Prices in High Places: May 2013

Did you know that springtime is absolutely lovely in California? Me either. Mostly because I spent the bulk of my free time working on a tri-plex -- a building which I felt lukewarm (at best) about anyhow.

When we bought the place last fall, RP had to talk me off a ledge (or rather out of tears) every time I entered the apartment I was about to call home. Despite being a cool 200 feet from the beach, the apartment we RP decided we'd move into was old, dingy, and by the looks of it, inhabited by no one but 20 and 30-something single males for four or five decades.

Behold:

It was pretty tragic to say the least.

It also demanded just about all of our free time to devote to cleaning, repairing, cleaning, interviewing contractors, cleaning, purging, cleaning, etc. In fact, for about six weeks, my home looked something like this:

I'm now happy to report, however, that I now actually enjoy coming home. In fact, I kind of love our little beach shack. It's amazing what new carpet, wood floors, new paint, two completely renovated bathrooms, new baseboards, new doors, new fixtures, and new kitchen cabinets will do for a place.

Not to mention a whole lot of credit card charges labeled "One Kings Lane."

Note the absence of Bedroom 2, as it currently empty aside from an air mattress and a few orphan boxes.

A weekend in San Clemente, anyone?

Remember how our last vacation made us kind of want to crawl into a hole and do nothing for about a year? Well, we weren't about to make that mistake again (at least not for another few months). That's why we were thrilled when Mom and Dad Price made us an offer we couldn't refuse -- a week's stay on the North Shore of Oahu.

Color us excited (and super tan). Our week in Hawaii was all kinds of fun, filled with swimming, hiking, surfing, jumping off rocks, eating macadamia nuts (an inordinate amound by any standards), snorkeling, running, and going to sleep by 9 p.m. (sunshine and sea turtles really take it out of you).

RP even celebrated a birthday while we were on the island, although you'll need to confirm that with him. As it was, I didn't see much of my husband, although rumor (and a few photographs) have it that he was indeed on the trip. He just happened to spend most of it out among the jellyfish, coral, and sick sick waves of the North Shore. He did, however, allow us to have a little party for him. Much to his excitement, we even decorated for the occasion, and topped off the celebration with a Chocolate Haupia cake from Ted's Bakery.

RP's favorite part of his birthday? Probably his morning surf with Brian. Old habits die hard, and they managed to squabble with the locals in the lineup.

Speaking of Brian, we all got to spend some quality time together since he's currently living on the island. While he and RP scheduled regular surf dates, I had no problem being the third wheel when shrimp was involved. They're just so cute together.

RP returned the favor and crashed MY lunch date with Libbie:

We did manage to pull in SOME culture while we were there, touring Pearl Harbor on a sunny Hawaiian morning, and stopping at the Pali lookout on our way back North. Even RP enjoyed it, mostly due to the fact that the surf was small that day.

Note that I wasn't the first Radford of importance on the island:

We kept ourselves busy, but I was happy as a clam just going to the beach everyday. We managed to swim with sea turtles, surf the North Shore, swim underneath the Weimea waterfall, jump off a 30-foot rock in Waimea Bay (evidence is below, circled in red in case you don't believe me), snorkel among the fishies, and relax on the sand -- in style.

On RP's last surf of the trip, he broke the tip of his board. He concluded that the sacrifice was worth it. I thought maybe it would mean him cutting his surf session short. No dice. Five minutes and a half a roll of duct tape later, he was back in the water.