Pajaro Dunes
This weekend we had an unexpected (and wonderful) beach weekend. My friend Caroline's family had rented a house at Pajaro Dunes, which is on the coast about midway between Santa Cruz and Monterey. Unfortunately her father got sick suddenly, so the family wasn't able to use the house; but their payment was non-refundable (despite Caroline's valiant attempts to argue their case -- and, frankly, it was entirely the fault of the bastards at Pajaro Dunes, who should apply some compassion to their rules), so she asked me if we'd like to take the place for a nominal sum.
It was all very last-minute -- we didn't know until Friday, actually, whether we'd have it at all (since Caroline's first choice, of course, was to get a refund for her parents); so when she gave us the thumbs up, we had to hustle to pack and get on the road. I was feeling very bad about profiting from Frank's tragedy -- I've known Caroline since I was 4 years old, and her dad married Walt and me -- but I was glad that at least someone got to enjoy the place since the Jones' couldn't (and they got a bit of their money back). And it really was just lovely.
After we found out that we were going down, we called a couple of friends to see if they also wanted to share the largesse, and somewhat amazingly, they also came down on a last-minute notice. My dad was planning to come up this weekend anyway, so he just met us there (which was nice for him, since it's a shorter drive to Pajaro Dunes than it is to SF -- and he got a beach vacation to boot, although any vacation with one or more children is really a "vacation.") It ended up that my dad, Keri and Arne and their two kids and our friend Bob all came down. This house that Frank and Nancy Jones had rented was huge - 4 bedrooms and 4 baths - so we had no trouble getting everyone inside. It was also about 50 yards from the ocean, which worked out great with the kids because we could trot back and forth between the beach and the house in less than a minute.
Pajaro Dunes is an interesting place: it's a beach community sandwiched between the fields of Watsonville and the ocean. Watsonville is the center of some really intensive farming (both industrial and cottage), and the fields go just about to the ocean -- from this complex, we could literally see fields of strawberries outside of our windows facing east. When we turned off Highway 1 on the exit, we passed a bunch of industrial farming facilties (like packing and huge cold storage plants and the like), then drove through fields and then turned into this quasi-exclusive beach community. The houses themselves are a tight jumble of all architectural styles, packed togehter but with good beach access. The beach itself is very pretty with nice waves and a good, long stretch of sand when the tide is low (when the tide is high, the sand on the beach is only about 6-10' wide), although visible to the south is the Moss Landing power plant.
Walt and I were comparing it with Sea Ranch, and on every point (for us at least), Sea Ranch came out on top -- significantly better architecture and a lot more space between houses plus ocean sight lines for every property. The houses at Pajaro Dunes were crammed together -- last night we saw our neighbors dancing in their living room, and every detail was on display. Of course Sea Ranch has the advantage of being farther north, and in California the general rule is the farther north you go, the prettier the coastline.
There happened to be an open house for a place across the street that was for sale, so of course I went over to look at it. It was an oceanfront house with 4 bedrooms, but it hadn't been updated since it had been built (probably in 1961), and it had hideous brown linoleum throughout and terribly outdated fixtues and rooms. The kitchen would require a full remodel to make it even halfway modern (and I'm not talking installing the mega-stove either), and you'd really need to remove some of the other touches that scream, "I'm a dated property," like the sunken firepit with pillows. It looked like it came right out of a really bad Steve McQueen movie. On top of all of this, the listing price was $2,360,000! I couldn't believe that anyone in their right mind would put that kind of money on a house in Watsonville (even a beachfront house), especially one that needed extensive remodeling (with no garage). Insanity. But I can see how the location would be appealing, especially to people from the Central Valley, since it's a relatively short drive (and getting up north of Jenner is a pain in the ass for people from SF, let alone Fresno and such).
Devon had an absolute ball running around with Mina and Isaac this weekend, and we spent a surprising amount of time with our feet in the ocean (surprising because the water was ice cold -- my feet were numb after 2 minutes). Both days at the beach we ended up stripping the kids down to their underwear so they could wade but keeping jackets and layers on top. Isaac wasn't so crazy about the water and didn't spent much time in it, but Mina and Devon loved it. There was a lot of wave action on the beach, and both times I went to wade with Devon or Mina, I got soaked. I just wasn't paying close attention to the wave sets so I could anticipate the big ones well.
On Sunday we discovered the spot where the Pajaro River and the Watsonville Slough empty into the ocean, so we took the kids to the river bank to play. This was really fun for them because there was no tide action (although that is exciting in of itself) and they could wade out several feet because the river bank had an almost imperceptible decline. It was nice for the adults, too, because we didn't have to watch them every minute since there were no waves. Walt has a fun little movie (that I couldn't embed, since Blogger and You Tube aren't working together, despite the fact that they're both owned by Google)...
I think my dad was a bit overwhelmed by spending time with 3 kids. There was a lot of running around and yelling and fighting and crying. He's just not used to anywhere near that much activity. There were very few moments outside of playing in the water when the kids were all playing happily together and someone wasn't crying or yelling. We also had a bunch of typical kid-like accidents -- ice cream on the dining room chair, Devon going poop in the shower (that was lovely), continual running noses, etc. My dad is becoming more of a neat freak as he gets older, so his obsessive-compulsive genes were running overtime at the house. But I'm sure he'll remember it fondly now that it's over!
It was downright luxurious to spend time in a beach house, and it was especially fun to have other adult friends there. We don't get out much now that Devon is in our life, so it was nice to have built-in adult time with people we want to spend time with (as opposed to someone who is the parent of a friend of your child's but with whom you have nothing in common). I think we're going to try to do some rotating evening babysitting with Keri and Arne so we can both get out a bit more -- they drop the kids off one evening and we babysit and vice versa. We really don't have any other friends with kids around the same age as Devon, so we need to make the most of it now.
It was all very last-minute -- we didn't know until Friday, actually, whether we'd have it at all (since Caroline's first choice, of course, was to get a refund for her parents); so when she gave us the thumbs up, we had to hustle to pack and get on the road. I was feeling very bad about profiting from Frank's tragedy -- I've known Caroline since I was 4 years old, and her dad married Walt and me -- but I was glad that at least someone got to enjoy the place since the Jones' couldn't (and they got a bit of their money back). And it really was just lovely.
After we found out that we were going down, we called a couple of friends to see if they also wanted to share the largesse, and somewhat amazingly, they also came down on a last-minute notice. My dad was planning to come up this weekend anyway, so he just met us there (which was nice for him, since it's a shorter drive to Pajaro Dunes than it is to SF -- and he got a beach vacation to boot, although any vacation with one or more children is really a "vacation.") It ended up that my dad, Keri and Arne and their two kids and our friend Bob all came down. This house that Frank and Nancy Jones had rented was huge - 4 bedrooms and 4 baths - so we had no trouble getting everyone inside. It was also about 50 yards from the ocean, which worked out great with the kids because we could trot back and forth between the beach and the house in less than a minute.Pajaro Dunes is an interesting place: it's a beach community sandwiched between the fields of Watsonville and the ocean. Watsonville is the center of some really intensive farming (both industrial and cottage), and the fields go just about to the ocean -- from this complex, we could literally see fields of strawberries outside of our windows facing east. When we turned off Highway 1 on the exit, we passed a bunch of industrial farming facilties (like packing and huge cold storage plants and the like), then drove through fields and then turned into this quasi-exclusive beach community. The houses themselves are a tight jumble of all architectural styles, packed togehter but with good beach access. The beach itself is very pretty with nice waves and a good, long stretch of sand when the tide is low (when the tide is high, the sand on the beach is only about 6-10' wide), although visible to the south is the Moss Landing power plant.
Walt and I were comparing it with Sea Ranch, and on every point (for us at least), Sea Ranch came out on top -- significantly better architecture and a lot more space between houses plus ocean sight lines for every property. The houses at Pajaro Dunes were crammed together -- last night we saw our neighbors dancing in their living room, and every detail was on display. Of course Sea Ranch has the advantage of being farther north, and in California the general rule is the farther north you go, the prettier the coastline.There happened to be an open house for a place across the street that was for sale, so of course I went over to look at it. It was an oceanfront house with 4 bedrooms, but it hadn't been updated since it had been built (probably in 1961), and it had hideous brown linoleum throughout and terribly outdated fixtues and rooms. The kitchen would require a full remodel to make it even halfway modern (and I'm not talking installing the mega-stove either), and you'd really need to remove some of the other touches that scream, "I'm a dated property," like the sunken firepit with pillows. It looked like it came right out of a really bad Steve McQueen movie. On top of all of this, the listing price was $2,360,000! I couldn't believe that anyone in their right mind would put that kind of money on a house in Watsonville (even a beachfront house), especially one that needed extensive remodeling (with no garage). Insanity. But I can see how the location would be appealing, especially to people from the Central Valley, since it's a relatively short drive (and getting up north of Jenner is a pain in the ass for people from SF, let alone Fresno and such).
Devon had an absolute ball running around with Mina and Isaac this weekend, and we spent a surprising amount of time with our feet in the ocean (surprising because the water was ice cold -- my feet were numb after 2 minutes). Both days at the beach we ended up stripping the kids down to their underwear so they could wade but keeping jackets and layers on top. Isaac wasn't so crazy about the water and didn't spent much time in it, but Mina and Devon loved it. There was a lot of wave action on the beach, and both times I went to wade with Devon or Mina, I got soaked. I just wasn't paying close attention to the wave sets so I could anticipate the big ones well.
On Sunday we discovered the spot where the Pajaro River and the Watsonville Slough empty into the ocean, so we took the kids to the river bank to play. This was really fun for them because there was no tide action (although that is exciting in of itself) and they could wade out several feet because the river bank had an almost imperceptible decline. It was nice for the adults, too, because we didn't have to watch them every minute since there were no waves. Walt has a fun little movie (that I couldn't embed, since Blogger and You Tube aren't working together, despite the fact that they're both owned by Google)...I think my dad was a bit overwhelmed by spending time with 3 kids. There was a lot of running around and yelling and fighting and crying. He's just not used to anywhere near that much activity. There were very few moments outside of playing in the water when the kids were all playing happily together and someone wasn't crying or yelling. We also had a bunch of typical kid-like accidents -- ice cream on the dining room chair, Devon going poop in the shower (that was lovely), continual running noses, etc. My dad is becoming more of a neat freak as he gets older, so his obsessive-compulsive genes were running overtime at the house. But I'm sure he'll remember it fondly now that it's over!
It was downright luxurious to spend time in a beach house, and it was especially fun to have other adult friends there. We don't get out much now that Devon is in our life, so it was nice to have built-in adult time with people we want to spend time with (as opposed to someone who is the parent of a friend of your child's but with whom you have nothing in common). I think we're going to try to do some rotating evening babysitting with Keri and Arne so we can both get out a bit more -- they drop the kids off one evening and we babysit and vice versa. We really don't have any other friends with kids around the same age as Devon, so we need to make the most of it now.
posted by Devon Szalva at
9:02 PM
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