I go to a lot of historical homes and palaces. One thing most of them have in common is sad stories. He built the home for the love of his life and she died shortly after it was finished. They built their dream house, but were then bankrupt. He never finished his castle, because he committed suicide. The bought the house, did extensive remodeling for their coming child, then the mother and child both died in childbirth. I’m just drawing these out of the air, but each one probably has at least five places I’ve been that would fit the story. It’s rare to find a happily-ever-after house.
Greystone Mansion is no different. “On the night of February 16, 1929, only five months after the family had moved in, Ned Doheny was found shot to death inside the home, at the age of 35 and the victim of an apparent murder-suicide perpetrated by his longtime personal friend and aid Hugh Plunkett,” says beverlyhills.org.
You are welcome to enjoy the grounds, but the interior is off limits. The facility is frequently used for grand affairs and as a location for filming movies, TV shows etc., but most of the time it just sits there sad and empty. There is a tour of the interior every first weekend, but that’s not when we were there.
All the signs say photography is not allowed, but then no one is there to stop you and we ran into some people scouting it as a filming location and they offered to take our picture for us, so if you go, snap away. I do believe what they say about filming, because just a few days after we got home, I saw a TV show where the characters were standing under the lamp in the photo above.
Here’s what the mansion looks like.
From the mansion, we drove around Beverly Hills a bit. We thoroughly enjoy looking at rich people’s stuff. Then we returned to our nephew’s house for the evening and had dinner at an Italian restaurant that was supposed to be historical, but it was really just dirty and old and the food was awful.
The vacation was winding down. We’d be flying back the next day, but I had one more trick up my sleeve and it turned into one of the things we enjoyed most of the whole vacation.
After the Casa de Herrero tour was over, we were hungry, but the time of the tour had landed us right in that dead zone between lunch and dinner. We drove to Santa Barbara, found some parking and walked over the State Street. When you live on the Central Coast, Santa Barbara is the big city or at least the biggest city in striking distance, so we’d been there many time during our six year sojourn and we made it point to visit whenever we returned.
State Street is the main drag and there are many choices of restaurants, but most of them can be a little pricey. We walked up and down, visited a few shops and then Bill decided on Pizza. Mizza was a satisfying choice gastronomically, but the service could have been better.
On to Carpinteria
We have a secret when we visit Santa Barbara. We stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Carpinteria . The price is right and it has everything we need. I did a great job describing it last time, so there’s no need reiterating it.
The next day in Santa Barbara was just what it was supposed to be, a chance to decompress before heading back to LA and then back home. We hung around the beachside area and Stern’s Wharf, enjoyed an art show, stopped by the mission, drove around the hills and saw an open house, had lunch at someplace called the Fish House. It was nice, if not spectacular.
Our favorite part of the day was back in Carpinteria. It was about sundown when we rolled into town and I saw a sign pointing towards Carpinteria Beach. We headed that way and found much of the population of Carpinteria making the most of a Sunday twilight.
We spent a good amount of time there, enjoying the people as much as we did the beach. Back in the room, there was a little reorganizing and packing. Bill had some work he needed to do and I did some crosswords. Exciting, right?
Here’s the page I created to remember Carpinteria Beach by.
MAKING MEMORIES: PISMO LIGHTHOUSE SUITES & CASA DE HERRERO
Pismo Lighthouse Suites
I can’t abandon Pismo without a shout out to our wonderful accommodations. After the grandeur of the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort, pretty much anything else would have to be a step down, but we didn’t have to step very far down. Pismo Lighthouse Suites proved to be an excellent choice for a stay.
One thing we certainly loved was the breakfast every morning, served in a community room and if you couldn’t find something you liked, then you are really too picky. I’d sure stay here again.
Casa de Herreroin Montecito
Bill usually leaves most of the vacation planning to me, but when he does make a suggestion, it’s a jewel. I didn’t find it in any of my research, but it should be on every must-see list for Santa Barbara. It’s a little pricey and hard to schedule, but it is a gem.
The home is open to the public at 10 AM and 2 PM on Wednesdays and Saturdays – PERIOD! And the tickets are $50 per person. I’ll wait for you to catch your breath. If budget is not a constraint and you can be there on their schedule, then you have to go. You will love it. Lotus Land was $60 each, but it seems to me there was a whole lot more to it. Still, I’m glad I had the opportunity to go.
We pulled into Montecito about 1:15 PM and had to kill about half and hour in a shopping center parking lot. We couldn’t just go hang out by the Casa. They keep the gate closed until a few minutes before the tour and you aren’t allow to park in the neighborhood. Parking is at a premium everywhere in Montecito and the signs at the shopping center were very threatening, so we couldn’t even lock up the car and go for a walk. We had to pretend one or the other of us was visiting one of the establishments, while the other guarded the car.
Finally, it was almost time for them to open their gate, so we made our way to the home. When the tour started, we were informed we couldn’t take photos inside, but think San Simeon’s dining room turned into a full house. Very Spanish and a little dark.
The original builder and owner of the house was George Fox Steedman from San Luis Obispo, who started out as a metalsmith and woodworker, threw in a few real estate deals and became filthy stinking rich. The house had a metalsmithing and woodworking studio where Mr. Steedman pursued his interests. The house is full of valuable antiques from the Golden Age of Spain, but they are pretty dark and depressing.
Counterpoint to the interior with it’s nod to the Inquisition, outside was delightful and you could take photos. And that’s what you’ll see on the photo book pages I’ve included below.
After leaving our old house and taking a drive through it’s neighborhood, we headed to Downtown Pismo Beach. Some things don’t change and trying to park in Pismo is one of them. Weekday in January and parking was at a premium. We made our way down to the waterfront where many improvements had taken place. We took pictures, walked to then of the pier and took more pictures. It’s not the most beautiful beach in the world, but it’s a familiar one.
Over our two day stay we snapped photos wherever we were. Eating at the Shore Cliff (which they now call the Ventana Grill), hanging at Pismo Lighthouse Suites (which was a marvelous place to stay), visiting our friends or just driving between their houses. I combined all these photos to create Pismo Beach pages I’ve added below for you to see.
On to Estero Bay& Cayucos
Though Pismo Beach is where we built our home and lived later in California, we first lived in Los Osos. Los Osos was part of a estuary shared with Morro Bay. Then down the road a little bit is Cayucos. These were our haunts.
We finished many a day in Los Osos by visiting the beautiful Montana de Oro State Park which was moments away from our rental house. Or we’d just walk around our neighborhood, Cabrillo Estates with it’s jaw dropping views. Bill also enjoyed playing golf at Sea Pines Resort.
Los Osos was a great place to live, but it didn’t have much in the way of restaurants, so eating out usually meant going over to Morro Bay which was more of a touristy town. If if we wanted Tex-Mex, we’d go to the only place on the Central Coast which actually knew what that was, Taco Temple in Cayucos. They were more famous for their California Fusion fish tacos, but we always ordered the nachos.
We also loved going up to Cambria with beautiful Moonstone Beach, but we didn’t make it this trip. Don’t worry, we’ll make a point of going next time we visit the area – and we will visit the area again.
So, on this nostalgic tour, we drove up to the top of Cabrillo Estates and stood in wonder of the majesty of God’s creation. We hit our two favorite spots in Montana de Oro, Spooner’s Cove and the Bluff Trail. Sea Pines was next and the Baywood neighborhood nearby. On we drove on around the estuary and through Morro Bay State Park.
We hadn’t left Pismo until around 3 PM, so the day was getting away from us. We merely drove through most of Morro Bay, but we did get out at Morro Rock. From the rock we drove on Highway 1 beside Morro Bay Strand to spend a few minutes on the Cayucos Pier, before going to Taco Temple for a plate of their nachos.
If you’re wondering what all that looked like, then you’ll enjoy these pages.
MEMORY MAKING: OLD FRIENDS AND FAVORITE PLACES ON THE CENTRAL COAST
Leading with the Human Connections
On the way to town we’d connected with one friend and had dinner with others as soon as we arrived. Now we’d be stopping by for “coffee” with even more people we’d enjoyed when we lived there. I put quotes around coffee, because I don’t drink it, but it’s easier to make coffee appointments and explain my odd negation of the beverage for later. If we were going to be in the area for an extended period, I would have reached out to quite a few more favorite faces, but our time was limited.
First up was Sally, a sister in the Lord. We met at South Bay Women’s Network, which was a group I loved all the time I was there. Sally and I have stayed in touch, mostly thanks to the magic of Facebook and her very sweet spirit. Since we’d last seen each other in person, she’d gotten married and moved from Los Osos to Avila Beach. It was great to catch up, meet her guy and see her very lovely home.
Too soon, because we could have continued the visit for hours, it was time to head to Arroyo Grande to visit Melissa, a sister in real estate. I did real estate while I was there and besides being one of the nicest people in the world, Melissa was also one of the very best real estate agents I ever met. I tried to emulate her in everything thing I did and gave her my client list when I left. She was still married to the same guy, but had given up a big rambling house on a large lot to downsize in the city. We shared all the real estate gossip and I caught up on her family. Then she showed us around her remarkable estate. In the front it looks like just another lovely home in the Five Cities, but the backyard seems more like a resort than a residential space and then there were all the garages – one with her beloved RV. Her daughters carried on her real estate business for her and Melissa is busy being a grandmother and RV traveler.
We Built That
Having fulfilled our coffee appointments, we made our way to our old neighborhood, not to see someone, but some place. Our home at 37 La Gaviota had been Bill’s labor of love and he wanted to spend some time there. Even though he’d done my real estate photography on the Central Coast, he didn’t learn to fly a drone until we opened Spot On Images in Texas. Bill had brought his drone along so he could get some shots of the old home place. At the time, it was the pinnacle of his home building experiences. Now we live in what he considers his masterpiece.
I’ll leave you with the pages I made in Artisan from his photo shoot of our old home.
MEMORY MAKING: BETWEEN A ROCK & A HARD PLACE IN PISMO BEACH
Deja Vu All Over Again
Though we hated to leave our glamorous digs in Huntington Beach, it was time to head up the road to see other good friends in the Pismo Beach area. The day was uneventful until we decided to get off Highway 1 and take a scenic backroad. Then it was deja vu all over again.
My plan was to meet Deni in an Orcutt coffee shop called Plenty on Bell and then drive on to Pismo for dinner with, let’s call them, A & B. Dinner is something you have around 7:30, right? Well, A & B had decided, since we’d seen them last, that it’s at 5. Things were about to get tight and that’s where the deja vu came in.
The last time we’d been to Pismo, we stayed with A. We also had plans with another friend we’ll call C, but as we drove into town, A called us with the news they’d gotten us tickets to some gala and we had no time to see C. We were between a rock and a hard place with no place to win. We went to the gala (which was not a gala at all, more of a drunken brawl) and missed the time with C. A went on to monopolize the rest of our time, so I never got out to C. My friendship with C cooled to an acquaintance sort of relationship after that (and who can blame her). That was a great loss for me.
I thought I’d learned the lesson I needed to learn. So I booked our hotel before we even told A we were coming. We love her to death, but after living out there for six years, she’s not the only person we love in the area. We thought staying in a hotel would keep her from monopolizing all of our time, but the struggle was not over.
Back to the Present
So, here we were on the backroad to Orcutt. The GPS had been very wrong at estimating our arrival at Orcutt, so our time with Deni was already shrinking and A is on the phone demanding we get our butts to Pismo posthaste. Lesson learned, I wasn’t going to let A’s demands cost me another friend. So I pushed back and made room for Deni. It wasn’t enough time, but my friendship with Deni is longer and deeper, so she got both the rock and the hard place. We chatted for a while, shared a couple of hugs and I got back on the road to Pismo with that friendship intact.
Our dinner with A & B was lovely. We laughed so hard we cried. At the end of the meal, A started trying to organize the next day around their schedule, not ours. It was hard, but I pointed out the brief nature of our visit and the long list of people we needed to see.
Despite my many protestations, I was to call her as soon as I was free the next day. Not to worry by lunchtime she called us and demanded to know when we’d be there. As I had told her at dinner, we weren’t.
The lesson I learned this time was to let A know we are visiting Pismo after we’ve already seen the rest of our friends. I hate that it has to be like that, but it’s that or not have any other friends in the area and I plan on keeping them all.
Many of my new clients come to me because they are looking for a solution to their obsolete memory media, things like film reels, slides and VHS tapes. I’m always happy to help, but I hate it for them when their project ends with digitization and they haven’t prepared a permanent home for their valuable memories.
The Best Digitization in the Industry
It’s no wonder people come to me for digitization. FOREVER leads the pack in digitization services. Our quality is unsurpassed, our turnaround times are remarkable and we do it all, not just photos and VHS tapes, but all the obsolete media – even scrapbook pages.
The process is simple. Order a box. When you receive it, fill it up and return it. Track your box online and then enjoy your digitized memories. And yes, unlike other digitizers, we do return the original items to you.
The Best Keeps Getting Better
Even though we’ve led the way in digitization for a while now, we’ve stepped up to make the process even better. Tracking your box online was always easy, but it was a completely different experience than the rest of FOREVER. We wanted new digitization clients to have a seamless experience from ordering their box to making their memories permanent and that just wasn’t happening. On August 14th, FOREVER released the new digitization tracking system with many improvements built in.
First and foremost, notice the Digitization tab in the standard FOREVER menu. You won’t have to go to the Digitization Page or find a link in an email, to follow your digitization, like before. It will be right there with everything thing else.
The viewing time will be expanded to 90 days rather than 60 and sharing from your Box Tracker will be seamless. In the past, you had to download it or add it to your storage to share it. Now, you’ll be able to share from the Box Tracker directly – a huge improvement.
Keep FOREVER
And here’s where the two step comes in. Getting your memory media digitized is only half the battle. What are you going to do with the digitized files? Over 40% of new FOREVER customers, whose first purchase is digitization, then buy storage at the same time or shortly thereafter. CONFETTI!! That’s a win! They understand getting it digitized is just the first step. The second step is making it safe permanently.
To help make this transition easier, the new Box Tracker will have a great big blue button that says “Keep FOREVER”. Click that and automatically purchase the amount of storage you need for your newly digitized items. Every digitization customer who doesn’t already own storage should take this step. The other options can lead to heartbreaking results.
The Unfortunate Alternatives
But what about that 50%+ who choose NOT to take that second step? What happens to their memories? Honestly, I feel personally responsible when clients choose not to invest in permanent storage for their digitized memories. I feel as if I have somehow failed them. It happens a lot more than I want it to and it breaks my heart every time, but without FOREVER storage, you’re guaranteeing obsolescence, device failure and other unfortunate results. Here’s what I hear people do instead of permanent storage and the results they will eventually suffer.
Downloading to a Device
Oh, I’m going to download it to my computer OR I’m going to put it on a thumb drive OR I’m saving it to an external drive – someone will say. EEEEEEKKK! Name any device you want: PC, laptop, tablet, thumb drive, EHD, phone. All of them are temporary solutions. They were not designed to last forever. PC’s and laptops are designed to last about 8 years – that’s if the files aren’t corrupted and the device isn’t damaged. Some drives promise to last 14 years, but before the thumb drive or EHD dies, it is more likely to be lost! Your memories should be prepared for a future you’ll never see.
Today’s devices are remarkable, but they will soon be obsolete. Do you remember the floppy disc? It was the answer for tomorrow when it came out, but now it’s just data you can’t access. Look at all the VHS tapes being digitized these days, because people no longer have a player. Even CD’s and DVD’s are obsolete, because new computers don’t come with slots for them. Technology moves too fast to be reliable for the future and with out FOREVER, your memories are toast.
In addition, it’s your technology. How is someone else supposed to know which files on your computer are worth saving and which need to be wiped? If you have a box or bag of thumb drives, those will most likely go into the trash. No one these days wants to spend time sorting through them. Memories on devices are eventually headed to the landfill! Memories on FOREVER are shared for generations to come.
Uploading to a CloudOther Than FOREVER
Perhaps you’ve invested in a cloud to protect your data and if so, you’re not alone when you think that’s where your memories should go. Your Amazon or iCloud (or whatever cloud you rent) absolutely will protect the valuable data you need to run your life, but access to the cloud depends on you making a monthly or annual payment. What happens then. Will your next generation continue paying for your cloud?
What your memories need is a cloud you own, that can be enjoyed in the future without someone keeping up the payments. Perhaps your next immediate generation isn’t interested in your photos of Great Uncle Jimmy, but that doesn’t mean the next generation won’t be. Save your legacy on FOREVER. Someone in the future will thank you.
Uploading to Free
Instead of renting your cloud, perhaps you’re using one of the free storage solutions offered all over the internet. Every wonder why they’re free? It’s because you’re not the customer. You’re the product. Perhaps they’ll mine your images for advertising or just enjoy the income from the advertising they surround your images with or maybe it’s all about keeping you tied to some other program that is making them money, but one things for sure, when it’s not profitable to them anymore, you’re free service will be gone. Maybe they’ll warn you to claim your photos before they leave, but they aren’t required to. Oh the horror stories I could tell!
Bottom Line!
Do the two-step! If you’re going to spend the money to digitize your memories, then don’t waste that investment by allowing your digitized memories to disappear into the ether. Invest in Permanent Storage you own rather than rent and the only place to get it is FOREVER.
My friendship with Lizbet started at work many years ago. I was in a bind with a customer and she fixed it, when everyone else in the company shrugged their shoulders at me. I was in sales back in those days, which I hated, and when I moved to admin, one of the best things about it was being in the same building as Lizbet. What started as a transactional solution, led to being lunch buddies and on to her being one of my favorite people on the face of the earth. There’s a lot of water under that bridge.
No one can make me laugh the way she can. We love talking about odd, esoteric things that few others care about. And she gets Bill. There’s more, but that’s enough!
Tour Guide Extraordinaire
Because she gets me and she gets Bill, she knew we’d love the things she loves about the area. Such as the ferry to Balboa Island, which was her first treat of the day. It’s a tiny ferry that only holds one or two cars. These days there’s a bridge that takes you there without waiting for the nostalgic reminder of yesteryear, but we loved the experience. She also took us up a winding Laguna Beach road which leads through gorgeous residential areas to an overlook that’s known as Top of the World. Bill’s favorite thing was Crescent Bay Point Park, which was a lovely park high above a beautiful bay.
But the best part of the day, by far, was spending time with such a good friend. Neither one of us is particularly good about staying in touch, but the occasional holiday greeting and texted update keeps the friendship alive, until we spend another wonderful day together. From a day like that, there should be hundreds and hundreds of photos, but there’s not! Here’s some that we did take.
However, in recent years, Bill has demanded I be a little more discriminating in my bargains, because I have landed him in some dumps. Even so, luxury resorts are not our go-to choice. As I researched Huntington Beach, however, pretty much everything was expensive and the Hyatt Regency deal I found was only a small stretch. I was so glad when I sold it to Bill and made the reservation.
The Parking & Checking-In Thing
Bill may prefer I upgrade our accommodations these days, but he draws the line at exorbitant valet parking. Take our almost disaster in Detroit, for instance. As we drove around the exterior of the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach I knew we were in for another adventure in parking. I left Bill to it and went in to claim our room.
I admit I’m chatty and often find myself in a little trouble with Mr. Bill for my gift of gab, but this time my chattiness paid off in a big way. The hotel clerk was clicking away on her computer. She felt they’d booked my room a little too far from the lobby. Perhaps she thought an ancient senior citizen like me was too feeble to walk very far. I told her I was more interested in view than proximity to the lobby and about that time Bill comes in gawking around said lobby like a rube on his first visit to the big city. I said, “You’ll have to excuse him, this is a bit of a splurge for us.” She replied, “Then how about a full ocean view!”
What a Room!
Convinced I was hearty enough to make my way around the hotel grounds, this wonderful lady put us into what has to be one of the greatest hotel rooms in the world. This was the view as we opened the door to our room!
Once I got over that and looked around, I was even more astounded. This room was huge and gorgeous and well appointed. I wanted to move in forever!
There was an entry area with furnishings to accommodate all those little things you like to leave by the door. The bathroom would have pleased any ancient Roman. There was an area with a desk and bed raised on a dais like a throne room on the other side of some columns was a lovely sitting area next to the balcony.
I never wanted to leave, but we still had economy parking to deal with. It turned out to be not big deal at all. Apparently, we’re not the first people to think $65 a day is a little steep. There’s a public parking area right across the street from the hotel for like $10 a day – a far cry from $65. The hotel gives you a permit to stay there overnight. They even have a very elaborate pedestrian bridge to get you safely back to the hotel. We parked near the bridge and enjoyed the stroll back to our room, because the resort is beautiful.
For dinner, we found a place called Baja Sharkey’s at a nearby shopping center where we had margaritas and nachos. Then time for bed, because we were going on a tour the next day.
Here’s my photo book pages of the resort, made in Artisan, of course. Bill would want you to tell me that the fuzzy image on the left is the result of me trying to create a heavenly effect on the page, not his photography.
I confess, on some travel days, I get a little stressed. On this one, I’d just been to LACMA for a long anticipated visit and the only thing left on the day’s itinerary was to get to our hotel in Huntington Beach. So, we stopped along the way to run personal errands, like stocking up on fruit for Bill and beverages for me and generally took our time.
Before leaving the Nephew, we’d asked them about their favorite beach along our route and they recommended Hermosa. So when a sign pointed the way to it, we decided to take a look.
Parking is a real challenge in Hermosa Beach. It’s not cheap and you’re lucky to find a space, but it is worth a stop. We were there towards the end of the day on a Tuesday, so there was the occasional open space, but of course, Bill had to satisfy himself he was getting the best deal.
Surfer’s Walk of Fame
Did you know there was a Surfer’s Walk of Fame? Would you have gone looking for it in Hermosa Beach? I had no idea! Remember, I had depended on my nephew’s skills as a tour guide in LA and we were headed to Huntington Beach, where my primary focus was visiting one of my very best friends, Lizbet. Hermosa Beach hadn’t been on my radar.
There’s a wonderful, serendipitous feel to wandering around without an agenda. I get why people do it and on occasion I enjoy it, too. However, during these spontaneous moments you sometime find yourself meditating over a dandelion in the sidewalk, a block over from one the coolest things in the world. So, FOMO keeps me carefully researching most of our trips.
We strolled along a paved walkway toward a pier, taking photos along the way. For us, taking photos is part of seeing. Our eyes graze our surroundings, looking for vignettes to capture. We lift our cameras to snap a photo and move on. Later we enjoy the images and for me at least, sharing them is part of the fun.
At the entry to the pier stands a very cool statue of a surfer dude catching a wave. As you stroll out to the of the pier you really begin to see why it’s called Hermosa (Beautiful) Beach. Then a plaque on the pier caught my eye. Surfer’s Walk of Fame? What was that?
Looking more closely along the pier, I realized there were many plaques, spaced evenly along either side. Bill continued to snap photos of the scenery and I started reading the plaques. It was a love story, written for surfer dudes and all the dudes loved the same mistress. I now had a new affection for Hermosa Beach.
I wouldn’t recommend making a special trip to California just to see the Surfer’s Walk of Fame, but if you’re driving along Highway 5, it’s worth the parking fee. I hope you’ll drop by on Wednesday and Friday for Memory Keeping and Memory Sharing, but for now I’ll leave you with my Hermosa Beach pages, made in Artisan 6.
jane sadek 