House By The Sea

Both the scenery and the food are super idyllic at Surf's Up

Once we'd had our fill of pancakes in the room for breakfast and nachos and guac by the pool for lunch -- which didn't happen until the second to last day -- we made our way down the beach to a little cafe called Surf's Up.

The food was so tasty at breakfast -- and the spot was so beautiful -- that we decided to venture back for lunch again later. The cafe is the inspiration of a woman who moved there from Vancouver, BC. Chatting with her, she said she loved Vancouver but being in the hospitality business is so much more fun when it's warm all the time and people are always in a good mood.

She and her man live on site, and having recently heard this little gem on the radio, it started to play on internal radio as my kids and I climbed back down to the ocean with our boogie boards after lunch, ready to catch some more waves:

They say home is the place where your heart is
Then I am home now, though I am far away
For so long I've let the forest guard it
And now it's begging me to stay
And I'm trying my best to be tough
To pretend I am strong and can siphon it off
But I'm not who I wanted to be
In my heart I belong in a house by the sea

I can relate to this song, being an ocean-lover myself. I hope someday I will reside in a house by the sea:

They say home is a place where you're needed
Then I am home now, but I am leaving
To feel my feet being kissed by the seaweed
And I will be silent and kiss it back
This is not who I want you to see
It's just adding on weight to the darkness in me
And from the little I have understood
I believe that a house by the sea would do good

But for now, I'm content just to visit, since home is the place where I can be with my kids:

They say home is a place you can choose to be
And I've decided to carry home inside me
So it's not really as if I am leaving
It's more like something pulling me
Because behind everything that I do
I just want to forget, want to carry this through
Fill my lungs with the sweet summer air
In my heart, in my mind I am already there

It wasn't easy to learn how to carry home inside me -- I spent years convinced it wasn't even possible -- but I'm here to say it is quite possible.

Doesn't make it any less sweet to get to be in the ocean again, though:

Yeah behind everything that I do
I just want to come home and lay down beside you
And then I'll be who I wanted to be
In my heart I belong in a house by the sea