July 7, 2004 - It's So Quiet!

Got To Have That Sweet Music

Without CDs or FM radio, we were tuneless, but then we figured out we could hook our MP3 players into the auxiliary port of the bungalow's stereo system. Listening to Jimmy Buffet on a Caribbean island … for me, it can't get any better than that.]

Back to the Beach

While Leia went down to the beach by herself, I browsed the bungalow guests' community journal. Typical American comments, not perfect, yada yada. Ungrateful for what it ISN'T instead of being happy about what it IS!

I went down to the beach to meet up with Leia, but by the time I got down there, she wasn't anywhere in sight. Not worried about her, I waded into the water. The tide was higher this time, so I didn't have to negotiate the spiny coral beds as much. It was still pretty rough on the feet / ankles - one needs to look for channels and not get your feet caught as you traverse deeper. Eventually, I figured out I should just float out instead of walk.

The water was SO perfect in temperature you can't believe it. There was a stiff undertow and an increasingly strongly wave that came in hard. Too bad about the coral, though. I was hoping I could body surf some (though the waves are kind of mild).

While in the water, I kept scanning both ends of the beach looking for Leia - for anybody - but quite a while, it was just me and the ocean (and the sea creatures).

At some point, I saw her walking toward me from the south (or I assumed it was her since the figure heading in my direction was over 1000 yards away or more). It turned out that it was her, though. She had been exploring, looking at various houses and properties. She happened to come across an ideal plot that turned out to be for sale! We decided to check it out together tomorrow. She said she walked down Banks Road and had a wonderful time enjoying Mother Nature and the QUIET.

Give Peace (and Quiet) A Chance

For both of us, the quiet is what's so wonderful around here. We live by the Pacific Coast Highway, also know as US-1 or the PCH, which traverses the entire west coast from Washington state to San Diego, California. In various spots, the PCH goes directly through towns, occasionally changing names. For example, by LAX, PCH is renamed "Sepulveda Boulevard."

The constant traffic of PCH gets into your brain and is like an occasionally annoying hum, especially when a Harley is blasting down it through Hermosa Beach [Ed. Where we used to live … the following text reflects that as a present day situation].

We live on one of the few through streets in Hermosa and even though it's a suburban locale, cars whiz by our house at all hours, usually at speeds upwards of 45-50 MPH. It's like people are angry they have to hunt for a through street and take it out on the asphalt and surrounding neighborhood by speeding through it all!.

Out Among The People

Leia and I went up to the bungalow, got dressed and drove to Tia's place to look into the cell phone. The lady there greeted us and I asked if she was Tia. She laughed and said Tia was Stanton Cooper's daughter (here I was thinking she was his wife), but said she was Stanton's sister-in-law.

I got the cell phone from her and the cell minutes card. Leia picked up some drinks for the road as she was quite thirsty from her long walk.

We took off to heard to Rock Point to go to the big market there. It was a very nice drive down the Queen's Highway. We got to see the Caribbean side of Eleu as we drove through - it was a beautiful as I always imagined.

[Leia and I had been "debating" which side of the island we'd want to live on. For me, the Caribbean side is more appealing. It's more tranquil and more exotic. Having grown up on the East coast, the Atlantic is more mundane to me and certainly rougher waters. Hurricanes come from the Atlantic side, so the Caribbean side may be less dangerous during the storm season.]

Rock Sound and Ocean Hole

We found the market at Rock Point, but continued past it to explore a little. Leia saw a sign for "Ocean Hole" where Jacques Cousteau had once explored. Intrigued we drove down to the park there. We learned from the sign that the hole is "bottomless" and occasionally, ocean fish get caught in there and apparently can't find their way back. The placard said that the park was dedicated in 1970.

There were a number of (white) teenage tourists along with some young (black) locals. The teens were bobbing up and down in the hold. We saw a couple of white vans parked there and assumed that they were what brought them.

There was a black woman selling homemade crafts by the hole. She wasn't getting many customers, though (including us).

We watched the kids for a while, then headed back to the car. There was a beagle-like dog which we tried to call over (having a beagle-like dog ourselves), but instead of coming, he quickly walked away in fear from us toward a wooded area adjacent to some houses.