What I Learned from Tommy Bahama

                                      

I just spent a glorious four days at the beach with my amazing cousin/sister/twin Paige. Great weather. Warm Pacific water (which is unusual). Lots of time to just sit in comfy chairs on the sand and talk our heads off. Which we did. Nonstop. For four days. I think we shut up just long enough to eat some delicious food (Phil's clam chowder, Corralitos sausage, Zelda's on the patio).

But back to the comfy chairs on the sand part.

Those are the chairs, above in the picture. Two Tommy Bahama blue beach chairs. They look like ordinary beach chairs. But don't be fooled. These chairs did much more than allow our butts to rest comfortably six inches off the sand. These chairs were metaphors for life. Or similes. I'm not going to commit to one or the other. In any case, these inanimate objects taught us a few things.

For starters, we were fairly loaded up with gear as we began our trek down to the beach. We had towels, books, drinks, a beach bag and of course the chairs. That's a lot to carry, the chairs being the most awkward part of the load. As we tried to negotiate how to carry all of this down two flights of steps, Paige took a closer look and realized that the tangle of straps protruding from the seats were actually backpack straps. Lesson number one: when confronted with a dilemma, take a closer look. A solution may already be sitting right there if you just turn things around and look at them from a different angle.

We pulled open our chairs and settled onto the beach. Beautiful day--partly cloudy, waves rolling in, and that salty ocean air! And it got better, because drink holders! You expect them in your car, but when you get one on your beach chair--well, come on--that makes you smile!

We actually did not put beers in our drink holders. We had a couple of cans of LaCroix water. But either way, important life lesson number two: keeping hydrated, especially when you're out in the elements, is SO DAMN IMPORTANT that even Tommy Bahama is trying to make it easier for you.

And that little pocket next to the "hydration compartment"? It's for your phone. At least that's how we interpreted it. It was the perfect size, and it velcroed shut. It's two lessons in one (maybe?): communication is important enough to warrant a coveted spot on the chair, but also put the phone in the pocket and velcro it shut for a while. You're at the beach. Enjoy.

The chairs also had a built-in pillow and reclined back. Life lesson number five was a bit more obvious: when presented with the opportunity to relax, take it. Life is full of stresses that you have to deal with on an ongoing basis. If relaxation rudely interrupts, go with it while you can.

We had a really great day on the beach. The sun came out. Paige went in the water! We read our books and stayed hydrated. I headed back upstairs a little earlier than Paige, but left my chair down there as I thought we might watch the sunset from the beach later on. But then it got windy and chilly, so Paige ended up bringing the chairs up by herself. Not an easy task when you can't get the chairs to fold back down. Which brings us to our last lesson.

Here's what the chairs look like when they are all compacted for carrying:

Getting from this

 

to this



is no easy task, I'm here to tell you. Paige tried and tried to fold the chairs down, but they wouldn't cooperate, so she carried them back up to the house in their fully expanded condition. She's a trooper (also, she's not a complainer but that's a whole other blog post, which she absolutely deserves).

Anyway, we did eventually figure out how to get the chairs collapsed, but it quite literally took two of us to accomplish this, each of us pushing and pulling on different parts of the chair. I suppose one person might be able to do it by herself with difficulty, but it would most definitely be easier with two people working together. And that's lesson number six: teamwork gets the job done.

Who knew a beach chair could teach you so much? But maybe that's the bigger overall lesson-- you can learn from anything if your mind is open to it. And it helps if there's a cup holder.

Stay hydrated!

I Am in a Cheese Shop Currently (Part 2)

Olivia's texts from the previous post got me thinking... she is really living the life.

 To refresh your memory as to what "living the life" is for Olivia right now, she wrote that Nice was the best thing of her life and she swam in the Mediterranean and she was in a cheese shop. (being in a cheese shop should always be recognized as winning at life)

Not bad. Hard to top.

She is, after all, twenty years young, studying abroad, traveling on the French Riviera and quite possibly still in a cheese shop.

"Living the life" at twenty is all about finding out what's out there. It's adventure. New friends. Experiences you've never had before.

What sentences might express the "living the life" idea, for me, that her sentences did for her?

I'll start with location. I'm thinking water--ocean, sea, river--I'm not picky. And I do love Europe. While I would love to revisit some places I've been, the thought of somewhere new to explore, or at least seeing somewhere from a new perspective, is appealing. But I don't just want to see one place. I want to be on the move. Not so fast that I can't take in culture and beauty and ambiance. I want to experience that. But I also want to see more than just one country or one city. I still have some wanderlust.

I like to walk around. Give me a map and a few hours and I'm as happy as can be, even if I get lost. So lots of places to explore, even if briefly.

And food. Good food. Lots of good food, maybe even some I've never tried before.

This is coming into focus.

I think I've got it. Here would be my "living the life" post:

The Danube is beautiful. A new port each couple of days. Today we wandered Budapest. About to enjoy a glass of wine with the sunset.

Goals...

I Am In a Cheese Shop Currently

That's not me saying that title, by the way. That's Olivia. In a text. From Nice, France.

I sent her a brief inquiry this morning asking, "How's Nice?"

Her response, which made me smile and laugh, was as follows:

"Nice is the best thing of my life. I swam in the Mediterranean today. I'm in a cheese shop currently."

This was followed by a stream of pictures: of the cheese shop, a bottle shop, a macaron bar (the cookies), the girls sitting at the table in their Air BnB (which looks out over the Mediterranean) with several bottles of wine and some crusty bread with prosciutto and cheese (bought at those shops I'm sure), and then a final picture of her looking tres glamorous in large sunglasses, hair wet from her recent swim.













As Olivia likes to say, she and her friends are "absolutely living!"

Have You Air B-n-B'd?

I was at a friend's birthday party last night, and the talk turned to an upcoming vacation that one couple was about to take. They had booked their first Air B-n-B, and they were hoping that it would turn out fine. More on their upcoming trip at the end of this--I can't wait to hear about it!

Dave and I have stayed at several of this type of accommodation (Air B-n-B), to mixed success. As it turned out, another couple had the same experience as us. So we started to compare. I seriously thought there was no way we were going to lose on the "but wait until you hear what WE had to go through" aspect of this conversation. I was wrong.

Our first Air B-n-B rental was in Phoenix. I wrote a couple of blogs about it, pictures included. Take a minute and refresh yourself with those if you have time, just so you can get the gist of our accommodations when we arrived. (August, 2015 in case you're heading back to look at those) If you don't have time to do that, let me just sum it up for you: "working" art gallery (their words, not ours), no chairs to sit in whatsoever, no fridge, no coffee maker, sketchy part of town, door lock that looked like there might have been numerous attempts to break in, and no hot water in the shower in the morning.

As the comparative conversation began, I was thinking seriously, how could anyone top that?

And you know how you top that? You arrive at your condo and the building is "under construction", the entire multi-story structure completely wrapped in scaffolding and green tarp, windows taped in with plastic over them, the front door behind a concrete barricade, and it looks like you're staying in Soviet-era Russia--concrete, concrete, concrete. Not even close to a finished building. Winner-winner chicken dinner! I wish I had a picture to post here, because when the woman who described this to me showed me the photo, I started laughing. Hard. "Did you actually stay there?" I asked. Yes, yes they did. Because there was nowhere else in town to stay--everything was filled up for some sporting event. She said the inside was fine. But really, if we had walked up to that building, I'm not sure we would have actually gone inside, if we could have found the door!

Update: I got the picture! Here it is:

This was all very amusing for our friends who were about to lose their Air B-n-B virginity. However, I think they may come back with the "best" stories of any of us. They are going to visit their daughter at UC Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is a beautiful, charming town.

Their daughter lives in Isla Vista. Charming and beautiful are not words I would use to describe Isla Vista. Crowded, over-crowded, 100% students, boisterous, loud... those words come to mind.

And they booked their place in Isla Vista. By choice, as it's very close to their daughter's apartment. "Parents of the Year" award goes to Ellen and Drew for sacrificing having a mini-bar and a clean room so they can be near their kid. Also, "Insane Parents of the Year" to them as well because I have a feeling their rental place might put the Soviet-era-under-construction experience to shame. I'm curious to find out the condition of a college student's Air B-n-B rental. Ellen and Drew will make the best of it, no matter what.

I can't wait to see pictures.