Tag Archives: oceanside
30 days at the beach gone in a blink…
30 days in California in the middle of a Yukon winter – ahhhh….BLISS! The only problem is that it flew by!
As I shared in an earlier post, we weren’t really on vacation – we just moved our life for a month and shifted into different routines. Most days went like this…
Get up and go for a 60-90 minute walk before it got very warm… group program to keep Grandma active!
Come back to the beach house and eat breakfast and tackle some work work and some school work – it’s a rough place for an office!
- Beach reading
- surf time
Head out and enjoy the beach and the water. Head back in for a late lunch and some more work time.
Grab a cocktail and enjoy the amazing sunsets before settling into dinner.
Finish up with a game of cards and then hit the bed before starting all over again the next day.
For the last two weeks of our visit we took advantage of a great one week free offer at Triple Threat, a gym just down the street, and enrolled in boxing classes as a family – lots of giggles and one heck of a work out. We went 3 days a week at 4:30, which after a day spent walking and surfing sure left us exhausted.
- Hunter & Isabella
- night scootering
- chasing air…
We picked up a set of dirt scooters while there and all the kids (big and little) had fun with them.
- Life as a big cousin
- Uncle Tim is under there somewhere…
- Fun at Legoland
It was great to have a lot of cousins come through over the course of the month – nice to have play time together since we live so far away.
We all learned about the local seals and sea lions – the warmer waters this year are playing havoc with their feeding grounds and many of them are winding up beached due to exhaustion and starvation. The lifeguards and Sea World pick up 3-4 a day and rehab them back to health…
Overall, a fabulous month that flew by way too fast. Oceanside seems to be a perfect fit for our family and we look forward to heading back again this fall…
Life relocated
We have picked up and moved our lives to Oceanside, California for the next month. It’s not vacation – it’s just LIFE elsewhere… I am still working and school learning still happens in some way, shape or form.
In addition to all the great things that come with being here (sun, beach, fresh food etc.) we are also getting to spend time with family, which is a nice treat for all of us.
It was funny how freeing it has felt to be away from the cold and the snow. We have been here for 2 days now and I find us surrounded by the reminder that life is meant to be fun… It is either the magic of California or the lack of weighty winter layers, but smiles abound, along with a few new toys.
How else can you explain that we got Grandma Lynne to test out the new Mountain Scooter AND to do so inside the house???
Hunter has decided that this is his window to be independent in the kitchen. He is busy making his own breakfasts and lunches and is mastering the art of blender drinks, and kindly teaching it to his cousin.
Crazy games of night time cards are building social skills, along with a whole NEW vocabulary thanks to Grandma Lynne’s friend Kathy.
Today we joined up with a San Diego Teen/Tween Homeschool group and played 90 minutes of Laser Tag, with breaks for air hockey and foosball – rough day at “school” for all of them!
This afternoon was spent playing in the surf and then we enjoyed an evening walk/scooter around town. Nothing but smiles for us right now. Feeling pretty grateful for the decisions we have made and the path of adventure that we are following. #LifeisanAdventure
Week Two in Oceanside – the Beach House
Grandma Lynne generously rented a beach house in Oceanside for a week as everyone’s Christmas present this year. It was a great chance for Hunter to catch up with his cousins and for all of us to just “play”. Being right on the beach, everyone could just come and go from the ocean all day, which was also helped by the hot tub… where you could just chill out – or eat ice-cream!
Everyone had a great time out in the water surfing or boogie boarding…
- Isabella with Uncle Tim
- Isabella with Uncle Tim
- Tim
- Tim looking stylish
- Tim – surfboard go pro
- Lee in my ninja wetsuit
- catwoman on the surfboard!
- slowly getting better – had some stellar crashes
- Tim & Hunter hanging out
We also had lots of sand castle building, kite flying and bubbles throughout the week.
No family trip to Oceanside is complete without stopping at Legoland, which never disappoints and always has some new experience or highlight.
On our way home we stopped at the local strawberry fields for bargain priced strawberries fresh from the field!
No family vacation is without it’s ups and downs, especially with twelve people in one house. We all survived, finished happy and are grateful to have been able to spend quality time together again this year.
Life at the beach… 10 days in Oceanside was just what we needed
When we got to Oceanside we were all tired. Tired of driving in the truck. Tired of packing up our stuff every few days and moving on. Tired of small disappointments (snow, no water in Reno, no beach in Santa Barbara). We rolled into the campground in Oceanside in the dark, after a long drive that took us through 2 hours in rush hour traffic in Los Angeles, relieved to be there. And then the train came… the Paradise by the Sea RV Park, which is “on the beach” is also right on the Amtrack/Coaster rail line and the trains come by from 5:51am to 11:52 pm, in 15-30 minute intervals at times – ACK!!! Will we ever find our california beach to surf???
A good nights sleep and an a day to settle in and we were able to find all the things right with our situation. A heated pool & hot tub, a games room with pool, shuffleboard, pingpong and Wii. A 500 meter walk to the beach down a path and through a park. Nice places for me to run in the mornings. Nice beach to surf on. Bike friendly community. A gated secure campground that made it OK for Hunter to stay on his own for short periods. All of this quickly offset the train… Hunter even got good at discerning the different train whistles for the trains in the dark and it became a game.
We spent 10 days in Oceanside at the Paradise by the Sea RV Park. It was a great home base and very well run. Clean, well taken care off, very friendly staff and lots of amenities. For us to stay at a State Park on a beach is $65.00 a night with no showers, no water, no electrical, no internet, no pool etc. etc. For us to stay in Paradise, it was $55.00 per night. An easy decision to keep extending our stay and cancelling our other reservations.
Oceanside is a bike friendly community and you can tell that just by the volume of bike traffic and the road signs. Most roads have bike lanes on the side and some roads state that bikes can take up the whole road, just like a car. We rode our bikes down to the Oceanside Pier and checked things out. We rode our bikes to the Oceanside Streetmarket on 2 Thursday nights (a must check out experience with food from around the world, music & kids activities). Tim and I rode our bikes 32km down the San Louis Rey River trail that goes from the beach eastward to the edge of Oceanside.
We spent lots of time at the beach, which was just what we needed. What we did varied every day but there was always at least a kayak, a surfboard and a boogie board with us. Some days we had 2’s of things and were quite a site! We now have a beach wagon (seen above just behind Hunter) to help carry all the STUFF plus lunch etc. so we can stay longer and play more.
- Tim kayak surfing
- Tim Kayak surfing
- Tim kayak & Hunter boogie board
- Tim kayak & hunter boogie board
Hunter discovered the fun of a boogie board and had a wonderful time surfing and playing in the waves, either chasing Tim in his kayak or convincing him to come out and play as well…
- Tim & Hunter getting ready to boogie board together
- about to catch the wave
- playing in the surf
- hunter getting bounced around
I continue to have fun learning to surf. It’s a steep learning curve and could be considered frustrating but I have so much fun being out in the waves that I just take each day as it comes and celebrate the little successes along the way!
- Success!
- A restful moment…
- just before getting thrashed
- yet another crash…
- exhausted AND happy
It was also wonderful to be just down the road from my sister and her family. Hunter really enjoyed some “cousin time” – both at Legoland & Zoo Safari as well as just “hanging out”. We are excited that we will be back this way in March for a broader family vacation with a beachfront house being rented and lots of cousins here to play. More surfing every day with some plans to check out the impressive skateboard park that we found on our last day.