Ya gotta have friends....

And we do. This is our friend Jeanette, and her friend (for a short while), the iguana. The iguana was her next door neighbor until the pile of concrete blocks he was living in was taken down. Jeanette and Bruce live across the street from us, and they are great friends. Too bad that they're here only six months of the year. Come mid April they will head back to Canada and the cool. Both places they live on the beach.

I've been thinking a lot about beach friends today, because I finally found the composition notebook that we had at the going away party George and Carol gave for us with the beach crowd last August, where we said to everyone -- Here! Put down your contact info so we can be sure to keep in touch!

And then I put it in one of those very safe places so it wouldn't get thrown away or lost.....or found....at least until just the other day. So I've spent a good part of today updating our address book in Yahoo. Each entry brings up faces and places and fond memories. Beach friends. Unless you've been a part of the culture at San Onofre it's hard to describe. No wonder Larry had a bad moment when we were headed south on the 5 on our last trip out of Orange County before we moved down here. But he's been keeping in contact with some of his buddies since, thanks to the wonders of Vonage, we still have our old San Clemente phone number.

(And incidentally, a lot of those buddies should be in El Salvador this weekend, greeting Steve Boehne with a surprise 60th birthday party -- Happy Birthday, Steve! Sorry Larry couldn't make it.)

It's a little different beach culture here. For one thing, that surf I hear right now is NOT a surf break. There's an island offshore which sort of keeps things calm. The waves are fun for boogie boarders and kids riding big plastic dinosaurs. So what Guayabitos has in common with Sano is that it's definitely a family affair. All ages, shapes, sizes and genders having the time of their lives. The closest good surf is about 30 minutes away in either direction -- Sayulita to the south, or Chacala to the north.

So I'll send out another e-mail to let our beach friends know about this blog -- and tell them we miss them, and we hope the pictures and stories about living down here will encourage them to come down and visit. Hasta la vista, amigos!