Seal Beach – Family Time, Maintenance Time, and Downtime

We landed at Seabreeze RV Resort, a Navy campground in Seal Beach, CA. After a strong push across the country, it was fabulous to land in one campground and remain there for sixteen nights. Equally fantastic was the chance to be around our son and his family, who live 20 miles north of the campground.

Before arriving at Seal Beach, we experienced issues with our bedroom slide extending and retracting. The slide finally gave out at our stop at Fort Irwin, CA, and we could not get it to retract. Seal Beach was 200 miles away, and I would drive with the slide extended, but Helen had a better idea. Our route would take us through Barstow, CA, and she successfully located an RV Mobile repair technician (Fred) who would meet us in the Barstow Home Depot parking lot to investigate the problem. Fred reworked the wiring on the slide motor and had us on the road to Seal Beach in an hour and a half.

In the early days at Seal Beach, we used some time for repair and maintenance. One of our pantry shelves had fallen and needed some reworking. The trim around our front window had separated from the wall, and I reattached that. The heating element in our water burned out. I bought the last one available at Camping World and replaced it (thanks to a YouTube video).

A few days after arriving, we visited Justin’s neighborhood, where our granddaughter, Abby, and her friends stood for pictures after dressing up for the Winter Formal hosted by her High School. The young ladies were gorgeous, and the young men were strikingly handsome. The students gathered in a local park while their parents (and grandparents) took picture after picture.

Our Grandson, Carter, played in a two-day volleyball tournament conveniently held in Seal Beach. Helen and I felt fortunate to have the opportunity to watch the action. Carter’s team won more games than they lost, and Carter played very well. 

Helen and I don’t go out for meals very often, but when we’re in Southern California, I insist we visit Hennessey’s Irish Pub in Hermosa Beach. Carter and I each had the Dubliner Gourmet Burger.

I also insist I have my annual picture of Abby and me seated together, which we did this time. Abby doesn’t appear to be relishing the moment, but she probably had a lot on her mind. Her high school cheerleading team was on their way to Orlando for the National High School Cheerleading competition as the defending National Champions. This year, the team competed hard and took home the Bronze Medal. Third in the nation is still an outstanding accomplishment.

Southern California’s weather has been unusually wet and cold, and we spent much of the first week indoors. I can’t complain much about the rain because it is badly needed here, and thankfully, a lot of it fell in the Pacific Palisades area, where most of the wildfire damage occurred earlier in January.

Finally, the sun broke through, and we drove to Seal Beach’s historic downtown area to walk past the shops and onto the pier. The day was gorgeous, and the surfers were out in droves—most were excellent, and all were wearing wet suits. I have no idea what the water temperature was that day, but I’m confident it was very cold.

The Seal Beach Pier is nearly a half-mile long, with a large viewing area at the end. Many ships rested in the water, awaiting their turn to dock at the Port of Long Beach. One ship, moored way offshore, stood between me and Catalina Island. The words of the song by the Four Preps ran through my head:

“Twenty-six miles across the Sea, Santa Catalina is waiting for me…”

The song became an earworm and stuck with me all afternoon. If you want to make it your earworm, too, here’s a link to the lyrics:

https://genius.com/The-four-preps-26-miles-santa-catalina-lyrics

Enjoy your day…we’re Easin’ Along.