Guest Book (Vacation Rental)

I have a confession. Whenever I spot a guest book, I just can't help myself. I read it.

Do you? Or, am I the only weird one?

Sometimes the former occupants leave invaluable tips which trump any travel guide. I have discovered helpful info, such as where to find the best restaurants. Where the best hiking trails are located. And the best places to spot sea otters and whales. The most interesting thing I gleamed from a guest book recently was that at twilight you can occasionally spot bats.

Okay. I admit I also read because I'm nosy.

Like the recent guest book I perused while in Cambria. I got a chuckle over reading about the Harley bike rider who chronicled his adventure of biking through the central coast along with his fellow 20 biker buddies. I grieved for the family who came to the beach house to heal and reconnect: a few years ago their mother and wife, was taken too young. They claimed the trip helped lift their spirits. And I labored over the barely legible scrawl of elder man who wrote numerous lengthy entries chronicling some of his adventures along the central coast--he's been coming to Cambria annually since 1967.

Now, there have been some things I wished I hadn't read. Like the time I was scanning a guest book while vacationing in Mendocino (with husband peering over my shoulder) and some guy wrote:

We just worked at conceiving our first-born in YOUR hot tub!

Definitely WON'T be hitting the hot tub, joked my husband.


Photo courtesy of Tek in the box via Flickr

It's Tough Not Speaking the Same Language as Your In Laws

The first time I met my future MIL, she poured coffee in my cereal.

Such misunderstandings are not uncommon when you don't speak the same language. My post, reflecting on speaking Franglish with my French in-laws, is up on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog:
When You Don't Speak the Same Language as Your In-Laws

Photo courtesy of Al Lanni via Flickr Creative Commons.

Renting A Vacation Home in Cambria, California. Great for Families

With the in-laws visiting, we decided to rent a vacation home in Cambria, California. In the past, we always booked hotels for this area.

So glad we did. For $275 a night we got a huge, beautiful home overlooking the ocean. It even had a hot tub!

For bigger families or groups, I think renting a vacation home is the way to go. Semi-decent hotels in Cambria usually come close to $200 a night anyhow (one room, we'd need 2). Throw in a kitchen where you can cook meals and you are definitely saving some money. Not to mention makes it easier with the kids. Our daughter likes pasta and grilled cheese, so I could make those for her in a pinch. So, renting a home for 5 days was a no-brainer.

The best part about this home was that just down the block is a bunch of trails that overlook the Pacific. I loved hiking every day and spotting deer.

I was also glad the in-laws got pampered. They deserved it. Especially after Philippe was busy dragging them all over lol.

We used Cambria Vacation Rentals. (We booked the house on Marlbough).

In this little Town called Harmony...

I just love small towns! Those who know me, real well, understand my fascination/obsession with them. They also know that I harbor a secret yearning to live in one. (Or, at least own a vacation home there).

So, while vacationing on the central coast with the in-laws, I just HAD to force my husband to stop in this small, quaint town about 5 miles near Cambria, California called HARMONY.

As you can read from the sign, the population is only 18.

Local legend has it that in the mid 1800's local rivalries resulted in a shooting death. Everyone agreed to a truce and hence, the town was aptly named Harmony.

Today the town offers wine tasting, a pottery and a glasswork shop and a historic chapel. You can actually observe the glass artisans in action crafting fine glass wares (you can even take classes). There is also a open space preserve park called Harmony Headlands Park.



















The town's original Creamery building, also the town's post office which they used until recently, was deemed unsafe. Now there is a petition to try and save it. (Please sign the petition if you happen to stop by!) Save Harmony's Post office.






Just LOVE this blue door.

Teenage Drinking and Denial: SV Moms Book Club for June--Testimony

Teenagers and alcohol.

I shudder thinking back to my teen years. One day during my sophomore year in high school, a group of teenagers from a local high school were killed (one was crippled) in a car crash. It occurred off campus, during lunch break.

I had grown up with some of the victims. We even hung around the same circles. It was never discovered whether or not alcohol or drugs played a part in the accident, but we we all suspected it did. It was pretty well known that this group, as well as many kids on school campus, partied during the school lunch hour (and beyond).

And it wasn't just troublemakers either--it seemed no social or economic class was immune to teenage drinking.

During my youth, it wasn't uncommon for parents to automatically deny that their own child had a drinking/drug (I found the two usually went hand in hand) problem. These parents sometimes would even go as far to shift blame onto others. It wasn't their child who had the problem, but rather, their child's friends or peers. Bad influences.

Equally troubling, I also remember those cool parents who would even supply a keg or two for their own teens and their friends.

Now that I'm a parent and some our own circle of friends have teenagers, it's scary how quickly some of us parents block out our own teen years. It couldn't possibly happen to my kid we rationalize.

Anita Shreve's moving novel, Testimony, explores the consequences (and parental denial) of teenage drinking when a group of teenage boys at a local boarding school become involved in a sex-scandal after being caught on videotape having sex with an underage girl while intoxicated. In an interview with her editor, the author admits she considers teenage drinking an epidemic and even more worrisome, are the parents who fail to do anything about it; the mothers she has come across who deny their own children are drinking. As Shreve points out:

Why aren't we outraged about this? ...every single one of them [mothers] believed that their own child was not doing it [drinking]. Even though the odds would tell you that that was simply not possible.

I can believe this. Today when I hear of teens we know getting caught drinking or doing drugs, our reactions as the other parents are telling: we wonder where the guilty child (or parents) went wrong. To some of us it seems unfathomable that this could happen to our own child. And we then secretly breathe a huge sigh of relief. Thank god it wasn't our child.

But we just don't want to consider the grim possibility that the only difference between our child and theirs is our child didn't get caught.

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Trio of Baby Seals in Morro Bay, California

Look at the little one hugging the gutter as if it were a pillow.
Why does that NOT look comfortable lol?
I was so bummed that the shot turned out blurry. The camera battery was dying!
The second picture is a slightly more focused, but I accidentally cropped off dad's head.

grandmère and grandpère (swear my kids have manners, I swear!)

(Overheard Samuel saying to his grandmère, minutes after their arrival)
What? What ARE you saying??

I don't understand you!

I don't speak French. Let's speak English.

Oy! He is usually a polite kid. I swear grandmère!

Let's hope his manners and French improve. (We are only on day 1 lol)