To beach or not to beach

That’s the question.

When I moved back to New Mexico, I promised myself I’d go out to the coast at least once or twice a year. (The desert is wonderful – until it’s not).

Therefore, I scheduled two beach trips this year, one in April and one in August. I made reservations at Fort Bragg, California, for both of them, because we’ve been there before and know we like it.

Then our April trip was a near-disaster. There was no cell tower and the wifi was broken. In theory, this could have created a welcome retreat from the world. But in reality, we ended up needing to deal with issues with a rental of ours that we were selling, and it wasn’t possible for us to be completely cut off from all communication. We spent most of two days trying to get the wifi fixed, and then gave up.

We tried to salvage our vacation elsewhere in California, got rained out, and just managed to prolong our drive home by two extra days of cruddy motel rooms that always looked way nicer on the outside than on the inside.

Understandably, John does not want to go back to the beach in August. I’m also dreading the thought of another long drive out there (even if we fly, it’s still a long drive to that remote location). So three times I’ve started to send the “sorry we have to cancel” email to the owner of the vacation rental. And I just can’t send it. Darn it, I want my beach vacation!

John’s been looking into other alternatives – mountain lakes, etc. But lakes just aren’t the Pacific coast beaches.