{"id":669,"date":"2007-08-31T18:13:36","date_gmt":"2007-09-01T02:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/?p=669"},"modified":"2007-08-31T18:51:59","modified_gmt":"2007-09-01T02:51:59","slug":"secret-message-17-a-beach-town-in-the-golden-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/?p=669","title":{"rendered":"Secret Message #17: A Beach Town in the Golden State"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"...is<\/p>\n

H.E. and I have come to love the town where we live, so much that, like all the locals here, we sport town stickers on the backs of our cars. We like to hang out at a nearby “village” to eat our meals alfresco, watching all the people around us as we chat about this and that. It’s a nice village—far enough away from the beach that there are no tourists, just people who live in the neighborhood, close to some schools, the civic center, the police headquarters, many parks and fields, and a great big library.<\/p>\n

When we sit inside the Starbucks with the nearly 360-degree view, the sense I get is that of a college campus; I’m thrown back to my university days, when I’d lounge around in a community den somewhere, in between classes, my backpack vomiting books around me, and a half-eaten muffin at my side. I’ve a mind to bring my new e-book reader and my crochet projects with me to Starbucks and treat the place like my own living room!<\/p>\n

I love Huntington Beach, even though they seem to roll up the sidewalks at 10PM, nearly everything but the Norm’s and the Denny’s closing for the day, even though they like to set off firecrackers in the street on Independence Day<\/a>, and even though in the end, there really isn’t all that much to do here but go to the beach. There are no museums, no theme parks, no great landmarks of note, except maybe the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserves<\/a>, where I’ve taken many photos—like this one<\/a>, these<\/a>, this one<\/a>, these<\/a>, this one<\/a>, this one<\/a>, and this one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I feel safe and secure here. The police respond quickly to any tiny thing, and they’re polite about it. The city sends out lists<\/a> of what you should have stashed in a bag in case of emergencies. And everyone is laid back enough and feels comfortable enough to ride their bicycles everywhere and to let their young children do the same. It is a bicycle-loving town.<\/p>\n

Heck, it is a skateboard-loving town as well. Even the dogs love to skateboard here.<\/a> Not to mention, it’s also a dog-loving town … because we also have a beach just for them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And while some people are reckless enough to get themselves killed crossing a street, stepping off a curb, or racing towards parked cars, the people they leave behind love them so much that they leave memorials at their places of demise for years and years. Never a day goes by where I don’t pass a memorial and wonder that it’s still there. Princess Diana, eat your heart out.<\/p>\n

There are other things for which Huntington Beach is better known, but these are the things I like about this town.<\/p>\n

And yes, there is a hidden egg again this month, with an Amazon gift certificate as the prize. If you know much more about my town, you’ll use those clues to find it. There will be no doubt if you do find it—the instructions are pretty clear.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\nShare this post:

\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"tumblr\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"tumblr\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H.E. and I have come to love the town where we live, so much that, like all the locals here, we sport town stickers on the backs of our cars. We like to hang out at a nearby “village” to eat our meals alfresco, watching all the people around us as we chat about this and that. It’s a nice village—far enough away from the beach that there are no tourists, just people who live in the neighborhood, close to…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","category-riddles-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}