Tag Archives: Beach Vacation

Fear of Vacation

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A beach walk near Santa Barbara

I used to look forward to our beach vacation every year. Until this year, that is.

I literally lived for beach time. Especially when the kids were young and we’d go to Laguna Beach for two months — or even the entire summer. Living in the desert, I’d need to get out of the heat. The kids would have swim lessons at the city pool and we’d head to the beach for the rest of the day. They’d have hours of free play, using their imaginations building drip castles or building a restaurant and serving me assorted dishes made from sand and seaweed.

brother and sister playing at the beach
My kids when they used their imaginations to play in the sand.

Now that it’s almost beach vacation time, albeit much shorter than the vacations in the past, I’m apprehensive. Why? Because I have been on two trips the past few months. And they didn’t go well.

First, we explored the mountains and forests of Arizona. I tripped on our first hike. I thought I had a sprain, but I broke my ankle. Within a week of coming home, I was rushed into surgery. That put a damper on my summer.

Next, we flew to a friend’s daughter’s wedding in Northern California. We came home and got terribly sick with COVID.

Needless to say, I worry about what’s going to happen on our upcoming vacation. Shark attack? Car accident? Food poisoning? My imagination is going wild. This morning I asked my husband, “What’s wrong with staying home? I like it here.” After all, there’s no place like home.

Two summer vacations ago, we were worried about our Daughter-In-Law’s cancer. I was so worried about her tests, surgery, etc. It puts a harsh reality on our summer vacation — that everything is not beach mode and real life worries take hold — regardless of vacation or not.

FYI, If you think it’s a good time to break into our home, think twice. I have two neighbors watching out, plus a house sitter. Good luck!

I’m sure once I get to our destination, everything will be okay. At least I hope so.

Where is your favorite location for vacation?

Not again!

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A sea lion in distress at the beach.

The other day, we were on our evening beach walk when we first saw the sea lion above. I noticed a woman standing near the sea lion. The sea lion would alternate sitting up and lying down. (I first wrote laying down — but I fixed it. Lie and lay have stumped me for years.)

We sat and watched the sea lion struggle to get back into the ocean. She would bob her head up and down while sitting up. Two summers ago, we saw a number of sea lions on the beach in distress. They did the same thing as this one. I called the hotline for marine animals and told them the location of the sea lion.

Then there were three women standing by the sea lion. I walked to the water’s edge to tell them to keep their distance and not to get any closer to the sea lion. I had learned that people and dogs can stress sick sea lions to death!

When I approached the women, I noticed one was wearing a uniform from the Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute. That’s who I had called. So, they were already aware. I asked the volunteer if the sea lion was suffering from the same issue that we saw a few years ago. She said yes, and that she was stationed to keep people and dogs away and to observe until sunset. She said they weren’t doing any rescues that night.

I wrote about sea lions HERE and HERE two summers ago. The second link has a video of a sea lion which shows you how they move when affected with Domoic Acid poisoning.

Here’s an excerpt:

The volunteer from the Channel Islands Marine Wildlife Institute explained that the sea lion was suffering from Domoic Acid poisoning, which is caused by algae bloom.

My husband said that algae bloom happens every year. Isn’t that a normal thing? Wouldn’t sea lions be used to it?

She said they were inundated with calls about sick sea lions along the coast and that the Domoic Acid poisoning could be fatal. The volunteers were out observing the sea lions from sunrise to sunset along the beaches. Apparently stress could make the illness worse. She was standing on the beach all day to keep people and dogs away from the sick sea lion.

The volunteer yesterday explained that Domoic Acid poisoning occurs when fish eat the plankton, which isn’t toxic to them. Then the sea lions eat the fish and they get sick.

It was sad to see the sea lion suffering. It was still on beach when we left with the volunteer standing near. On the bright side, she said they’ve had very few Domoic calls this year, unlike two years ago.

Do you confuse Lie and Lay? How about effect and affect? Any others?

What do you think about people approaching a sea lion on the beach? I watched it happen two summers ago, people ignoring the yellow crime tape and signs to stay away.

Fresh, fresh and more fresh

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Our first trip to the Santa Barbara Farmer’s Market was a huge success. In fact it made my day!

Saturdays mean a trip to Santa Barbara for fresh fruits and veggies. Thursday evenings we head to Carpinteria to visit many of the same vendors. What an abundance to have farm fresh produce twice a week! I can stock up and never run out.

I wrote about Santa Barbara’s Farmer’s Market two years ago HERE. I think the photos are better in the previous post, so you may want to take a look. I was too burdened down with produce to take great photos Saturday.

Photos from the market:

Our favorite vendor we call Farmer Fred. He’s friends with two couples we know in Santa Barbara. We went to a BBQ with him and his family last summer. He’s got a personality that doesn’t stop. He loves bantering and joking with his customers. As the close of the market approaches, he gives away produce. Two older Latino women came and he gave them two boxes of peppers. We asked what they were doing with them.

“They’re making tamales,” was all Farmer Fred told us.

They may be tamale vendors or making them for church. In any case, Fred helps them out.

While I shopped around the market, my husband hung out with Farmer Fred.

A woman was helping Fred that we’ve met in years’ past. She weighed produce for a customer and handed them their bag of tomatoes. She asked, “How much do we owe you?” We all laughed because at that point Fred was giving away produce.

We’re also on a first-name basis with our favorite stone-fruit farmer, Todd. He has 10 acres in Arizona he wants to sell us.

I bought the white peach, Flavor King and Dapple Dandy (tastes like candy) pluots from Todd. What a treat!

What I made for dinner:

Roasted round zucchini that I sliced and tossed in olive oil. After roasting, I sprinkled it with a Mexican chile seasoning.

I bought bone marrow from a vendor at the Farmer’s Market who was selling beef and pork. Bone marrow was listed under OFFAL. I roasted it in the oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, along with the zucchini. Unfortunately, the top bone lost most of it’s marrow while cooking. But what was left was delicious! I served the veggies and bone marrow with chips, salsa and guacamole made from avocados a friend gave us. Yum!

Do you have a farmer’s market near you? What are your favorite things to buy?

It’s a dog’s life

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A new friend at the beach bringing a ball to my husband.

After our evening beach walk and swim, we were relaxing in beach chairs watching the waves. Suddenly, a small dog ran to my husband and dropped a ball at his feet. We looked around for his owners, but there was nobody close by.

My husband threw the ball. The speedy little pup raced after the ball and ran back to us, dropping the ball at my feet. It was my turn.

The pup alternated between the two of us for 30 minutes, never tiring of chasing the ball.

The dog is waiting in anticipation for the ball to be thrown. If you look in the ocean there is a couple out there.

Eventually the couple who were body surfing in the waves came onshore.

“Is this your dog?” my husband called out to them.

“No, he’s yours now,” the man replied. We all laughed. The dog trotted over excitedly to his rightful owners.

The dogs on the beach are so entertaining to watch. There’s a man who lives a few houses away from Kevin Costner, who walks his black lab every morning with a tennis ball launcher. That dog is so excited and jumps and circles, crying for the ball to be thrown. He runs back and forth chasing and retrieving the ball for an entire hour walk. We watched a pair of Vizlas chasing balls from their owner’s tennis ball launcher, leaping to catch the balls in the air before they hit the sand. Then there are dogs who pick up sticks two to three times the size of their bodies and proudly trot them down the beach.

Here’s a video of our new friend racing after the ball:

If you have a dog, do they like to swim, chase after balls or carry sticks?

What other creatures are as happy as a dog at the beach?

“I want to get away…”

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Nine-month old Nina hanging outside in our friends’ backyard.

It was an arduous few days, but we’re on our way to getting settled into the cottage at the beach.

We packed a day early. My husband magically managed to fit into our car all our stuff — his office equipment, our suitcases, cooler and bags of stuff I didn’t want to buy on vacation, like condiments, paper products and our Keurig and coffee.

We hit the road early and dropped in on two clients, one for lunch as we passed through our old hometown.

Then we met long-time friends for dinner in their hometown. They were celebrating their 45th anniversary and we got to treat them. We hadn’t seen them in at least 10 years. It was so much fun to catch up and we talked late into the night.

We ended up driving close to six hours on day one. Day two was a little easier with only three hours to drive. Strangely, those three hours seemed to take all day long!

Then arriving at the cottage, we spent hours unpacking and getting organized, grocery shopping etc. I slept that night like the dead.

Our first morning began with a beach walk with our friends and Nina, the rottie. They invited us over for omelettes after the walk.

View from our friends’ backyard.

Now it’s time to relax! One challenge for me is we have more friends in our vacation area than we do in our new state of Arizona. Through COVID, I got used to having lots of downtime. I need to be balanced with our friends here and not over schedule our social life.

The last few days reminded me of Lenny Kravitz song “Fly Away.”

Do you need to have downtime in your weeks, too? Or can you be super social and enjoy it?

Changes

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“Time may change me
“But I can’t trace time” — David Bowie

Our first morning walk at the beach. There was something very different about it. See that rig in the ocean? Next we saw this sign:

There are oil rigs off the coast of Santa Barbara that are active — but you can barely see them in the distance. I believe they are at least five miles offshore.

On the beach below the house we rent, there are signs like the one above that weren’t around last summer. There are also signs explaining the work that’s going on. They are recapping 100-year-old oil wells a few dozen yards offshore. That’s what the barge with the equipment is for (see top photo.) They are capped but leak when storms hit. We watched two tug boats stop at the barge. Then we noticed tar clumps all over the sand.

The beaches here always have spots of oil and tar, but this year it’s much worse. We keep paper towels and “Goo Gone” next to the hose at the backdoor to clean our feet after our beach excursions.

The other change was our favorite spot for breakfast burritos in Carpinteria — which was inside a liquor store — is gone. We drove for burritos and were stunned. Someone bought the entire block on Linden Ave and demolished the buildings. I wonder what will be built?

On our morning walk on the tar blotched beach, I was relieved to see the driftwood sculpture condos were still in tact. I wrote about them on an earlier beach trip HERE.

There were a few additions this year that I enjoyed:

Words of wisdom: Be More Like My Dog!

Prince Harry lives to the left. That’s a fact. Montecito is to the left of this beach.

Kevin Costner’s $145 million home where his divorced wife refused to leave is to the right around the point.

Lots of changes going on around us. We can’t stop change. Another change: our son and his long-term girlfriend were getting married Thursday. We were flying from Santa Barbara to Oakland for the nuptials. Our son called today and has COVID. No wedding. Change of plans.

What is changing in your life?

Backyard beach adventure

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My daughter and me in the backyard of a house we used to rent in Laguna Beach.

We rented a house in Laguna Beach to escape the high temperatures of Palm Springs in the summertime. We rented with another family from Memorial weekend to Labor day, splitting the summer in half.

The family who owned the house were school teachers. They took off to Alaska each summer as rangers.

I was worried the first time I visited the house. The backyard dropped off into a canyon. There were railroad ties between the lawn and a cliff. Having a two-year old son, I was worried the yard was too dangerous.

The owner laughed and said she raised three boys in that house and there was never an issue.

Me and my son at the beach in Laguna.

I’ll never forget the first time we rented the house. We told our son we were going to the beach. He grabbed a shovel and bucket and said, “Let’s go!” He was headed to the edge of the lawn and railroad ties, where there was a view of the ocean.

“No!” I stopped him. “We have to drive to the beach.”

Later that summer, I couldn’t find the T.V. remote control. My husband worked in Palm Springs during the weekdays and I was alone with my son except for weekends.

I was six months pregnant with my daughter at the time.

“It’s down there!” my son said pointing to the cliff dropping to the canyon.

“What?” I asked.

“I threw it down there,” my son said, pointing.

I strapped him in his stroller before I ventured into the canyon. I made my way over the railroad ties, clinging onto shrubs for dear life, as I scrambled along the steep incline. Needless to say I was a wreck by the time I made it back up the steep cliff into the backyard. No, I didn’t find the remote.

My son seemed fascinated watching me from the safety of his stroller.

I pushed my son in his stroller into the house, unbuckled him and collapsed on the sofa.

My son joined me on the sofa and fetched the remote control from under a throw pillow.

“Here it is!” he said.

My kids at the Laguna Beach house, sitting on the hearth wearing sofa arm protectors as hats.

To this day, I have no clue why my son told me he threw the remote control into the canyon. I’m sure he was entertained watching me as I held onto branches and bushes to not tumble down the cliff.

What unexpected things have your kids done to make your life exciting?