A Place in the Mountains, a place at the beach

When I was 32 and got married for the 2nd time I was a single father with a 5 year old son. We purchased land with a spring on it at 4000 feet in the mountains. But, it didn't have electricity or phone lines. But, it was incredibly beautiful with a view of Mt. Shasta and the land had a spring on it and it was 2 1/2 acres. So, we decided to build an A Frame for us and our then 3 children (2 from her first marriage and 1 from my first marriage) so we did. We home schooled our kids for 5 years there which kept our cost of living down and kept our kids civilized and our friends rather than turning into our enemies like most kids do when you send them to public school.

15 years later I was near San Francisco and unfortunately getting a divorce. I met my next wife to be in the middle of my divorce. She owned a home near the beach in the greater San Francisco area. Later when her mother died we got a much bigger house near the beach.

I have found over the year that as much as I love living in the mountains that I really missed the peacefulness of the Pacific Ocean to be near. I grew up mostly along the ocean, first in Seattle at Lake Forest Park and later in San Diego and later still in Glendale (still within an hour of the beach. Later, I got my first car, a 1956 ford Stationwagon that I nicknamed my "Surfwagon" because I was a surfer from about age 12 to 21 during the 1960s. So, the beach became really important until my best surfer buddy when off to Viet Nam so I got more interested in Mountain Climbing and Rock Climbing after that which also  eventually led to buying land in the Mount Shasta area.

It's not that I don't love Mt. Shasta still, it's just I have now lived at the beach since 1994 or over 20 years now. I still visit Mt. Shasta a lot and even have considered buying more land up there. However, my present wife is less anxious to buy land there than I am. So, I have lived in the mountains and even built myself my own A-Frame and lived the life of a mountain man but the last 21 years I find myself once again on the Peaceful pacific Ocean where it is much easier to stay calm like the ocean.