After returning from Asia in late January 2020, we had every intention of tying up some loose ends and moving there permanently. We loved the lifestyle, the weather, the food, and the people. Life happened, and we got locked into living back in the States, working for huge corporations. We had more money than we ever had. And we were miserable.

So, we uprooted ourselves. We sold our home (that flip-flopped between our home and a rental) and moved into an apartment. The days of not having to cut a lawn or fix anything were easy, but I missed having my hands in the dirt and he missed working on projects. Remember that studio we lived in with our dog and totes? It was in a tiny coastal town that we fell in love with. We ended up vacationing there. In November 2021, we bought a house there. It needed (and still needs) way more work than we’d wanted. Still, being out of suburbia and in a rural coastal town is bliss.

I see deer out my window every morning. I can hear the ocean from my front porch. It takes over twenty minutes to get to a large grocery store, but I can walk to the ocean in under fifteen minutes. So many people we meet here moved here after they retired. Others are part-timers, coming every spare minute they can. It makes me so very thankful that we took the plunge and moved here. We had to make sacrifices- moving further away from family, my husband had to quit his job and we’ve had to evict all sorts of vermin, repaint, figure out how to work a pellet store, deal with gnarly storm damage and clean the carburetor on a generator with just a flashlight in a freezing cold, leaking garage. Still, it’s been an adventure. Every day is different and exciting. I know my neighbors- I bring them a homemade cake, my husband mows our disabled neighbor’s yard, another neighbor works on our cars and someone drops us off fresh caught and cooked clams. It’s a good life.