This morning Candyce and I left the house to get some coffee and explore some neighborhoods here at the beach. Since I was eighteen and moved out of my parents’ house, I’ve loved traveling the country and exploring the neighborhoods in each city.

Watching Atlanta clean up through the late 1990s. New York is as cool as you get, and there’s not much more to say about that. Phoenix is always growing, but the growth isn’t particularly interesting. But beach towns are wacky and that’s just what I love. Candyce loves it too, so this day was destined to be a lot of fun.

There’s no way we’ll get a house on the beach. Even the smallest shack on the beach will cost you $3,000,000. And any shack within walking distance to the beach is at least $2,000,000. Which is stupid because the beach is filled with traffic and noise. I can’t imagine paying that much to live in the middle of that commotion just so you can walk to the beach. And for many of the houses, you can’t even SEE the beach. You just know it’s there. Stupid.

Part of me wonders when this whole Southern California housing market will finally get real. I mean, are people’s salaries increasing at 10% a year to keep up with the housing market? At what point to companies move out of the state b/c they can’t afford to pay people enough to cover their mortgage. I just think people have stopped using their heads.

So after a day of exploring, Candyce and I found two neighborhoods that had good views and a good vibe at a “reasonable” price. Both neighborhoods were on the tall hills that line the shore, giving almost every home a view of the ocean. They were developed in the late 80s as middle-class homes homes for working people. Since then, big dollar houses have surrounded each spot. But only a handful of homes had been updated since they were first built. I’d love to pick up one of those houses and start working on it.

I was really charmed by the hillside because you were high enough to get away from all of the commotion. It’s no fun going to bed when you can hear cars driving past your window. Up there, you felt like the king of the ocean. I could go on about this forever, but I’d rather go back in the other room and just talk about it with Candyce. Fun!