This is the view from our airbnb living room. The little cottage we have rented for nine summers has the feel of a tree house. The living room is upstairs at tree level overlooking the ocean. This is the one photo I took in this grouping with my Nikon and telephoto lens. The rest of the photos were taken with my iphone walking on the beach. I hope you enjoy a taste of California beach life.
This is our favorite beach to take walks and sit and watch the waves. This view is looking north.
There’s a canal along the walk and I caught this gull relaxing on a piece of drftwood.
This is the glimpse of the beach from the walkway that takes us to the beach. Ellen Degeneres used to own the house to the right of the fence, but sold it to have more privacy. It’s a gorgeous house by the way and sold last year for $35 million. Click on the link for a news story and photos.
The white house at the end of the beach is Kevin Costner’s estate. The tide gives him plenty of privacy because the beach is under water near his property.
We went out to dinner with friends and came back to our cottage to see this sunset out the side window.
I caught a Snowy Egret in action
A southward view of the beach.
I believe these are Willets but not quite sure. There are so many similar looking shore birds.
Father and son walking and talking.
I made them stop and pose. It’s such a joy to have our son and daughter-in-law join us for some relaxing beach time.
Which photos do you like the best? What are your plans for the weekend?
This was the entrance to our Palm Springs home of 28 years. It was an incredibly beautiful, unique home built in 1937. I loved living there and it was hard to move. It may sound like I am bragging, but it was beautiful. Not that livable. That was was one of the downsides.
WARNING: This may turn into a rant.
You can imagine my shock when a friend sent me a video from an Instagram account for our former home. The buyers, who we thought loved our home and lived in an old Spanish Hacienda themselves, are turning our home into a short-term vacation rental. They told us they liked our house better than theirs because we had a spectacular view of Mt. San Jacinto.
They’ve totally gutted the house inside and it’s lost it’s rustic charm and is filled with white marble with gray streaks, dark glossy floors with a bizarre tile shape. They removed wood-beamed ceilings, the columns and the original Sausalito tiles and everything else I loved about our home. It no longer has any character.
My daughter and I were ranting to each other by phone. Absolutely horrified by what we saw. We felt violated.
I made a comment on their Instagram account, “That’s my old home.” My daughter added a comment, “Why did you remove the original tile floors?” We were blocked. I guess the good news is we don’t have to look at more videos and photos of how they turned an authentic 1930s Spanish Colonial into a Mid-Century Modern Hollywood Nightmare. Tacky without taste.
Our living room, the way it was.This was our master bedroom.
In our Master bedroom, they removed the columns, floors, wood beams, granite wall paper, tub (at the far end) and built a wall with three archways to cut off a large portion of the room. Now the master looks much smaller. The shower and bathroom were behind mirrored doors on either side of the tub. Now they are behind archways and they put in a modern circular white stand-alone tub.
When I ranted to my husband, he was shocked when I showed him the pictures. He didn’t recognize our home. Then, being level-headed he said, “We don’t own the home anymore. We sold it.”
I know he’s right. But I have so many memories of living in that home. When we moved in, I was pregnant with my first child. It’s the only home our kids lived in before they went off to college.
FYI, we moved out December 12, 2020. We asked the new owners if we could have a little extra time to move. Escrow was 30 days and we lived there for close to 30 years. They were gracious and agreed. Then, we asked if we could stay for one last Christmas with our kids and DIL’s family. They said, “Sure. For $7,000.” We moved and spent Christmas alone getting settled in our new home.
We are better off for moving out of California to Arizona, I will admit. I liked the downtown Palm Springs location, but it had a downside with a homeless guy living on the steps to our entrance. Also, my husband said he’d have to work until he died to support the expenses.
At least I have these photos to remember what once was.
I guess it’s true. You can never go home again.
Outside view of our former home at night.
Have you ever been surprised at what has become of a place you lived in before?
What changes have you seen to your old home or home town?
We’ve vacationed in the summer for six years in this cottage a few blocks from the beach near Santa Barbara. I can’t wait for our time there this summer!
When we get away, we like to stay in VRBOs or Airbnbs — most of the time.
Since the time my son was one year’s old, we rented a house in Laguna Beach in the summer with another family from our hot desert. We rented directly from the homeowners (pre-VRBO era). The owners were school teachers who left for Alaska once the school year was over. We’d split the summer in two and overlap with the other family for a fun weekend.
My husband would commute back and forth for long beach weekends, while I’d stay with the kids the entire time. Not a bad deal, but with toddlers I remember I was tired. Still, much better than being in the desert with temperatures 100 to 126 degrees!
At Christmas the past two years, we’ve rented a house for a week — big enough for our Christmas Crew that varies from 10 to 14 people. We love being together under one roof and cooking Christmas Eve and Christmas Day feasts.
For the past 10 years, since my son was in college at UC Santa Barbara, we traded Laguna Beach for Santa Barbara. We stay at least a week and sometimes almost a month. My husband works remotely, so he sets up shop there.
When don’t we stay in Airbnb’s or VRBOs?
When we are going away for a quick trip, like a weekend, we stay in hotels. First of all, there are usually cleaning deposits and other charges that make a VRBO expensive for two nights. If you’re staying for a week or more, it can be more affordable to rent a house or condo and cook most meals.
When our kids were swimmers, we’d stay in hotels. We’d have to get to the pool early for warm-ups, get back to the hotel so they could rest between prelims and finals. The hectic schedule made the hotel much easier. I didn’t have to prepare meals, grocery shop or do dishes. I could order from the hotel restaurant or drive for takeout.
We had only been in the Vrbo for two hours when we lost one key. Fortunately, we started with two keys in the lockbox.
The key got lost during unpacking. I had placed the key on top of the dresser. My husband complained about things I was stacking on the dresser while finding a home for them. I was sure he had knocked the key off onto the floor or behind the dresser while he moved some of my stuff.
I was so upset. We were supposed to go to our friends’ house for dinner and we were thirty minutes late — before we realized the key was missing.
We looked in the drawers, under the dresser, under the bed, in the kitchen and bathroom. I texted my son that we had lost one key already. There was one in the lockbox and to please keep the one remaining key there when he arrived later that night. I didn’t want to lose both.
After a delicious dinner of chicken mole with our friends in their backyard, I came home and continued the search.
I finally found the key! My husband had knocked the key off the dresser just as I suspected. He managed to land the key in my dresser drawer — into my white shorts back pocket! Husbands!
What has your wife, husband or friend done that truly amazed you — good or bad?
A view from a morning walk of the ski slopes/hiking biking trails in Park City.Freshie’s lobster roll.
My daughter and I discovered Freshie’s while she was in college at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. We follow a blog Female Foodie that highlights the best food in nine areas of the country, from New York to Los Angelos — and even Salt Lake City. That’s where we first heard about Freshie’s.
Freshie’s won a contest for the “World’s Best Lobster Roll” which is held in Maine. Who knew you could get the best lobster roll in the mountains of Utah? They fly lobster in from Maine daily. If you’re ever in Salt Lake or Park City, Freshie’s is a must.
That’s me hanging out on Main Street, Park City. Main Street is where you’ll find an abundance of shops and restaurants. I posed with this bear and my daughter a few years ago.The airbnb condo where we’re staying. We stayed here in 2020 also, but had our daughter and a sister of our son’s girlfriend staying with us on that trip. That was a much busier week!I really liked this Audrey Hepburn art in a gallery on Main Street. If I had an extra $7,500 laying around, I might have brought it home with me.
I love Audrey Hepburn. I’ve always been a fan since I watched “My Fair Lady” as a young child with my parents. When my kids were ages five and two, I would borrow Audrey Hepburn VHS movies from the library. I laughed so hard when we were watching “Sabrina” and my son said “YOWZA!” when Audrey Hepburn returned from Paris as a beautiful, sophisticated woman.
The heatwave may be over. We’re supposed to get thunder and lightening later today. This view is from the swimming pool with the ski slopes/hiking trails in the background.
Where are your favorite vacation spots? What are some of your favorite old movies and actors?
We’ll be returning to this beach cottage for the sixth time this summer.
When you go on vacation, do you like to return to the same place — or do you like to explore new areas?
I read a Wall Street Journal story called: “The Joy of Traveling to the Same Places Again and Again.” It’s written by novelist Tara Isabella Burton who wanted to travel everywhere when she was in her 20s. Now, that she’s older and married, she longs to go back to the cities and regions she loves deeply.
WHEN I WAS young I wanted to go everywhere. I had notebooks’ worth of lists: half-imagined, half-researched, of all the places I would fly off to without warning. It was easy for me to travel—I went to university in England during the golden age of budget European airlines. I could buy flights from London to Slovakia or Italy for under $10, or student-fare Eurostar tickets to Paris for $25. I would spend 4½ dreary and bleary-eyed hours on the bus from Oxford to London Stansted to catch a morning flight for a $50 weekend in Istanbul or Marrakech. I had a sense of myself as someone with wanderlust, an inchoate desire to be anywhere but where I was. Raised eclectically—I barely knew my Italian father; my American mother changed our home base with the school year—I gloried in the fact that I was never at home, anywhere. And so, there was nothing to keep me still.
She goes on to say that she began to fall in love with certain areas and made friends. She’s pulled these days to traveling to those few locations.
I like to return to the same place for vacation. We spent two decades vacationing in Laguna Beach in the summer. Lately, it’s been the Santa Barbara area. We have friends there, restaurants and beaches we love. It’s like going to my happy place. We also like to visit Park City — another place with friends and natural beauty.
My memories as a child are vacationing at our cabin, Ocean Shores and Sun Valley, Idaho for skiing. We went to a few more places like the once in a lifetime big trip to Hawaii and the road trip to Disneyland. But for the most part, vacations were in the same few places and in the same hotels or condos.
I think there’s a certain comfort in returning to places we love. When traveling to somewhere new, I’m a little anxious, while returning to the places I love feels like going home.
What are your thoughts about traveling to new places, versus returning to places over and over again?
I made it to the Bay Area to help my daughter who has COVID. I’ve been wondering how much help I can be, since I can’t be with her? If I can’t do much, I’m looking forward to quiet time alone writing.
So far, it turns out — more time than I thought.
I didn’t arrive until evening to my airbnb which is .2 miles from her apartment. The problem is she’s on quarantine and can’t leave her apartment. I’m not sure what the protocol is these days, but I can guarantee she hasn’t hit it yet.
She texted me a list of groceries. I asked if I could go to the Berkeley Bowl to get the items on her list. It’s one of my favorite places to go to when I visit the kids. This running errands will be a treat if it includes the Berkeley Bowl! I blogged about it HERE.
I picked up clam chowder and a salad for my own dinner and a few groceries for my airbnb mini-fridge along with her list. When I dropped off her groceries at her doorstep, we waved at each other through her window.
I walked back to the airbnb and sat to savor the Berkeley Bowl clam chowder. It’s so delicious. I called my son and we were talking about plans for tomorrow’s dinner. He may be recovering from foot surgery, but he doesn’t have COVID. We can be together in person.
That’s when I got a call from daughter asking me to take Waffles the pug to the ER. He’s been having issues with his tummy. I wrote about it HERE a few days ago. Waffles has been throwing up and hasn’t recovered from chicken bones. The animal ER won’t let my daughter with COVID inside.
I sat for more than two hours with Waffles in the waiting room. My daughter texted me the recent details since I was traveling from Arizona and not totally up to date. We — the vet, the vet’s assistant and my daughter on the phone — decided not to hospitalize Waffles last night, but to bring him back in the morning if he doesn’t improve.
I’m wondering what tomorrow’s role as mom and dog grandma will bring? What’s driving me crazy is to be so close to my daughter, but not being able to give her a hug.
Have you traveled to help your kids away from home? How have you helped? How have you helped family members with COVID?
