A DAY AT THE BEACH

We went out to the beach this weekend. There is a new housing development going in at Pacific Beach, and the ads for the properties show such nice homes, we wanted to check it out. The development is called “Seabrook” … and it’s not just an area of homes, it’s a whole town. Houses, parks, shops, promenades, an amphitheater…you name it, this place will have it. It’s in the early development stages, so there wasn’t too much to see right now.

The houses are beautiful. Cedar shingled, for beautiful weathering, with paint trims in Federal blue, hunter green, old barn red. Balconies on most….crows nests on some. These homes could easily fit right in at Cape Cod or Nantucket. Gorgeous. I picked my favorite immediately, and when I went online to look at their houses for sale, found it was listed at $899,000. And it’s not even 3000 sf. Whoa. I was surprised to see little 770 sf homes listed at over $400,000. (This really IS like the east coast!) What’s interesting is these homes are not on the beach. They are across the road, and at a level that doesn’t allow you to see the ocean because of the trees on the other side of the highway unless you have a crows nest at the top of your home. The houses have no property other than what they are sitting on, and I don’t think they are more than 5-6 feet apart. Seems a tad expensive to me. But they say they are selling a living experience…not just a house. There are houses and cottages for rent (nightly to monthly), and those rates seemed reasonable.

From there we drove down to Ocean Shores. We were rewarded with lots of sunshine, crowds of people enjoying the first day of the Labor Day Weekend, and what appeared to be a brown pelican migration. The skies were filled with them…different groups in different parts of the ocean along the south jetty. In the horizon you could see V-formations of them approaching….bird, after bird, after bird. Perhaps there was something special in the water that day, some tasty morsel of a favorite fish or vertebrate that had their attention. Whatever the reason, they were fascinating to watch, and I don’t recall ever seeing them in such numbers.

As close as we are to the ocean (20-25 miles), we rarely go there. We are not “ocean” people. I don’t care for the sand between my toes, am not entranced by the repetitious pounding of the waves, and the smell of fresh salt air does nothing for my mood or disposition. The one exception to this would probably be a beach on Maui or something like that. I am very fond of the tropical islands we’ve visited. But other than that……

I’d rather be on a mountain. I could stand on a mountain, raise my face to the heavens, and swear that I can hear the voice of God. As some people can sit for hours watching the ocean waves, I can lose myself in a vista of mountaintops. My soul feels free, and at peace. Complete serenity. The scent of fir and pine is the sweetest odor on earth, and the birdsong is music to my ears.

I dream about a home where I can walk out my front door, sit on the covered wrap-around porch, and look out at a forested valley, bordered by mountains. That would be heaven-on-earth to me. I certainly don’t have that now…but it doesn’t hurt to dream.