Want to Buy Our House?

A collage to capture our day:
1) The view of Gaviota State Beach with its pier and train trestle
2) The view from breakfast at the Boat House Restaurant
3) The sailing school returns to the harbor
4) Santa Barbara Beach from the pier

As we drove south on the California Coast this morning, we saw the exit for Gaviota State Beach and we were once again off the beaten path. Before the park entrance, we took a sharp right turn and found ourselves nearing "Private Cattle Ranch Property" and there discovered how near we were to the train tracks.

Later we sat outside the Boat House Restaurant waiting for our turn to have breakfast/lunch. We scooted over for an older couple to sit next to us while they waited too for their turn to enter the restaurant.

While waiting with the older couple, Mr. Fun was looking at a "magazine" of the most elite properties that are currently listed "For Sale" in Santa Barbara. The couple asked, "Did you see our house in there?" We chuckled and replied, "No," and then the elderly gentleman pointed to their mansion photographed and advertised on the page of magnificent mansions.

Jim & Joanne were their names. They told us they were 80 years old (which we would have never guessed). They have been retired since 1992, right after they had moved to Santa Barbara. Joanne had been a real estate agent and Jim had been a district supervisor for Metropolitan Life Insurance. Their current desire is to sell all their belongs and move into a retirement community. They were such friendly people.

We told them that we had been up the coast looking at property for "retirement" or is that "retirement property"? because we have friends who think we ought to live on the Central Coast of California where they live.

So Jim & Joanne suggested that we buy their home. It's listed for just under 3 million dollars. We told them that if we sold everything we own, we might be able to buy one of the bedrooms in their mansion. We found it quite refreshing to talk with a couple who were so friendly and their "worth" had not elevated them above friendliness.

Today we hugged the H2O all day. Scouted a little bit of property. Relaxed a lot. Enjoyed each other immensely, and traveled a few dozen, not hundred, miles south on the coast.

If we remember the way, tomorrow we'll probably go home -- only because we have 3 dogs who worry about us. Well, the truth is they're worried about themselves. Hoping that soon they will get back to the place they think of as "home."

We have no obligations till Saturday, so we may not announce that we are home and quietly enjoy the loveliness of our own home for a few days before we runaway again a week from now, but currently, we're just going to stay in the moment -- lost and loving the leisure of lostness!

Thank YOU to everyone who has commented. I'll get back to commenting when the ground beneath me quits moving from location to location.

Good night from Southern California's Coast.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol

P.S. I wish you were on vacation with us -- it has just been so much fun.

P.P.S. I bet BlipCentral will soon be organizating BlipVacations where we can all escape together with our cameras and our words. That would be FUN!