he learned a lot about people and places by avoiding freeways, which are all the same chain stores and restaurants. Though it would take us up to an hour longer driving the scenic route, we were both in agreement that this was the only way to travel! And it was beautiful! =^)

I DID notice something very disturbing on our drive, however, that I will talk about more in a few entries…

In any event, it was my friend “Finnegan’s” birthday, and I hadn’t seen him in some 5 years– when he was one of those who came to visit and help out during my horrific divorce. He now lived in a home he inherited from an elderly woman on the coast who had no children but who connected to Finn over art. Finnegan is a professional glass blower. He teaches classes too! At the town where he lives, they hide artistic glass floats to be found for free all along the public beaches, and tourists love to hunt for them and take them home.

The town we went to I’ll call “Devil’s Beach”– it really does have several strange names for places around there AND it’s where I’ve seen UFOs a couple of times and my ex was abducted during a vacation. Seems an appropriate fake name!

By the time we arrived, we discovered that Finnegan’s mother, who lived with him after a recent heart attack, made a ton of food I knew we’d never have the chance to eat. But it was SO sweet of her! She was in bed by the time we got there at dusk. The house itself was a one story 3 bedroom cottage built during the 40s. Cute as a button! And it had a small, but very private backyard and a state park across the street with access to the town’s lake. Mike elected to sleep outside in the back yard both nights we were there, but I set up a cot in the living room. (On any further visits, I’ll rent a yurt across the street!)

We got a chance to hang out and talk to Finn’s sister, “Jeanette” and sister-in-law, “Greta” before going to bed. Mike is a transman, and his sister-in-law is a transwoman. (And if I worded that wrong or anything, my apologies! I can’t keep up with what’s okay to say and what’s not, but I mean no offense.) The three have been super close since middle school, and I saw photos up around the house with them all hanging out together.

Mike and I ate heartily, including chocolate cupcakes to DIE for as birthday dessert! But we barely made a dent into the food prepared for us.

I talked a little about why Mike and I were there, and the paranormal stuff came up. They were super interested and not at all judgmental, which was awesome, but I honestly didn’t think they’d have an issue. I can usually tell and most people are actually pretty open to it if not actively curious. Though Finn and I are both pagan and have discussed those beliefs in depth with one another, he didn’t really know about my abduction and paranormal life stuff– so… surprise!

When Finn’s other guests left for the night, they joined him outside while he had a smoke (he didn’t smoke 5 years ago, but he took it up again during the pandemic/Trump panic.) I heard them talking about me and Mike and saying very nice things about us. Jeanette actually said, “You never told us you had friends this cool!” and Finnegan answered, “Hey, I knew Lucy was interesting, but I didn’t know she was THAT interesting. Though maybe I should have guessed!” and then he laughed.

Oh my goodness! To hear people saying kind things about me! And all the fuss Finn’s mom made for food! Melted my heart! Just into GOO.