Tag Archives: beach time

Home Show

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While you’re looking at some of my favorite houses at the beach, I’ll be headed home. I’ve been missing my home, but I’m sure I’ll miss this beach once I’m standing on desert sand. I got the most of my last few beach days with multiple beach walks and sitting on the beach to watch sunsets. I felt like I needed to get my fill of beach time until next summer.

Here are a few of my favorite homes on our favorite beach:

This is my number one home I would like to move into and live happily ever after! I like the roof lines, the shake shingles and the tree! This home reminds me of the home I grew up in on Lord’s Hill in Snohomish, Wash.

This is a pen and ink drawing I made of my childhood home for an art class in college. it doesn’t really look like the beach home above, but it shares some of the same roof lines, shake shingles and windows.

My son’s favorite house is next door to mine. What’s really unique is you can look through the front windows clear through the home to the garden behind the house. It’s beautiful.

This is the Kutcher house almost finished after a remodel.

This is the before photo of Ashton Kutcher’s house with a little cottage in front that didn’t make the cut.

A former home of Ellen’s.

The home of George Lucas.

Kevin Costner’s home at the end of the beach.

Of view of the beach where you can see how close the homes are to the beach.

I really like the smaller homes that have preserved their original flavor.

This little cottage is hidden behind a sand dune.

I noticed this home for the first time this week! I have walked by it without seeing it for years.

Below is another home I’ve never noticed before. Love it. I took this photo with my Nikon on later walk. It’s next door to the Lucas house.

I can only imagine how beautiful the views are from all those windows!

A last look at the beach.

Which one of these homes would you like to move into?

Happy September! What are your plans for this weekend and the month ahead?

Friday Photos

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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?

Looking back on this week five and 10 years ago…

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This is a photo I took last August at the beach.

What was I doing five years ago today? I took my last morning walk in the desert. Then we were on our way to our annual beach vacation.

You can read the 8/10/21 post HERE.

Ten years ago I was looking back on my summer vacations before we had kids. I’d visit my home state Washington and schedule way too much stuff using a Daytimer to keep track. I also posted photos from our 2016 beach vacation and noticed how much more relaxed I was.

You can read that post HERE. I was contemplating whether I should swim in the ocean with several sightings of great white sharks. Yikes.

We’ll be heading to the beach later this week. I’m ready to get out of this terribly hot summer in the desert and enjoy some fresh air!

What are your plans for the week?

Almost beach time

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beach time
It’s almost beach time.

Soon, we’ll be making a nine-hour drive to our beach vacation in California. It will be our seventh year renting the VRBO cottage.

I will admit, I’m a little anxious over the trip. I think it’s because of how things turned out last August. It wasn’t exactly a relaxing vacation with our DIL getting diagnosed with cancer. Our son and DIL planned a last-minute wedding prior to surgery that was cancelled due to COVID. Later, they were able to move ahead with the wedding. At first, they didn’t want people flying in bringing germs, since she was beginning chemo. Then our son really wanted us there, but we couldn’t get flights to make it on time.

It was an extremely stressful time with lots of waiting, questions and prayers. I wrote about it HERE.

The last week of our vacation, friends that we have in the area all got COVID. We left a couple days early, because it seemed like the safe and sane thing to do.

This year I’m reading that Arizona has one of the lowest COVID rates, while California has one of the highest.

The cat sitter is lined up. The next door neighbor is watching our house. Time to pack and hope for a peaceful, relaxing and rejuvenating beach vacation.

Do you find vacations to be relaxing or stressful? Why?

Trying to escape Funkytown

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My daughter’s pug Waffles as an energetic pup.

I was so looking forward to my kids’ visit. Now that they are gone, I’m in a bit of a funk. I figured it out when I don’t want to eat. I don’t want to leave the house for my morning walks. I can tell my husband is a little worried about me.

Unfortunately when my two adult kids, new bride and her brother were here, things didn’t go exactly as planned. We had a heat wave and since they all live in the Bay Area, the heat doesn’t agree with them. Then the AC went out their last night in the casita and DIL got very sick.

And I got scared!

She vomited for hours. They finally decided to pack up and leave. Once she was in the AC of the car, she felt much better. I worried about her health unlike anything I’ve felt before. I realized how vulnerable she is. How vulnerable we all are.

I’m trying to leave Funkytown. We’re headed on a weekend getaway to Mexico, which is a four-hour drive away. The beach always makes me feel better. In the meantime, I have a community newsletter to complete and will keep moving.

What’s your secret for getting out of a funk?

What’s causing anxiety?

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Beach in Mexico
Beach in Mexico.

I woke up this morning with anxiety. In fact, I woke up several times during the night. I tried to figure out what I’m anxious about. Is it the world’s confusion and troubles? Is it the upcoming elections? Is it the economy and high prices? Is it the fact we’re leaving for a short vacation this week and I have a lot to get done before we leave?

Probably all of the above.

We are headed down to Mexico with another couple. I’m anxious because a year ago I didn’t know this couple. I’m sure we’ll all know each other much better by the time we return!

The husband is the brother of one of my husband’s best friends. I’m talking about our friend who died Thanksgiving 2021 from Valley Fever. He introduced me to my husband going on 40 years ago. I first met this couple at the services. We’ve made a commitment to keep memories of our friend alive and get together from time to time.

If you get anxious, what is it that triggers anxiety?

Would you go on vacation with people you weren’t that close to?

My super busy, crazy August

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Two years ago my August was crazy with stress. My husband was dealing with health insurance, doctors and trying to get tests done. A good friend practically died. My daughter was leaving college to move to a new state and career. Move forward two years and things are still stressful but mainly because of all the changes to what we consider “normal.” Looking back to my August two years ago reminds me that this year, although different, is not that bad.

Here’s what I wrote two years ago:

 

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Waffles at the beach

Thank goodness I’m almost through with a momentous August. Usually, my Augusts are quiet and peaceful with countless hours reading books by the ocean or a mountain lake. But not this year. It’s been by far the craziest couple of weeks I’ve lived through.

Here’s a replay of the past few weeks:

• My husband’s pre-op nightmare battery of tests where they kept ordering test after test so he can have his shoulder surgery tomorrow. This is an entire story in itself that includes a cancer scare that I may write (complain) about on another day.

• Our dear friend passed out at the gym, having a blood clot lodge in her carotid artery causing a stroke—the morning we were driving four hours to see her.
 She spent a few days in ICU and after a few days was released and went on beach walks with me.

• My son’s girlfriend’s car accident on the day they were coming down to see us at the beach. The next few days helping them find a car because unfortunately the car was totaled. Eventually, they made it on vacation with us—in their new car.

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The VRBO we had for one week in paradise.

• Finally, a one week’s beach vacation. Gone in a snap.

• Driving up the mountain to move the RV back to the desert with a friend to help us drive it down the twisty, windy roads. It wouldn’t start by the way. The batteries died. I asked to borrow jumper cables and then a truck because our car has a “weird-ass” battery that can’t be used to jump a car.

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Big Bear Lake at the RV Park and Marina.

• Next, we drove to AZ to my daughter’s new house. My husband flew from Phoenix to Salt Lake City so he and my daughter could drive a U-Haul for 10 hours with her worldly possessions through flash floods and monsoon winds. I spent two days cleaning the dusty, dirty house until I was exhausted. But, I did have lil’ Waffles by my side the entire time.

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They arrived in the U-Haul after a 10-hour drive.

• We hired movers to unload the U-Haul because of my husband’s upcoming shoulder surgery, plus my daughter’s distance-swimmer shoulder. We were told about a website where you can hire two guys for two hours for moving, which I did. Guess what? The movers didn’t show up!
 I’m currently trying to get a refund.

• We spent Sunday putting together Ikea furniture and unpacking boxes before making the trek back home.

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My kids body surfing during one relaxing moment at the beach.

What could we squeeze in next? Shoulder surgery tomorrow and I get to be nurse and caretaker. Then I’ll return to AZ and help my daughter get settled—and bring the things I forgot to pack on our last trip–like her work wardrobe! Whew! No wonder I’ve been stressed lately.

What is your August like? Did it seem crazier than usual, too?