Tag Archives: Beach Vacation

On the Road Again

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We planned two road trips for this summer. One to Park City, Utah and the other to a tiny town on the California coast called Summerland. I wrote about the Park City trip HERE. On our way to Summerland, we stopped to visit my 90-year-old dad at the halfway point. Then we headed to a Vrbo near the beach.

Beach house near Santa Barbara
We’ll be returning to this beach cottage for the seventh summer.

It’s tough to decide if it’s best to drive straight through to our final destination — or stop along the way. The way we drove it was two days of driving four and a half hours each day.

I think if it wasn’t for my dad living four and a half hours along the way, we wouldn’t stop but try to push through.

An hour from our destination, we stopped in Filmore at the Filmore Historical Museum where they have the Hinckley House — a home that was originally owned by my husband’s relatives. One was an artist, Lawrence Hinckley, that I wrote about HERE.

I’ll share more about the museum trip on another day complete with photos.

Right now we’re waiting for the Vrbo previous renters to leave and the house to be cleaned. That could be a whole other story — since they are hours late leaving. What if they don’t leave? I’ve heard of such things.

When you take a road trip, do you like to make the trip in one day? Or do you like to take your time along the journey? Is it about the journey or the destination?

A Taste of Santa Barbara

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We’ll be headed to Summerland for vacation soon. That is if Olive the cat continues to be on the mend. So far, I’m happy to report that she’s doing better. Summerland is a town of about 2,000 people in the Santa Barbara area. I love it because it’s on the beach which is my favorite place to be. I looked back at my posts from last August while we were there and I found this one about my favorite food — seafood! Santa Barbara Harbor is home to two of our favorite restaurants which have the same owner.

One of the best things about beach vacations to me is fresh seafood. For more than 30 years, we’ve gone to a restaurant with fresh, fresh seafood in Santa Barbara. It’s called Brophy Bros. and it overlooks the boats at the Marina.

steamed clams at Brophy's Santa Barbara
Linguine and clams at Brophy Bros. at the marina in Santa Barbara

Brophy’s added a small taco shop with outdoor tables downstairs called On the Alley.

Whenever we’re in Santa Barbara we stop at On the Alley. This past trip we went twice for fish tacos. And we took our good friends to Brophy Bros. to treat them to dinner after enjoying many of their home-cooked meals. They introduced us to the restaurant in the early 1990s!

Yesterday, my husband and I went to the Farmer’s Market and had a hankering for a fish taco. On the Alley had a huge line out the door to order. They had people milling around in droves waiting for picnic tables to sit. They held on to their order numbers, hoping to to sit down before the food arrived. I saw some people sitting on the curb.

wave crashing at breakwall Santa Barbara marina
A wave crashing over the breakwall at the Santa Barbara Marina. We walk here after meals.

My husband suggested going upstairs to the main Brophy’s restaurant. The hostess stationed at the bottom of the stairs told us it would be an hour wait for a table. But the bar was first come first serve.

Guess what? Two seats smack in the center of the bar — complete with open air marina views — were ours! We each had a cup of chowder and split an order of fish and chips. My year-long quest for the best fish and chips is over! The fish was piping hot, moist, delicious and the batter was light, crunchy and not heavy.

View from the Brophy Brothers bar
View from the bar at Brophy’s Santa Barbara where we had cups of chowder and fish and chips.

Well worth the wait — but even better without it.

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Baja fish tacos from On the Alley.
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Sunset at the harbor.

Do you have favorite restaurants to go to on vacation? Or certain food you savor? What are they?

More thoughts on Mexico

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Puerto Peñasco signs and buildings.
A view from downtown Puerto Peñasco.

A friend told me she and her husband visited Puerto Peñasco 25 years ago and there was nothing there but a campground. Today, there are giant towers of condos, hotels, restaurants, beach houses and three golf courses. The marina is packed with fishing and pleasure boats.

I wonder what the residents of Puerto Peñasco think about this?

Are they happy because American tourists have turned the town into a flourishing tourist town? Or, do they resent us with our brand new cars driving into town throwing our money around? Maybe they liked the quiet Mexican fishing village pre tourist destination? Or, maybe they like the jobs and opportunities for a higher standard of living? I don’t know.

Here are more photos from our trip last weekend:

Statue of El Camaronero downtown Puerto Peñasco
El Camaronero statue downtown dated 2003.
Shrimp dinner at Pedros Puerto Peñasco
My dinner at Pedro’s. Fresh, delicious and $8.
Pedro's seafood restaurant in Puerto Peñasco
The exterior of Pedro’s restaurant. There were six tables inside and two on the deck overlooking the ocean.
Las Palomas golf and beach resort, pool bar
View of the ocean and pool bar from the condo we rented.
Sandy Beach Condos Puerto Peñasco
A view of Sandy Beach where condo developments have sprung up during the past 20 years. I should have gotten a massage from one of the many vendors lined up on the beach. Next time.

What are your thoughts about Americans coming into a sleepy fishing village and turning it into a tourist destination? Do you think the Mexicans appreciate the changes? Why or why not?

I enjoyed watching pelicans dive into the ocean and catch fish.

A weekend in paradise

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Sunset in Puerto Peñasco on Sandy Beach
Here’s the sunset view from Saturday night.

My husband has been dying to go to Puerto Peñasco (known as Rocky Point to the gringos) for at least six months. I’ve been hesitant because it’s a four-and-a-half-hour drive south and across the border into Mexico. Number one, I can’t stand long drives.

Number two, we hear all these stories of drug cartels and crime in Mexico, so I’ll admit, I was a little afraid. Then, the neighbor across the street said she and her family went to Mexico and got COVID. They had to quarantine in their hotel room for 10 days before they could come home.

She said “People think what’s the big deal, you’re in Mexico at the beach? But we weren’t allowed to leave our hotel room and we weren’t enjoying great food. It was hard.”

vendors on Sandy Beach in Puerto Peñasco
Sitting under a palapa outside the hotel, the parade of vendors selling everything from tamales to henna tattoos give the beach a circus atmosphere. The vendors aren’t allowed inside the rope fence and they do respect the boundary.

The drive wasn’t bad at all once we got out of Phoenix. I even drove part of it. We drove through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument which was beautiful.

Organ Pipe National Monument visitor center
The visitor center at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument with an Organ Pipe Cactus in front.

I absolutely love Puerto Peñasco! I loved being at the ocean. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. The food was amazing and cheap. Fresh seafood to my heart’s content at around $20 for dinner for two. The accommodations were wonderful.

I’m so thrilled I got out of my comfort zone and went exploring with my husband. We’ll definitely be back — and I’ll post more photos and details this week.

Downtown Puerto Peñasco after dinner Friday night. The young man on the drums impressed us.

Where have you been hesitant to travel to and then once there discovered you loved it?

Traveling the world — or not?

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Beach house near Santa Barbara
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.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-joy-of-traveling-to-the-same-places-again-and-again-11647345601?mod=life_work_featured_pos3

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?

Feeling out of sorts

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A view from our beach vacation.

The last few days of our beach vacation, ringing began in my right ear. Then vertigo. I’m a mess. Some days it’s worse than others. Some days it goes away completely. Other days, it’s hard to function.

After two weeks I went to an ENT. I’m worried because a friend’s daughter had a side effect to the COVID vaccine of tinnitus. It’s really bad and they don’t know if it will ever go away. I googled it and it is a rare side effect to the shot, although they aren’t entirely sure that it’s related or due to something else.

In any case, the ENT PA told me my ears are fine, but my right sinus is not — and that might be causing the problems of vertigo and ringing in the ear.

They put me on prednisone. This is my first time taking it and to be honest — it’s not great. My poor son, who suffers from severe asthma has been on it every few years. I remember the first time his allergy doctor prescribed it — I didn’t fill the Rx. When I returned with my son, who was still sick, I got scolded from the doctor who said, “Doctor Mom, WHERE did you receive your medical degree?”


I had heard so many horror stories about kids and prednisone but the doctor assured me he wasn’t prescribing anything that would put my child in danger. Right. Ten years after my son was put on an inhaler for his asthma, they discovered it stunted growth. He was on it from fourth grade until a year ago. But on the bright side, he is alive

I’m alive too although feeling out of sorts. The ringing in the ear isn’t bad today and I don’t have vertigo. In a month I’ll go back to the ENT and hopefully I’ll be AOK. If not, the next step is an MRI and perhaps sinus surgery.

Have you ever not taken an Rx that a doctor prescribed for you? Have you second guessed your children’s doctor? Have you had tinnitus or vertigo and how did you get over it?

It’s all about the sea

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Cloudy day at the beach with sun peeking through
Evening at the beach during a cloudy day, looking north. University of California Santa Barbara is at the furthest point of land in the distance.

Our vacation is centered around the ocean. Every morning we start the day with a long beach walk. Then after the strong rays of sunshine and crowds leave the beach, we head back to sit, read and walk some more.

Yesterday was cloudy and I wasn’t sure about going to the beach in the evening. I thought it would be too cold. But it was quiet and peaceful, except for the roar of the ocean. I sat watching perfect wave after wave curl into a barrel. Only two other families were at the mile long beach. I felt so thankful to be here on vacation.

beautiful blue sea and sky that matches
Walking south during the cloudy day. I loved how the blues of the water and sky matched.

One thing that surprises me is that our friends who live here don’t take advantage of the beach. One friend said she’d like to join me for a beach walk this weekend. That she hasn’t walked on the beach since last time we were here! I think that was last August. To give her credit, they do own a sailboat and sail one day per week.

I know if I lived here I’d make it to the beach every single day. At least for my morning walk. I wouldn’t take it for granted having lived for 35 years in the desert.

Where you live do you take your environment for granted? Or do you try to enjoy it to the fullest?