June 2017

A small disclaimer before we begin…we DID know that part of the deal staying at this Airbnb was to take care of a cat. That said, we feel we signed up for the morning meows, daily feedings, and cleaning a litter box - you know, the usual pet care. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this month, accurately themed by us as "Smelly Cat". [Sean's update: Am I the last person to know that this actually happened???]

Moving In

A few weeks before we moved in, the woman who owned the home kindly asked if we could stop by to meet her to go over a few things in person. We agreed. The house was a little outdated and had a musty smell, but overall, it was a pleasant meeting. The owner reviewed the usual - where we would stay, when to take the garbage out, what to do with the mail - and how to take care of the 20 YEAR OLD CAT. IT’S 20 YEARS OLD!! At that moment, we telepathically communicated the same thing, PLEASE DON’T DIE WHILE WE ARE HERE (insert prayer emoji hands here). The last thing that we wanted was to be there when the cat died. From that moment, Katelyn asked a ton of questions about the cat and vet care. More on Dancer the cat later….

Our very first day it took us 90 minutes to drive to the house after work. But our adrenaline was pumping and we were excited to see what Pacifica would bring. Move-in went surprisingly smooth. We blocked the cat in with a gate and sliding door so we could prop open the front door to bring in our stuff. Our boxes, tubs, and suitcases stayed piled in the entry way for a while we spent the first night in the hot tub outside watching the sunset. Rough life.

The Place

We are moving up in the world - this month we had a full stand-alone home that was (drum roll please) OCEANFRONT. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us to live in an oceanfront home!



In addition to having the Pacific Ocean as our backyard, we were also just minutes away from our close friends Andrew and Angelica. It was fun being so close to them and randomly stopping by (especially when we came home to them in our hot tub!). One thing that is hard about constantly moving is that you don’t get to really know your neighbors, so this was a great change for us!

Ok, ok, back to the house… This was a two bedroom one bath home with an attached garage, laundry, and all the fixings we look for in our homes. Let’s see…where do we even start. OH IT SMELLED LIKE CAT PEE, and, here’s a few other details (READER ADVISORY: it’s about to get reeeealll descriptive).

The kitchen was plenty large, we could both comfortably fit in it and theoretically cook a meal. However, there was not a single space available in the cabinets for our few kitchen items we travel with or any food. No judgement, just a little frustration that there was no space to keep our food. So we moved the kitchen table to the corner and used that as a makeshift storage center.

Refrigerated food, you ask? Oh, well yes, there was a refrigerator that was completely full upon our arrival. Everything you can imagine, leftover food, half-eaten soups, moldy lettuce, and some open wet cat food. Yes - we completely cleaned out the fridge before unloading our stuff. We tossed about two trash bags of food that was either old, moldy, or going to spoil while we were there.

The first weekend there we wanted to drink coffee outside and watch the waves (so romantic) - so Sean went to use the coffee maker. (Hold on, I know we are all thinking the same thing…Sean knows how to use a coffee maker…??!! Yes, yes he does). [Sean's update: what the heck Katelyn?? Of course I do!] Obviously the owner doesn’t drink coffee, because old coffee grounds had been left in the coffee maker long enough to become hard as a brick, moldy, and it smelled terrible. This may be hard to imagine, but the smell was worse than the cat pee, as Sean gaged when he (so kindly) tried to clean out the coffee grounds.

Beside those few experiences, the kitchen was fairly nice. The oven, although old, worked like a charm. Also, she had a baking sheet! WHAT?! Never thought we would be so excited to see a simple baking sheet. Therefore to contradict Katelyn’s predictions, a baking sheet was NOT the first thing we purchased for the experience this year.



Here are the first things we purchased to add to our Airbnb belongings:
-4 plastic drinking mugs (we weren’t sure about the cleanliness of the mugs at the house, and new plastic ones sounded like a safer bet to take into the hot tub)
-A French press (Sean insisted, apparently he is slowly turning into a coffee drinker)
-A kitchen towel (again, cleanliness came into question here)
-Febreze wall air freshener (this should be obvious)



The living area was behind a window separating it from the kitchen - and that’s where Dancer, the cat, mostly stayed because it was warm. With the wall of windows facing the ocean the living area became a greenhouse in the afternoon when the sun was setting, and although it would be 50 degrees outside it was 80 degrees in the living room at night. And what did that instant heat do to the smell we mention earlier? Yes, it MAGNIFIED IT! CAT PEE SMELL FOR EVERYONE!

In addition to the lovely scent that welcomed us home every day the televisions (yes, both) only took about 20 minutes to turn on and had so many dead pixels it looked like it was snowing during everything we watched. Oh, the Bachelorette is in Los Angeles - SNOW, Jane the Virgin in Miami - SNOW, the Warriors winning another championship - SNOW. Obviously, we are too dedicated to our shows and put up with this.

The bedroom and bathroom were just ok. Again, there’s a reoccurring theme here of not enough storage for a tenant staying for a month. We had all the bathroom daily use products lined up on top of the toilet and everything else sat right outside the bathroom in bags for easy access.



The bedroom was nothing special. The homeowner cleaned out a few dresser drawers for us, and a section of the closet, leaving her stuff piled in about half of the drawers and 3/4 of the closet. Eventually we got the storage somewhat figured out. Again, Katelyn is slowly adjusting to letting places stay a little disorganized. To verify this statement, we can both agree that there was an unpacked duffle bag of Sean’s dirty clothes on the floor all month long - never unpacked. Mostly because Katelyn didn’t know they were dirty and Sean was too busy enjoying the outdoors to care, but alas it sat…all month…with limited comments from Katelyn (limited being the key word here).

But..THE BACKYARD! THE BACKYARD MADE IT ALL WORTHWHILE. Ready? We already mentioned the house was oceanfront but it had a HOT TUB THAT OVERLOOKED AT THE OCEAN. Could you get any more "BACHELOR" than that?!

We made it our life goal to use the hot tub four times per week. (Spoiler alert - we did not hit that goal.) We absolutely did the first two weeks, and perfected our piña colada recipe along the way (the more the piña, the more the bettera). If anything, after having a daily 90-mile commute, drinking piña coladas in a hot tub while watching the sunset made it all 100% worth it! That is, until the hot tub broke for a week. Not ever owning a hot tub, Sean and Andrew finally gave in and found an owner’s manual online to realize that we needed to replace the filter - something the homeowner specifically told us we wouldn’t have to do that month. Thankfully there were hot tub supplies in the garage and we were able to fix it just in time for our last week there.

The Cat

Oh Dancer..where to we even begin. Well, we learned about half way through the stay that Dancer is in fact a boy cat (we learned this through an email so get your mind out of the gutter). Therefore we will refer to it as a "he" and not the other pronouns, nicknames, and other phrases we would use throughout the month. Let’s start off here by saying - we learned that we are not cat people. However, to stay in an oceanfront home, we can keep a cat alive. During our pre-move-in meeting, we learned that Dancer has a personal heater that he enjoys laying next to 24/7. We were told to just leave it on for our entire stay. You can guess what happened our first night at the house - the heater broke. And that, my friends, was the start of our month with Dancer the cat.

Our daily routine with Dancer consisted of hearing him obnoxiously meow starting around 5 a.m. By the homeowner’s recommendation, we put a table up to block off the hallway leading to the bedroom and closed the sliding door next to bedroom to create a makeshift barricade, and then closed the actual bedroom door (if you are counting, yes, that would be three barriers to keep us away from him). If this system of barricades wasn’t properly in place, Dancer would begin to claw on our door at 5 a.m. in unison with the meowing. And when we say "meow" don’t think of some cute cat noise, think of a 5 year old child in a "how loud can you meow" competition to see how quickly they can wake up their parents …yup…. Katelyn got up around 6 each morning to turn on the faucet in the guest bathroom so Dancer could drink out of the sink - this would temporarily stop the meowing. While he was drinking Katelyn got his food ready, which he never seemed to care about at the time.

Since Dancer was old and senile he ate wet cat food. We have to admit, it was gross (again, not cat people) and we thought it was weird that we had to keep the cat food in the human fridge between feedings. Really, it just contributed to the overall smell of the house.

Back to the faucet, Dancer REALLY liked this faucet. This was fascinating behavior to us ‘non cat folk’. In fact, one morning he REVENGED PEED next to Hannah’s shoe when she was in the bathroom and he couldn’t get in. We're pretty sure that he revenge-peed more than we saw (hence the smell). The 20 year old cat was either too tired, too old, or just revenge peeing around the house. We cleaned up at least four cat "accidents" and one of which occurred on one of the owner's embroidered pillows. We got the pillow dry cleaned and let the owner know (she has yet to thank us or offer to pay us back).

We digress… the most memorable part of this experience with Dancer began when our friend Andrew (who had cats growing up) noticed some flea dust on top of the toilet that Dancer jumped on to reach the bathroom faucet. PSA: flea dust looks like THIS. So Andrew and Sean went to buy a flea comb, and we noticed there were fleas on the cat. We were hoping they were dead and taken care of. Unfortunately, the more time we spent at home, the more bites Katelyn started to notice on her ankles, even Sean, Andrew, and Hannah got flea bites. It’s official, the dang cat had fleas. We sent an email to the homeowner about this and she told us that she had tried to "handle it" before she left and that we may need to take the cat to the vet. Um, no. We went looking for flea meds and opened a kitchen cabinet only to find at least 10 different types of home flea killers. Great. We never heard another word from the homeowner on this issue. So naturally, we started to avoid the cat as much as possible.

Restaurants

There were quite a few places that we would drive past that we didn’t have the chance to try this month, but some of the ones we did try were real winners!

Devil’s Slide Taproom - This was one of Sean’s favorites before we even moved in. Andrew and Sean have spent many nights eating here before venturing out to the infamous Winters Tavern. The taproom has a great low key atmosphere, a typical family restaurant and bar. There’s probably 20-ish local and craft beers on tap, and they have a good menu that includes a variety of bar bite appetizers, salads, and sandwiches. If you get a chance to go here, try the soft pretzel - it’s delicious!

Nick’s Seafood Restaurant - Talk about an "old classic," according to the website this place has been around since the 1950s! It’s in one of the older areas of Pacifica that’s part of the city’s original architecture, right on Rockaway Beach. The parking lot for Nick’s is right on a beautiful cliff that overlooks the ocean. The restaurant definitely has an "older" vibe to it - a very classic bar/restaurant that has been around and has very loyal customers. We had a great time with Andrew. The boys ordered cocktails based off our server’s recommendations and we all shared a basket of delicious garlic bread as an appetizer (there may have been more butter than garlic, but who’s complaining?). We ordered a seafood Alfredo pasta and fish tacos - both were huge portions, but very good. Dinner was good, but we never had a huge desire to return during the month.

Puerto 27 - Full disclosure, we LOVE this place. It’s easily visible off Hwy 1 and we would pass it a few times a week. It’s on a small cliff directly East of Hwy 1 and has a stunning view of the coastline. On our first visit, we went with Sean’s parents and waited about 20 minutes for a table on a Friday night - not too bad. The restaurant has a lively atmosphere, it would be good for a friend dinner or date night. The Peruvian food is delicious - Sean especially enjoyed the traditional Pisco Sour cocktails (all four flavors). Over our two trips here we ordered a variety of plates, and were given some by the chef (who is the stepdad of Andrew’s coworker). Our plates included: chicken empanadas, skewers, lomo saltado (french fries with steak, vegetables, and rice), and more. We went here twice in the month, and would have happily gone back a third time.

Pacifica Thai - We are a little surprised this place even has a website. It is a smaller restaurant that was walking distance from our home. We passed it on a few walks and always said, "we need to try this place," so one night, we finally did - it IS Thai food after all. Sadly, we were not too impressed by it. We ordered our usual chicken satay, yellow curry, and pad se ewe, and found it all just okay. Their food options seemed a little different than the Thai restaurants we’ve experienced. In our opinion, the chicken satay was good, on par with what to expect. The pad se ewe was a little different, but also ok, and unfortunately we feel like the yellow curry was pretty flavorless. We walked away a little disappointed and will likely not return, but we are glad we tried it.

A Grape in the Fog - Katelyn was immediately drawn to this place just from the name. The first night we attempted to go there, we were with Sean’s parents, but they had live music and it was really loud in the small wine bar- so we opted to go to Puerto 27 that night instead. Even from our first very short visit, we had a good feeling (maybe it was because they were doing a Beauregard Vineyards tasting, so we may be biased). The second time we visited, we stayed for wine and dinner. It was much quieter and very enjoyable. We ordered individual glasses of wine, brie, empanadas, and meatballs. The service was a little slow, but, nothing at all to complain about, as it allowed us to enjoy the experience, wine, and the time together. The place is nothing too special, but we recommend if you’re looking for a cute date location that’s walking distance to a beach.

Beach Monkey - Who doesn’t love a good, healthy, organic acai bowl place? This is another one of Sean’s favorite places from before we moved to Pacifica. After Sean and Andrew ate dinner at Devils Slide Taproom and drank at Winters, they almost always ended up at Beach Monkey the next morning. This is the perfect weekend casual breakfast spot. Not as fancy as brunch, but a step up from the Korean Donut place by our old apartment. We can’t speak to any of the breakfast sandwiches or pastries, but their acai bowls are TO DIE FOR (figuratively, not literally). Sean ordered the Mavericks (how could anyone guess) and Katelyn ordered the Ocean Beach (similar to Sean’s but with peanut butter). The bowls were so colorful and toped with fruit and homemade granola. We could eat these every single day - good thing it was 15 minutes opposite of our commutes to work or else I’m sure we both would have found excuses to stop there in the mornings. We also ordered mochas just about every time to accompany our acai bowls. They make each coffee individually using the drip method, and they come out perfectly. So, can Beach Monkey deliver…?

Winters Tavern - Now we can finally top it all off with Sean’s favorite place - EVER in Pacifica (drum roll please…) WINTERS! Living walking distance to Winters has been a dream of Sean’s for the past year. This is your typical dive bar- come as you are, no windows, cheap beer, and locals cruising around on skateboards INSIDE THE CROWDED BAR. There’s a pool table, pinball machine, darts, and shuffle board. There is always live music - everything from classic rockers to hardcore screamo/emo bands (yes, true story, just ask Matt and Summer). It’s an eclectic place with every kind of decoration you can think of thrown up on the walls (beer taps, newspaper articles, old posters, surfboards…). This place is so relaxed, so show up, take it for what it is - and enjoy all the free popcorn.

Activities

This month we spent a ton of time in Half Moon Bay. Pretty much any weekend we stayed around town, you could find us just 20 minutes south enjoying the harbor, surf, and beer. On one of our first weekends in Pacifica, we planned a hiking trip around Half Moon Bay area. Well, we didn’t plan it very well, and we couldn’t find the trail…so instead we rented bikes and spent the afternoon biking around Mavericks, Pillar Point Harbor, and along the coastal trail..and Katelyn didn’t hit anyone with her bike (success!). That day we enjoyed lunch at Princeton Seafood Company - a little seafood place that had great clam chowder!

Our second weekend in Pacifica was also our friend Hannah’s last weekend living in California. She had been working with Sean for two years and was now moving back to Germany. So on her last weekend, of course Sean convinced Hannah to try surfing. So we drove back down to Half Moon Bay and found a beginner's beach - and Hannah did GREAT! To commemorate her accomplishment, we all went to lunch at Sam’s Chowder House - a restaurant that Katelyn has had her eye on for over a year. But, after some intense deliberation, we decided the clam chowder is better (more flavorful) at Princeton Seafood Company. However, the atmosphere of Sam’s Chowder House could not be beat.

That night we adventured North of our Pacifica home to Ocean Beach and the Sutro Bath House in San Francisco. Both were located about 15 minutes from our home and it was everyone’s first time there. Gorgeous. We were hoping to find an available fire pit at Ocean Beach that night - but we are total newbies and had no idea that all the fire pits are likely claimed in the mornings. So, that idea fizzled out quickly, which led us to the Sutro Baths. What was once the largest outdoor bath house is now stunning ruins right on the coastline. Our timing was perfect - it was golden hour - the sun was just starting to set. AND as we walked down to the baths whales started breeching directly in front of us! We can’t even describe the scenery - so here are a few photos we took. (Yes, that is a whale in the photo below.)

Continuing the grand adventure of Hannah’s last California weekend we ventured back into San Francisco on Sunday for a Giant’s baseball game. Yes, we are A’s fans, but for the sake of it being Hannah’s last weekend, we accommodated a Giant’s game. Must say, that stadium is a little bit better than Oakland’s…but who goes to baseball games for the stadium, right?

Hannah left us that next week - but not until right after the Warriors won the NBA Final - GO DUBS! So naturally, we celebrated with merchandise only an hour later (thanks Andrew!).

Our last weekend was another GRAND Pacifica weekend. The weekend kicked off seeing Trevor Noah perform at the Saratoga Mountain Winery. We went with Sean’s sister, Shannon, and her husband Chris. The four of us drank to the point that Katelyn and Shannon were hushed by the woman sitting in front of us…and then by the security guard TWICE. At that point, nothing was going to stop them.

Our friends Matt and Summer from the LA area came up to visit for San Francisco Pride that weekend. So we spent Saturday gallivanting around San Francisco, but mostly around Haight Ashbury and Hippie Hill. Matt and Summer had some afternoon plans in the city so we decided to go watch the end of the Giants game. There’s a great section of the stadium where you can stand and watch three innings for free, just behind right field. Super cool idea by the Giants! After dinner and a few bars later (including one of our favorite speakeasies), we crashed in preparation for the parade the next day. It was such a nice perk being able to get home from a night out in SF within 20 minutes.

The SF Pride Parade was amazing! What a beautiful celebration of acceptance, individuality, and love. It was overwhelming to see everyone come together to appreciate each other. There were people of all ages involved in and watching the parade. The atmosphere was electric. [Sean's update: The man holding the sign in the photo below brought tears to everyone around us when we read his sign.]

Sean also was able to go surfing a few other times during the week after getting home from work, and Katelyn would relax on the beach with a book. It was great to be able to be outside after work and to change up our typical routines.

Oh, and somewhere between it all Sean bought a Yeti cooler. After "tricking" Katelyn to call him at a weird hour and borderline begging for months, she gave in. If you don’t know what a Yeti cooler is, it’s a pretty neat cooler that keeps your beer cold for days, and is bear resistant (if someone choose to camp where there are bears…).

Moving Out

And here we are again - time to move out. We were both more than ready to leave the actual house, but there were parts that we would miss (friends, hot tub, Winters). Loading the cars went rather smoothly, much to our surprise. We woke up, even earlier than usual, to manage the move and had everything packed into our cars by 7am with room to spare! [Did we just achieve our goal?? I think so!]

This month we brought NOTHING to storage! But we noticed something big… WE LOST THE OBAMA BEER! Say WHAT?! When packing up this month, Katelyn noticed it was gone. And although she mocks said beer, she really didn’t mean to forget/loose the iconic bottle that has been with Sean since 2008. The ironic part is that the beer was from Halfmoon Bay Brewery - from where it comes shall it be lost - is that the saying? So for that, I am sorry Former President Obama, your beer has had many fond memories over the years…

After we moved out, we emailed the homeowner with some of the bullets mentioned above related to her home. We thought we would be fair and reach out to her prior to leaving a review on Airbnb. At the time of writing this blog post, we have yet to hear back from her.

Before we wrap this up, congratulations, you just read a blog post that is far too long - cheers to that, you must really like us!

Would we move here? Theoretically, yes, absolutely. We loved being so close to the ocean, outdoor hiking, San Francisco, and public transportation (BART, Cal Train, and SFO). It provided great after work surfing nights for Sean, and pleasant beach reading for Katelyn. Houses are less expensive than San Jose and the schools are better. However, as much as we would enjoy it, the commute took a toll on us, fast. However, it was a tad surprising that it took Sean almost the same amount of time to get home to Pacifica (45 miles) as it would to our old apartment (10 miles). But when the work load started to pile on, it made getting into the office early nearly impossible, and staying late exhausting. After some dreaming, and some discussing, we realized the actuality of living here might be a hard adjustment.