We were cruising through the Big Sur area of California, and we stopped for lunch at a cliffside place called Café Kevah. That delightful eatery occupies this cliff with the more well known restaurant called Nepenthe, and also with one of the coolest gift shops I’ve ever explored, called The Phoenix Shop. They all share a website.
That complex also has a fabulous bathroom. I say this because most bathrooms, as a general rule, do not tend to inspire. This one, on the other hand, had me standing there with my jaw hanging open. It was a humble bathroom with your basic plaster walls and wooden stalls. Nothing fancy, by any means. But painted directly onto these walls was a series of paintings that impressed me so much that I nearly forgot what I had originally gone in there for.
I bet the artist identifies as female, because these paintings of women gave off an energy that I think one would struggle to produce without a certain amount of knowing. That’s the only way I can describe it. Knowing. Walking that path.
I could imagine that person painting away, and having to take a break whenever someone used the facilities. Or maybe this creativity came about in the wee hours. (See what I did there?)
I was really glad I was the only one in the bathroom at the moment, because I had to get pictures of this work. I wanted to remember it. It made me really, really happy. What a gift.
It’s a rare occasion when I am reluctant to leave a bathroom. But if I didn’t leave soon, I feared that dear husband might send in a rescue squad or something. So leave I did.
I take these women with me in photographs. And it makes me smile to know that they inhabit an incredible bathroom in Big Sur, and that only the luckiest few have gotten to experience their beauty. I can almost imagine them talking to each other when no one’s around. It’s the little things like that that bring me joy.
I’ll now share these women with you. Treat them well. They deserve it.
Check out my blog post about that travel day, including a few pictures of Cafe Kevah and the Phoenix Shop, here.
Check this out, y’all. I wrote a book! http://amzn.to/2mlPVh5
The View from a Drawbridge 
Breathtaking. Was this a woman’s only bathroom? If so the men are missing out and you’d have to wonder what was on the walls of the men’s room.
Yeah, I did wonder about that, but I like to think nothing could be this good. And it’s kind of nice for women to have a treat all to themselves every now and again. 🙂