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The Summer House

August 19, 2011 By Marta Darby 3 Comments

My friend, Jana blogs over at The Summer House. It's called the Summer House because she loves the simplicity of living in a summer beach rental-type atmosphere where everything is clean, decluttered, and ready for fun.

She lives out her philosophy of simple living beautifully. And I'm always impressed and inspired by her. 

Internets, meet Jana…

Jana

I, of course, am just the opposite. My house is messy and cluttery in an artistic-A.D.D.-hyper-collector sort of way.

In spite of those differences, we are great friends and we manage to carve out a couple of hours for coffee at least once a week throughout the year and a once-a-week beach day through the summer. 

Meanwhile, back at the Summer House……

I started this post telling you about Jana, because we rent a beach house for a long, relaxing week every summer. Because of her inspiration, we have taken to calling it The Summer House. (Don't sue me, please, my friend. Thanks.) 

The house itself is bright and airy, with a big kitchen and lots of couches for lounging and a big patio that's perfect for cookouts and surfboards or in our case drying beach towels.

Chaos

Our Summer House is only about an hour's drive south from us, in San Diego county. A mere 238 steps to the beach. With the best sand imaginable for sand castle building.

Sandcastles

Or expressing ourselves artistically. This is Art…. 😉

Art

Even though the house is pretty roomy, and we have space for lots of people to hang out, we don't have as many comfortable sleeping surfaces. So we invited friends to come and be with us and just scheduled their visits on different days.

Bri

It worked out quite nicely for the first few days, with friends popping in for a morning or afternoon.

Josh

And the sun cooperated on some days, but not on others.

With stacie

Still it was relaxing and fun to just “be” with whoever was available for the day.

Legs

Sand people

I loved the quiet moments in between visitors when I could just sit and read and watch my kids playing in the sand. (Much like I did when they were little. Go figure.)

IMG_7767

The ocean was soothing and oh, so healing. And we all were so in need of a rest and the respite that comes from serious playing.

Eric

Or just doing nothing. We did a lot of nothing. As often as possible.

Relaxing

Some of our young friends came to celebrate Lucy's 18th birthday, which meant there were more mouths to feed.

For breakfast:

Breakfast

Lunch:

Beach lunch

And dinner:

Italian

And I appreciate that all of her and Jon's friends are fun and easy to be with.

Hursts

And are always ready to cooperate with me when I have a camera in my hand, which is most of the time, but that's not important right now. ("Quick, put on these disguises!")

Disguises

Our time spent in the Summer House also reminds me of my childhood summers in Cuba, which were spent in Varadero, always with a houseful of friends and family. We would get to the beach as early as possible and put off eating because of the 3-Hour Rule (that's me on the right with the mop of uber-curly hair standing behind my trusty Duck Life-saver).

Varadero 1960085

I hope my kids have the same happy memories that I do of the Limited Communal Summer Living Experience (LCSLE?).

It pleases me to think that they will indeed.

Jumping  

P.S. Thanks, Jana, for the Summer House inspiration. =D 

You might also like:

Coffee and Therapy Summer Manifesto Rockin’ the house “If everybody had an ocean…” or How I spent my summer vacation.

Filed Under: Friends, Lifestyle, My Big, Fat, Cuban Family, My Kids Tagged With: beach house rental, blog friends, blogger friends, summer beach house, Summer House living, summer vacation, The Summer House, travel

Previous Post: « This Girl
Next Post: Back-to-(Home)School »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Carrie says

    August 20, 2011 at 8:44 am

    Que fun!You come to my summer house and I’ll come to yours!
    OK?

    Reply
  2. Marta M. Darby says

    August 20, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    So funny!I was actually thinking that maybe next year I would get myself to Blissdom and Chez Weir…..
    Coincidence?
    I think not.
    xoxo,
    M

    Reply
  3. Maria Cg says

    August 23, 2011 at 6:52 pm

    This sounds like so much fun! I wish I had fun times like these when I was young……being an only child it never happened. Maybe I can come up with a Summer House for my kids….?

    Reply

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