Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside

Yesterday was pretty much perfect. We had brunch, which involved lobster. We spent a bit of time in the garden, pottering (TLOML and me) and moving water around in various receptacles (Lady P). We all took a long nap. We walked to the beach. And after the beach we had tacos and beers at Hot's Kitchen, and walked home.

The walking-to-the-beach bit is the reason it was all so perfect. And its the reason I so badly wanted our new home to be West of PCH. I don't mind driving to brunch: El Porto and Manhattan Beach have some great places, well worth a 5 minute drive (or 15 mins on the bike). And I don't mind not having a large back garden: we can potter with pots of herbs, and Lady P can carry water about on a small patio just as happily. But I would very much mind having to drive to the beach.

Being a seven minute walk to the beach means even if you don't leave the house until 4pm it's still totally worth going. And you don't need to pack as if you're going camping, either. In fact, on days where I have less than an hour to kill I'll walk down to the beach with Lady P with no kit at all, and she'll play in the sand for half an hour, and we'll walk home again. We'd never do that if we had to get in the car, or if the walk was 20 or 30 minutes. I know it.

Sometimes all you need is a flipflop and some sand to play with

Being close to the beach also means you can make it be on your way to something, like the bank or a coffee. It's not actually on our way to anywhere but it only adds a detour of a couple of blocks, so it's easy enough to weave it into errands. Likewise on any run, no matter how much or how little time I have, I can include a bit of beachfront jogging.

I'm writing this not to be smug about it, but to back myself up. I got a hard time from some friends (and, to a lesser extent, from TLOML) when we were househunting for my immediate rejection of anything that was more than half a mile from the beach. I stuck to my guns: the new house is 0.4 miles from the sand.

Yesterday's beach trip, and all the others in our past and future, vindicated me. The beach is one of the top three reasons we moved here. It's also one of the main reasons property here is so expensive. If you have to get in your car and drive, and fight for parking, every time  you want to use that asset, you're not really getting value for your Hermosa real estate money.

I'm just very glad and grateful that we have been able to find a place which will allow us to feel like we really do live at the beach. And I know Lady P feels the same way: here's a recent picture of her kissing the beach goodbye when we had to leave.

'What are you doing?' 'Kissing the beach goodbye'. 'Ah'.