Rincon Beach

Sunday August 16, 1992

We're up early and ready to pull out of the campground by 11:30. We say goodbye to all. Down the road near Rincon Beach we pull off and park our trailer next to the ocean water. It's lovely and cool. We're in no hurry to get home to 100 degrees. It's about 82 at the beach. We have lunch then sit outside and read awhile. I get sleepy so go into the trailer and take a nap.

We arrive home about 4 p.m. We put things away, call Maria and ask to go swim. She says OK so we go cool off for an hour or so and come home. Our air conditioner is not working. We sleep with the fan going strong.

Nothing like a trip to the beach to cool off, usually 20 degrees cooler than the inland temperatures. In Southern California the evening temperatures don't cool off much like they do further north so it's hard to sleep in the heat, especially with an upstairs bedroom. Our bedrooms upstairs are usually 8-10 degrees hotter than downstairs.

Ventura Beach

Tuesday July 7, 1992

Up at 6:30 Frank takes the boat to get an awning for shade installed in Van Nuys. I'm up at 7:40. I must pick up Junior & Joseph at 8 a.m., but I feel queazy from my chemo I just started last night again for 2 weeks. I have a hard time getting going. I try a banana. I manage to pick up the boys at 8:00. They're ready to go. At 10 a.m. I'm feeling better and we take off for the beach in Ventura. We find a nice beach but it is quite a walk to the water. I'm pooped when we reach the water. Then it's another big walk to the restrooms.

The boys make a sand castle and swim. We have lunch and Frank plays volleyball with them. The boys are really good even serving from outside and good dives.

At home Frank gets lots of help cleaning the garage. The boys decide to go to bed at 10 p.m. 3 in a bed.

Nothing like alot of fresh air, sunshine and exercise to tire kids out! I wish I had a picture of those 3 pre-teenage boys sleeping together in one bed. Cute!

Growing up in Southern California my mom would take us to the beach every week during the summer months. Mostly we went to Santa Monica Beach near the pier. Even back in the 50s there was horrible traffic on the 405 Freeway coming home, so we would have to leave before 3:00 to beat the traffic. Later, as a teenager, we usually went to Zuma Beach in Ventura County. Ventura County beaches are less crowded than Los Angeles County, but the water is still warm. Zuma Beach had great waves for body surfing. I have lots of good memories of building sand castles and swimming in the warm water. Here in Sonoma County where I live now in Northern California, swimmming in the ocean is out of the question, even in the summer. The water is much too cold. Fortunately, though, we have plenty of lakes for swimming.

Santa Cruz

Tuesday March 10, 1992

Up and on our way to Santa Cruz by 10 a.m. both of us are feeling a big cranky in the morning. Frank gets cranky if I'm cranky. I'm tired and achy and am very hot and sweaty after my shower. By 10 a.m. I'm OK.

It's a pretty and interesting drive. We are checking out campgrounds too. When we get to Santa Cruz we go to see the boardwalk, pier, and the beach. Most of it is closed for winter. It's brightly painted buildings on the boardwalk and rides. We are almost the only ones there. We gather driftwood on the beach for our neighbor Doris. We eat pie only at Bakers Square for lunch. How naughty. Frank's idea.

We arrive back at Laguna Seca to get the trailer at 3 p.m. so it's 10:30 p.m. when we finally get home to Simi Valley. I helped drive about half the way home.

Mom mentioned earlier in her journal that she always had the large overhead fan on after her morning shower to cool her down. I imagine in the trailer there was no such fan and probably poor ventilation for the heat and humidity, so she is hot and cranky. I am wondering if this problem is like hot flashes from menopause. Mom was on hormone replacement therapy (Premarin) after menopause to help ease her hot flashes. I have often wondered if this medication could have brought on her ovarian cancer. It is rare now for women to be on HRT long-term like mom was because it's been found to be linked to heart disease, breast and ovarian cancer. After she was diagnosed with cancer Mom quickly went off her medication and it looks like her hot flashes came back just as quickly.

That drive along Monterey Bay between Monterey and Santa Cruz is one I am very familiar with. It was very pretty and there are many charming communities on that route. The Santa Cruz Boardwalk was founded in 1907. It is California's oldest surviving amusement park and one of the few seaside parks on the West Coast of the United States. The photo above is obviously taken during the summertime when it attracts lots of locals and tourists. In the wintertime, anyone can walk along the Boardwalk, but the rides shut down.

Santa Monica Pier

Mother loved the beach. She loved to swim in the surf, but one time I'll never forget. She'd been drinking her beer and there was a rip tide. She was screaming for help and somehow I went into the surf and helped her struggle back out of the water. I thought my mother was going to drown that day. My Daddy never liked the ocean. He wouldn't swim and was terrified of water since his father had thrown him off the Santa Monica Pier when he was a teenager. "Swim", he yelloed, "Swim, it's the only way you'll ever learn how," and somehow he managed to swim to shore.

This sounds like child abuse to me. When I was a girl mom took us to the Santa Monica pier almost every week in the summertime, so I am very familiar with how far of a drop it is to the water. I'm glad that mom loved the beach because I have lots of memories of good times there body surfing, building sand castles, and riding the carousel on the Santa Monica pier, pictured above. In those days, nobody had even heard of sunscreen. I came home sunburned and sandy every time.