My parents are early adopters. They’re always ahead of the curve. A new piece of tech comes out, they have it. A new trend shows up on social media, they’re already aware of it.
They were on social media before I was, had smart phones before I did, and have been using Uber and AirBnB seemingly forever while I’m just getting started. When they had to get their house tented, my mom didn’t worry – she just jumped on AirBnB and grabbed another house in the neighborhood that was being used as a guest house and moved the family and the pets there for the week.
So when we all headed out on our way to visit for the holidays, she knew we’d never all fit in the house they’ve had since my sisters and I were kids, and she jumped on AirBnB to get us a guest house.
She struck gold, and made our first AirBnB experience an amazing one!
From the moment we stepped into the house, I was captivated by its stories.
The owners had put in a lot of work into renovations and expansions, and the majority of the decor was a combination of bright and bleached wood and tile I love to see in California decor. But they had obviously traveled extensively and brought back many pieces from their adventures.
With solar tubes everywhere filtering sunlight into the house and tall bright windows in the sun room and master letting in so much light, the house was beautifully bright and inviting, even in the rainy weather we had most of the trip.
And that rainy weather made all the wood burning stoves more fun to enjoy!
My favorite part of the house, though, was the effort that had been put into making it a great spot for outdoor living.
It isn’t often that you find a house with great views both in back and in front, but this house figured out how to take advantage of both!
There’s a beautiful garden and seating area in the front, where you can watch the sun rise over Cerro San Luis {as we did many mornings, thanks to still being mentally on East Coast time} with your cup of coffee before you pick oranges from one of the many citrus trees to squeeze for fresh orange juice.
And in the back, there’s tons of beautiful blooming things, a gravel path that meanders from one seating area that invites you to enjoy the view to another that was our favorite spot for lunching to a shaded pergola full of gorgeous orchids.
There were at least a half dozen citrus trees on property, but they were the perfect size – none of them were taller than me! And all were simply laden with fresh fruit for us to enjoy. Just about every day I made orange juice, sliced fresh oranges to go with our breakfast, or pressed lemons for fresh lemonade.
One of my dreams for our post-Army home is to have a garden of fruit trees, preferably citrus, so that I can squeeze fresh orange juice, slice fresh lemons for cooking or for lemon water, and squeeze lime over fish tacos! Staying here just reinforced that!
For the style of living and travel we enjoy, I think we’ll be looking at fewer hotels and more AirBnBs in the future, especially if there are whole houses to rent available! And especially if there are citrus trees we can enjoy.
And for those who are interested, you can reserve the AirBnB we enjoyed here – although I’m hesitant to share this with you since we want to reserve it again the next time we come to town!
As a note – this house {as with many houses} does not typically allow children. I can understand why – the owners have a lot of beautiful treasures from their travels that I wouldn’t want kids playing with. We contacted them and got their permission to bring our little man to stay, and we still moved a few things up to high shelves to keep them away from his little hands.
How about you guys? Are you AirBnB yayers or nayers?
If I didn’t live near… I’d want to stay!!
The views alone are worth it! Heck, the fresh citrus for morning orange juice alone is worth it! We really miss that part of the stay!