Dana Point Archives - Life with Dee

Tales From the Trip (Part 1 – Life’s a Beach)

June 26, 2014 By Deanna Piercy 1 Comment

David and I took a short trip to California to visit relatives and just returned Tuesday evening. I’ll share our trip adventures and photos in a few posts…in no particular order. We were in the desert most of the time but had a nice little break in the middle at the beach. Let’s start there. Because this:

Dana Point, California

We headed down to the beach Saturday around noon, stopping for In-n-Out burgers on our way out. My Aunt Dee had graciously allowed us to stay at her gorgeous beach house in Dana Point. We had about an hour or so to visit with her there before she headed back to her house in Glendora.

We relaxed for awhile and then headed out to find some place for dinner. Our first choice was packed and there wasn’t even a place to park so we decided to just start driving until we found something. While driving around, David spotted a grocery store so we ran in there for a bottle of wine for later. I then noticed an Italian restaurant a couple of doors down. It was called Casanova’s and the sign said they have live music. That sounded promising so we gave it a shot. We truly lucked out. The atmosphere was charming, the service impeccable and the food excellent. I had lobster ravioli which was out of this world.

After dinner we went back to the beach house and shared part of a bottle of wine. We started out on the patio but it soon grew too chilly so we moved indoors. The day before was our 33rd anniversary which we spent with all of David’s family rather than the intimate dinner we had planned. So we made up for it at the beach instead. We cuddled on the sofa, sipping wine and listening to Van Morrison on my phone. Very nice…

The next morning we enjoyed our tea and coffee on the patio. We had picked up some pastries at the store the night before. And see the gardenia in the photo below? The bush in front of the beach house was absolutely loaded with the fragrant blooms. Every time I walked by I stopped to inhale the intoxicating fragrance. I put this one in our bedroom each night, too.

Lovely way to begin the day. #danapoint #beachweather #EarlGrey #gardenia

We decided to eat lunch on the beach. We picked up burritos from Del Taco then headed to Doheny Beach. This was our lunch view:

The view from the parking lot:

It was a gorgeous day and the beach wasn’t very crowded. We stayed about an hour and a half then headed back to the beach house to shower. My cousins had invited us to join them to watch the World Cup match (U.S. vs. Portugal). I totally forgot to get any photos with them but did snap this one of their back yard. Rather nice, don’t you think?:

We had a lovely time chatting with them and their kids (home from college) before the game. And then the game…oh, my goodness! Was that ever exciting!

We visited about an hour afterwards and then went back to the house briefly. My plan was to eat dinner and then watch the sunset at the beach. We ate dinner at an Irish pub and then rushed to the beach. We missed the actual sunset by a few minutes but we still enjoyed the views.

This is the jetty between Doheny and Dana Point:

This guy was napping. I did make David go check to see that he was breathing.

I love seagulls:

I thought this was a great picture of my sweetheart until I posted it on Facebook and one of his friends said it looked like he was peeing into the ocean. Men.

It was a beautiful evening and we stayed until almost dark.

Back at the beach house we opted for hot tea and coffee rather than wine since we were a little chilled. We turned in shortly afterwards since we needed to head back to the desert the next morning.

One more breakfast on the patio (we each had an absolutely mouth-watering plum):

Sadly, it was time to leave but I was grateful for the respite. There is something about the ocean which restores my sanity and soul. A huge thank you to my dear Aunt Dee for so graciously sharing her lovely beach house with us.

Aunt Dee and me in front of her house in Glendora

Here’s a short video I took of the ocean:

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Post by Deanna West Piercy.

California Dreaming

August 20, 2013 By Deanna Piercy Leave a Comment

We returned from our California trip around 2 a.m. this past Wednesday morning and I’m just about caught up. Oh, who am I kidding? There’s no such thing as “caught up” but I am unpacked.

David, my mom and I flew out Thursday morning at a ridiculously early hour but at least that gave us some extra time that afternoon with my aunt. One of my brothers arrived in time for dinner so we all went to Marie Callender’s for food and pie. My other brother and sister-in-law drove in a little later but they went straight to their hotel so we didn’t see them until the next day.

Friday was the memorial service for my uncle. It was a beautiful and touching service but I had a hard time holding it together. On top of it all, I managed to throw my back out. I wish I had a good story but the truth is it happened while crossing my legs in the pew. The pews were fairly close together and I twisted as I crossed and, well, I then spent the rest of the service with my lower back in spasms.

After the service we went back to my aunt’s house and my wonderful brother gave me a Flexeril (muscle relaxant). It’s quite handy to have brother who is a doctor AND has his own issues with back and neck pain.

Anyway, it was nice to visit with family even though I wish it had been under better circumstances. Both of my brothers had to start driving back to Oklahoma Saturday morning but we had a few more days. David and I left Saturday morning for the beach. My aunt has a beautiful beach house in Dana Point:

Isn’t this a charming house?:

We ate lunch at Ruby’s Diner, a fun 50’s-style place in Laguna:

I snapped a few pictures as we drove back to the beach house:

Late that evening we had a lovely dinner at the Harbor Grill down by the Dana Point harbor. It was a beautiful night and we enjoyed our steaks and wine by candlelight.

Before I hurt my back David had come up with a delightful plan to take the train along the coast to Santa Barbara (where I was born and lived the first few years of my life) and stay at a really nice resort which happened to be having a special rate rather than their usual $400 a night (yikes!). I just wasn’t up to a long train ride so we ditched that plan. However, I can’t really complain about staying where it looks like this:

On Sunday we drove to San Clemente which is where David’s family had vacationed most summers when he was growing up and where his mom had lived for awhile. We eventually found a parking place and went out onto the pier.

There’s a nice little restaurant on the pier which has really good food. We were seated outdoors on a sunny deck with nice, cool, ocean breezes:

The fish and chips were delicious, and the margarita was quite nice, too:

Fish and chips and a margarita = perfect lunch for a sunny day at the beach

After lunch we walked out along the pier and took in the beautiful view:

And watched the surfers for a very long time:

It was such a glorious day and we just soaked up the sun and salt-scented ocean breezes.

There is just something about the sea…

It was such a perfect day that we stayed out several hours. Without sunscreen. Yes, I managed to add a pretty good sunburn to my back injury. Because I’m an idiot. Oh, well. I have to say that in the scheme of things it was worth it. But if you happen to see me in the next day or two, please ignore the little flecks of skin in my hair where my part is peeling.

That evening we went to my cousin’s house where we enjoyed a delicious chicken taco dinner in celebration of their son’s 21st birthday. My mom and aunt came up for the occasion and we all had a very nice time. Here is a picture of their backyard (drool!):

My cousin and aunt had a very early flight Monday morning to Hawaii so we called it a night by about 9 p.m. We took my mom back to the beach house with us.

On Monday we just relaxed at the house, enjoying the cool morning sipping tea on the patio and then burgers from In-N-Out for lunch. Later that afternoon we met up with some friends for frozen yogurt and then they invited us back to their house. Their daughter is one of our pirate friends in New Orleans and we met them back in April when they were there to visit her and we all hit it off. My mom was initially a little reticent since she didn’t know them but in no time at all they had put her at ease. They are originally from Louisiana and now my mom understands what we mean when we talk about how wonderfully hospitable Louisiana folks are. We ended up staying for a couple of hours and had such a nice time. We had been planning to eat at a Chinese restaurant back in Dana Point but fortunately David checked before we left and found that they are closed Mondays. Our friends recommended another place nearby and we had an absolutely marvelous dinner. And to top it off, this was what was in my fortune cookie:

It made me smile because my mom had played “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” at my uncle’s memorial service. Rainbows will forever remind me of my Uncle Ed from now on.

We had a Tuesday afternoon flight home but had time to pick up In-N-Out burgers (yes, again…we don’t have them in Oklahoma) and eat our lunch at Doheny beach:

Mom’s knee was bothering her so she stayed in the picnic area but David and I just had to put our feet in the water and get a little sand between our toes:

One last look:

By that point I was ready to go home but I must admit, I do miss these:

Our flight was delayed so by the time we got to Oklahoma City, drove the 80+ miles home and dropped off my mom, we didn’t get home until nearly 2 a.m. But despite the exhaustion, back injury and sunburn, I’m truly glad we went. For so many reasons.

I’ve been uploading pictures and working on this post off and on for several hours and it’s now 11:15 p.m. Lisa and I are doing our monthly grocery shopping in the city tomorrow so I’d better wrap this up and get to bed. There probably won’t be a post tomorrow but check back on Wednesday for a grocery haul post.

Beach meditations

July 22, 2013 By Deanna Piercy Leave a Comment

This morning I received the sad news that my dear uncle had passed away. I’m glad I had the opportunity to see him last week but I’m still absolutely crushed. I’ll have more to say about him later but since all he ever wanted was for people to have a good time when they visited, I’m going to go ahead and share a few special pictures from my recent trip.

Most of my time in California was spent at my aunt’s and uncle’s main residence in Glendora but on Friday my cousin, Jeanne, invited me to come with her to her home at the beach. She had been away for several days, taking turns sitting with her dad in order to give her mom a break, and she needed to water her plants and check on a few things.

Here is a picture of her gorgeous backyard:

And as the sun was setting:

She gave me the choice of spending the night at her house or staying at my aunt’s and uncle’s beach house. I really felt the need to be alone for a bit. Plus, I have such special memories of times spent at the beach house and I wanted to relive a few of those happy times.

I did get to spend several hours with Jeanne, though. We went out for a lovely dinner, something we knew Uncle Ed would have wanted us to do, and had a very meaningful time together. Her husband and daughter had been out of state for a few days for college orientation and they arrived home late that evening. It was good to visit with them, too.

Around 11 p.m. I drove to the beach house. I made myself a cup of tea and spent the next hour looking at framed photos on the family room walls, photo albums on the coffee table and mostly just remembering good times. I even ate a couple of Jelly Belly’s from the glass jar that they’ve always kept stocked. I have a take-it-or-leave-it attitude about jelly beans but there…in that house…memories…

Jeanne and I had planned to leave for the hospital at 9 a.m. so I got ready early and took my morning cup of tea to the patio:

I’ve sipped tea at this table many, many times:

And then Jeanne texted me to say that we wouldn’t be leaving until 9:30. That’s when I knew exactly what I needed to do. I grabbed my bags, hopped in the car and headed for the Dana Point harbor. I was able to park very close and snapped a couple of photos. If you look very closely you might be able to see the pirate flag:

For someone who gets seasick I have a ridiculous attraction to boats:

I then hopped back in the car and headed for Doheny beach. I didn’t have long but there was no way I could be so close to the ocean without seeing it. I parked the car, removed my Birkenstocks and walked down to the water. It was overcast and the temperature was perfect.

I walked to the water’s edge, stood with my feet in the wet sand and allowed the water to ebb and flow over them a few times. I wanted to stay there forever…smelling the salt air and feeling the sand between my toes but time was running out. I inhaled deeply a few times, picked up a sea shell, and then walked back to the parking lot.