Suzy Says

Megan and I took a break from everyday life to journey down to the beautiful South Coast. Fog laid its silvery fingers over the dark, wind-swept trees, and sometimes even blotted out the ocean. Occasionally, the sun peeped through, highlighting lilacs and poppies by the side of the winding road.

The original plan was to go to Anchor Bay for fabulous take-out Thai food, and then attend a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire, shown at the historic 1920s movie theater in Point Arena:

but beamed from London. We had a little extra time, so we stopped off in Point Arena on our way, intending to get a mocha and maybe something delicious at Franny’s Cup & Saucer. After all, it was Saturday, and they were sure to be open.

Except they weren’t, being on vacation.

So we headed to Anchor Bay, where our bad luck held. Apparently, the Thai food owners had gone to the same place as Franny’s (the Riviera? Palm Springs? Tahiti?), since they too were on vacation, and coming back the same day, which to add insult to injury, was just a couple of days later.

We went back to Point Arena, where we found finding lunch to be an impossible task. When I went to buy tickets for the play, I learned that they did not take credit cards, but fortunately, I had brought a check to use at Franny’s (knowing their policy was the same), so I used it at the theater instead.

Inside, we admired the beautiful tile work:

and got popcorn for brunch. The feed from London was already going as we took our seats, so we could see and hear the audience in London taking their seats and chatting while we did the same thing. I couldn’t help noticing that Dad would be dismayed by the level of dressiness in London theater audiences.

The set for the play was minimal and placed in the round, perhaps three feet from the audience. It also rotated slowly throughout the performance, which was spectacular. Gillian Anderson, who captivated me this year in The Fall, was a raw and powerful Blanche, heart-breaking and vulnerable without being pathetic, giving the performance of a lifetime. When she took her bows at the end, she looked like she had been through a journey, and she had taken us with her. It was an experience I will never forget, and I am thrilled that we country mice have access to such cultural wealth, right here in the boonies.

As we made our stunned way back to the waiting Wednesday, Megan suggested that we call Libby’s to see if they, against all odds, might actually be open. We have been done out of Libby’s for months now, so we were delighted to find that they were open and ready to make us burritos.

We headed to the Valley, where we found the sun and Megan observed that only country dwellers like us would find it entirely reasonable to drive 45 minutes out of our way to get take out. But we had already done so much driving, what was a little more?

At Libby’s, we placed our orders and sat at the bar with an arrangement of flowers picked from the garden outside:

and had chips and house-made salsa with a glass of local wine while dinner was being made. It was an unexpected end to an unexpected, yet perfect day.

A YEAR AGO: A tragedy rocks our little corner of the world.