Airbnb has been offering unusual places for rent for quite sometime now. Their unique places range from tiny homes to yurts to castles to boats and more. I’ve yet to check them all out. During a late night search I came across a rental titled: Dome’s Life. The listing posted pictures of modernized and tastefully decorated interior. The location (mapped on Google) was less than two hours away. It was also less than 20minutes from Oceanside, the beach town. Before the pandemic, we never thought to explore the areas close by. Our getaways were mostly out of state or out of the country. Since we are not ready to fly, we continue explore the huge playground south of us.
Weeks went by and it’s finally time for us to pack up and head to our life at the dome. We made our way down to La Mesa around 6p.m. By the time we got there, it was dark. We passed the dome a couple of times because it sat further down the driveway. The host’s house was on the other side of the driveway. We quietly made our way into the dome.
The massive window displayed the panoramic view of the valley below. The host left us cleaning and disinfecting supplies which I forgot to bring from home. The vaulted ceiling gave the place an airy feeling. The rickety stairs led up to the loft-style bedroom. We sat for a little while to take in the view then headed off to dinner.
Nearby La Mesa, there weren’t too many places open. Most of the restaurants were fast-food joints. I decided to book through Opentable. The closest restaurants to us were 10 miles away. We’ve driven all the way here so what’s another 10miles at 9 o’clock at night?
When we arrived at the restaurant, there were quite a few people out and about, much more than I expected. The patio area and the make shift dinning area in the parking lot were filled with diners. We were eventually seated in a corner table close to the restaurant door. We quickly placed our orders and, shortly, the food arrived. The grilled octopus was probably the best tasting octopus we’ve had in a while. The dish gave me an idea. H. Mart supermarket sells these tentacles. Maybe, we can try to duplicate it at home. Maybe…
The servers were very energetic and unusually friendly. We found out later from the waiter’s assistant that the restaurant did not have many reservations for the night. He said, “Everyone here is a walk-in.“ They were extremely happy to see all the diners who were contributing to their paychecks. We were happy to do our share of contributing to the sluggish economy and our bellies. A sadness hung in the air after the exchange between us and the waiter’s assistant. I came to realize more so than ever that the servers were depending on customers like us to pay their rents, electricity/water bills, gas and food. The basic day-to-day stuff. The waiter’s assistant was all too grateful to have work. And he worked hard that night. Our server told us his part of town (Ocean Beach) used to be vibrant and active till 2-3AM on the weekends. Now, by 9p.m., the streets were quiet and everything is closed down. I’m sure, just like everyone, he welcomes a return to normalcy soon.
As we were finishing dinner, the guests from the table next to us had a little too much celebrating. The girl was intoxicated and had curse words coming out of her mouth. The guy was gently coaxing her to get up and leave. I guess you can say we had a dinner and a show. We were reminded by the owner that the city mandates restaurant closure by 11p.m.
The next morning, we were greeted by the bright sunlight coming in from the vast widow. The king size bed was super comfortable. Unfortunately, since it’s above the kitchen, I was forced to leave it. I felt like I was being suffocated by the bacon smoke. I hate to have my obituary read: Death by BACON smoke inhalation.
While Sammy was getting her tutoring done, her dad was making breakfast and coffee. I was looking at the guest handbook to find out the history of the dome. The handbook only mentioned that the dome was built by a college student in 1967. I was intrigued and wanted to find out more. Unfortunately, Google did not yield any information about the dome’s creator. All I can say is, this college student must come from money and the architect was probably a “he” since it was built in the 1960s. Can’t imagine there were too many woman architects back in those days.
We lounged around and caught up on some Netflix shows. I think Sammy and her dad finished the last episode of Gravity Falls. The pig was going home with the kids.
We finally left the house around noon and decided to find some grub. We passed by La Mesa downtown and searched up a place called Farmer’s Table. Being one of the two popular places in the small town, the restaurant was quite busy. Their set-up was ideal for preventing the spread of COVID-19. They had plexiglass shields between tables and everyone was at least 6feet apart. La Mesa downtown reminded me of Gresham’s downtown except for the cooler weather in Gresham, OR.
After six months and three haircuts between yours truly and Sammy, Josh thought it was time to find a professional to give his Sideshow Bob hair a good wack. He went down to AJs where the haircut was $12. There was an outdoor pop-up tent and several people sat in chairs waiting their turns.
In the meantime, Sammy and I wanted to fine a yarn store. We were contemplating going to Michael’s or a mom and pop store in the area. We settled for the Yarn and Thread Expressions store down the street. The outside of the store looked a little sketchy but once we got inside it was SUPER cool, literally and figuratively. The air conditioning was on and an older lady came over to see if we needed help. We told her we just wanted to look around the store. She was happy to leave us alone. Sammy poked at me and exclaimed, “Look! you can make sweater.” I then pointed to her the different sweaters hanging around the store. I told her she has many knitted sweaters. Unfortunately, they all come from the factories. She started to realize that she can do many things with the yarns. She picked out a baby blue colored yarn to make her fox stuffed animal. Don’t ask me why baby blue = fox stuff animal in her mind. But, hey! Gotta promote creativity. As for me, I will stick with scarves and hats and traditional yarn colors. One of these days, I should show her my friend’s hand knitted sweaters! We picked up some beautiful yarns for our future projects. She picked out some buttons (I wonder where they are now?).
It would be nice to come back and visit with the shop owner when this pandemic is over.
After Josh was done with his haircut and we were done with our shopping, we decided to head towards the beach. We wanted to go swimming in the ocean; however, the thought of bringing back sand to the dome did not sound like a good idea. We decided to save the beach for the next day when we would be heading home. Josh looked up some places for launching our kayaks then realized we forgot the life vests. So, hiking, it was.
He pulled up the All Trails app and found a hike called Sunset Cliff Park Trail. When we got to the entrance, the parking lot was closed and there were quite a few cars parked on the streets. We found a spot down the way and started walking towards the trailhead. The view was beautiful and the sun was due to set in about an hour. Along the trail, there were informational signs talking about the habitat and Bay Point formation. Some areas were closed for revegetation projects. Small vegetations were marked with little flags. Sammy said she thought they were the markers for land mines. Her comment made us pause and think about the kids who are affected by land mines in other countries. Of course, she was reminded by us how lucky she is to be living in the US.
We continued down the path and came to the end of the trail where there were two benches waiting for us. No one in sight. Felt a bit weird but it was nice to be by ourselves. I bet this place would be swamped during normal times. We sat down and watched the sun slowly descend behind the clouds. Sammy’s grandma was able to virtually enjoy the amazing view with us. I told her how lucky she was to be able to participate like this. I remembered ten years ago FaceTime was a novelty.
The open sea and sky in front of us reminded me of Hawaii. Can’t wait to return to the islands and watch the sunset from there. (More about the hike: Sunset Cliff – amazing view)
We ended the night at Madison’s restaurant which serves modern European entrees. Sammy continued to write her story about a character who searches for adventures and wants to have a fulfilling life. I asked if she had the story mapped. She said she’s just writing as the thoughts come into her head. Maybe she can become the writer that I wanted to be, hmmm.
The next day, after we picked up some life vests, we headed down to Mission Bay Park. (The vests should last us for life considering how much they cost!). We launched the kayaks and enjoyed our time out in the open water. The water was so clear. We were able to see schools of silver fish and several Garibaldi. An hour or so passed then we decided to head back in. This time the kayaks did not have any sightings of dead B-O-W-Y.
We finally arrived at the house around 7p.m. As we started unloading and unpacking, I realized my iPad was nowhere to be found. Frantically I texted the host to see if she found it after we left. Our text exchange went like this:
Me – I think we left the iPad on the living room table. Would you mind letting me know if it’s there?
Her (within 4minutes) – Hi…It wasn’t there. I’m so sorry!
Me (after 40mins) – Hello would you mind taking a look around the house or check with the cleaning crew? We can’t find it anywhere and the iPad’s location is pinning it there still. I’ve set up alert in case it gets activated…
Her – It is??? Humm I’ll check with them tomorrow if that’s ok…I went in after you guys left and didn’t see it…We are looking now, not in the unwashed laundry…I’ll ask the current guests to check…Good news!!! I just texted the current guests and they said it’s inside the dome!!
I was relieved to hear the iPad had been found. Unfortunately, it’ll be a three hour roundtrip drive to retrieve it BUT I definitely WELCOME the RETURN of my iPad.
(August 28-30, 2020)
