I have always believed that living somewhere with broad, expansive views makes a huge difference. Don’t get me wrong, intimate and beautiful courtyards and gardens can be lovely and very inspiring without the benefit of panoramic distances, but nothing beats the long view, whether of some water scene overlooking an ocean or lake or some distant mountains majesty. When shopping for a home to which to ultimately retire in 2011, Kim and I (joined by son Tom) took a week to travel from San Francisco down to San Diego, specifically to look over the areas where we might want to settle down. We looked at places in Sausalito on the Bay, but that low-tide working harbor feel does not really resonate with my heritage, given that I’ve never been a boating person. In our trip to Florida last week, where we stayed in Stuart was directly on an inlet where manatees roam and where everyone keeps a small boat to putter around and do everything from sunset cocktail cruises to going for brunch on the water. Our friends Frank & Barbara are boating people and they wouldn’t be without a place to keep their boat close at hand. We went out with them for a short ride and what looked to me like a lot of work was pure pleasure to them. Courses for horses. So, Sausalito was not our spot.
We did look at places in Tiburon that had more expansive views back towards the city of San Francisco (across the Golden Gate Bridge), but the great views carried especially great price tags. We skipped past most of the Silicon Valley area for the obvious overblown research and our next stop was the Monterrey/Carmel peninsula. I first got to know that area back in the early 70’s thanks to my brother-in-law Bennett, who’s family lived on the famous Seventeen Mile Drive, with views out over the crashing surf with its sea lions and whale watching. It’s a magnificent spot that has become a global Mecca for the rich and famous, but it struck me as a bit isolated and very overpriced fro my blood.
California’s Central Coast from Big Sur down to Morro Bay is a magnificent stretch of coastline with expansive views that harken back to William Randolph Hearst. Both Kim and I feel very connected to that area, but we have determined that its remoteness is simply too great for our lifestyle. Whenever we go there it feels a bit like the land that time forgot, which has lots of charm, but which requires a commitment to isolation that we were not prophets to make. Heading down to the Santa Ynez Mountains put us in Santa Barbara and Montecito, which are stunning places that start to feel like places where you can live the good life with views out over the sweeping panorama of ocean from almost any property. That area strikes me as one with a version of stadium seating for a view of the ocean. What I mean is that unless you are Prince Harry, Kevin Costner or Oprah, you end up with a house with a nice view of the ocean, but its usually over the rooftops of houses below you on the grade and overlooked by rows of houses on the grade above you. There is a certain “boxed-in” feeling I get in Santa Barbara where I feel jammed in button the coast and the mountains, which is fine if you want to stay put, but does not make you feel very expansive.
In our survey, we skipped over the L.A. Basin for reasons of congestion (though Palos Verde is awfully nice) and took up the stack again in the Laguna Beach area. There was a lot to commend that part of Orange County for us, but before we knew it we were down here in San Diego Northcounty. In many ways, this was the logical place for us since this is where my sister and Kim’s brother lived and its always nicer to have family in the area. I’ve told the story many times of how I happened on this particular hilltop house on that Christmas morning and then proceeded to put in a bid on it sight unseen before flying back to New York. I don’t think it is any one thing that made me transact, but rather a combination of things. I concluded that this area suited us better for lifestyle and family reasons. We thought this hilltop neighborhood was much nicer and prettier than places we had seen in Fallbrook and Bonsal nearby. We strongly preferred not being in a gated community and the blend of a separate enclave with nice plantings but without gates appealed a great deal to us both. And, of course, it was not missed on us that the house had a nice distant view of the ocean, which is always a good thing. It wasn’t up close and stinky like Sausalito. It wasn’t overpriced like Tiburon or Carmel. It wasn’t remote like Cambria or San Luis Obispo. It wasn’t squeezed and layered like Santa Barbara. We are not beach people enough to want to be close enough to smell the salt air, but do like the idea of having a distant view of the ocean to allow our imaginations to soar.
What I honestly did not realize was just how special the views in all directions were on this hilltop. A proper and thorough due diligence should have caused me to spend time sitting in the living room as I am right now. That would have made me aware of just how special the omnidirectional views are from this house. I would have seen the snow-capped mountain ranges to the north and been able to juxtapose those against the 40-mile Pacific Ocean views to the west. Those are the big views that would be noteworthy to a potential buyer and there alone would have sold me. But it’s the other views that I might not have noticed that have caught my attention this morning. The change to daylight savings time has caused me to get up more in the dark than usual. This morning I am sitting here thinking about my world and I see one of the beautiful views that I probably would have missed in diligence since it takes extreme diligence to get up at sunrise to check out the views at a potential property being considered. But the sun coming up to the east is very special on this hilltop. Palomar Mountain is to the east. I ride up there through the various Reservations that populate that area (Rincon, Pauma, Pala, San Pasqual, La Jolla and Santa Ysabel to name a few). When the sun starts to peak up over those mountains, having already passed over the desert beyond, it filters its way through my boulders, giant succulents and Palo Verde trees on my front hillside, and finally peaks through the yucca trees in front of my picture windows. It is a spectacular sight that deserves special mention. I probably do not spend enough time appreciating the colorful and magnificent sunsets over the ocean that we see literally every night from our living room. But I know I do not see the sunrise as often as I should and then break free of whatever is clogging my brain that morning to fully appreciate sunrise on the hilltop as I should.