california vacation ~ our cottage

Hello, friends! We just got back from a vacation in California, so if I haven't been around to visit your blog, I will be soon. Our son, Tim moved to the Los Angeles area last November, so we went out there to visit him. It'd also been 10-1/2 years since we last took a vacation, so I'd say we were overdue. Ironically, that last vacation was also to California, but to San Francisco. I LOVE California. I wish we could afford to live there. It's my happy place. I have a lot of photos and stories to tell about my trip, so I'll break it up into two or three blog posts.

Going through O'Hare Airport, I got a chuckle out of these boxes. Cannabis just became legal here in Illinois as of January 1st, but it's still illegal on a federal level. So one can dispose of their weed that they forgot to leave at home, before getting on the plane. Makes you wonder who gets to clean these boxes out, hmm?! 

 After getting up super early to get to the airport, setting off the alarms through the security check-through and getting patted down by TSA (laughable, really...of course I didn't have anything on me, nor do I have a pacemaker or any artificial "parts"), a long, bumpy plane ride, some frustration with the car rental pick-up, and not having any food in over nine hours, we finally found a place to sit down in the sunshine and enjoy a huge, delicious, fresh salad with grilled chicken. It felt so good to experience 70-degree weather again. We had to chuckle at a lot of the passers-by wearing coats. 

 Being from Illinois, the only succulents I ever see are small ones in plant nurseries. So when I see them growing prolifically along the sidewalks and in homeowner's landscaping, I'm in awe. I told Brian I wish I could just dig some up and bring them home.

Another thing I couldn't stop gawking over the entire week were the hills and mountains. They are so beautiful and amazing to me since I live where it's mostly flat. Tim told me if I lived there, I'd get used to them and not even really "see" them anymore. I dunno...I think the older I get, the more I'm aware and appreciative of the beauty that surrounds me.

 We rented a little guest cottage behind someone's house through VRBO. This place was even better in person than what we saw online. Even Tim loved the place and said he wished he could move in and rent it on a permanent basis. 😉

 These hammock chairs were amazing. I almost fell asleep in one the afternoon we arrived. I envisioned myself hanging out here every evening with a glass of wine, and then in the mornings with a cup of coffee. But, I guess it wasn't meant to be because we ended up with a lot of rain.

 Chaise right outside our bedroom door.

The gardens in the patio area were so pretty. This little cottage inside and out was decorated in a Zen theme.

See the lemon tree over the fence? Those were all over the place, with easily 100+ lemons on every tree. I can't imagine being able to walk out your door every morning and pick fresh lemons. I use them in my water every day. They are expensive in Illinois and coated in wax. The owner of our cottage left some fresh lemons for us in the fridge and I was amazed that they weren't shiny (no wax!), still had a stem on them, and when cut open, had a faint herbal scent.

Inside our little cottage was a dining area...

a small but adequate kitchen...

and a living room area.

A TV on the wall across from the sofa...though we only watched TV for an hour one night when Tim was with us. We couldn't relax outside due to the rain.

We were only able to sit outside one evening...the one where it didn't rain. The patio at night was magical.

The bedroom...

View from across the bed. 

I have to admit, I'm not a good traveler. I don't like waiting around in boring airports, being herded like cattle through TSA checkpoints, sitting in a cramped plane with uncomfortable seats, the constant noise and pressure inside the plane, the unfamiliarity of the hotel room (or cottage, in this case), time changes, and living out of a suitcase. I barely slept that night and woke up in the morning with a raging headache.

I know we're all concerned about the coronavirus right now, so I hope that perhaps this blog post was a small, pleasant distraction in your day. I am choosing to mostly self-quarantine since I was just traveling and with thousands of people between the airports, planes, restaurants, a museum, stores, etc. The virus takes two days - two weeks to show up, so I'll stay mostly put until the end of the month. I wouldn't want to unknowingly pass along the virus to anyone else.

Be well, be happy, be peaceful. God bless. 💓