Where is the place you go to hide?

A swamp

We missed you you are swamp rat.

I used to visualise this beautiful two storey white house with a balcony. My Grandmother would wave at me from the top as I was walking down a path..There were pine trees, daffodils and black pansies along the way..My cat (who is deceased) would run up and great me and a monkey? Sometimes that progressed into the Monkey having a family, but they would be happy as, and walk with me. In front of me was a cliff and I'd stand there and see the sea.

In "life" I go to the sea. I can walk on that sand, pick up shells, and just breathe and take everything in and feel peaceful.

I also am an avid gardener and love creating, so if home and I don't feel like driving all be it, that it's 5 minutes away, the beach.. I will go and buy more plants and plant away.

I've just turned my "office" into a shop.... A shop of homewear that I rent out, or people can buy, I sell Real Estate..The shop has a lounge, paintings, mirrors, bird baths, plants... Now when I go to work, I want to go to work..

I guess that is where I now hide.

It is funny thought and I'm really glad I came across this thread... The beach is literally 2 mintues walking distance away and I forget, that it's there that I love the most... I really need to think more about me, and not so much on work and life's constant chores and responsibilities and walk it every day.

It's about balance between working and enjoying the pleasures of life.

I know, I've always been a workaholic and if not, someone who can not stay still...

It's time to learn me time

I'm a beach soul (sole?) too. I lived something like ten blocks from Venice beach in California, walked the shore thousands of times. Miss it.

giggles

Well pends on if you have shoes on or not:)

A river is sometimes almost the same if you have one close by.....

I think "workaholic" is a good choice when you're beginning your career, because that's how one outproduces the next joe and jane, but after you've made the grade, you gotta learn to enjoy other things over work.

I'm like two blocks' walk from Hilo Bay. It's a long stretch of strand, not that great for swimming (though some people do) or surfing (a seawall built to guard against tsunamis kind of spoils that) but it's great for a long beach-walk and there are several canoeist clubs who have their craft stored right there in lean-tos just back of the high-tide mark. Evenings the canoes hit the water while it's still light out.

I suppose I could hide there, too, if I needed to hide.

In those thousands of walks I've laughed and run and cried and slogged in a lot of kinds of weather. High tide would find me up on the ocean front walk though..
One good memory is of our irish setter running back and forth from the pier to the beach and back (repeat x 60) trying to catch seagulls..

I know the beach you're talking about, Osso. I bought a straw hat at one of those boardwalk kiosks there some years ago. Burned it in the wood-stove just a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't only tattered, it had actually gotten moldy from the extreme damp and humidity out here. Hilo is the only place on earth where things rust that aren't even metal.

Never have been to the islands.. didn't really want to before, sounded tourist filled and I got over all that in my twenties, but now I'd like to but lack travel budget. I figure that just like anywhere, one can escape the throngs.

I bought a black straw hat when I was last at Venice beach with my niece. It hadn't changed all that much from my memories. Got it home to New Mexico and tossed it - what was I thinking - it was too big, but it was the one with the biggest brim at the time.

Tourist throngs? Hilo, the second largest city in the state, is a blue-collar town with a slew of homeless people sleeping on the beaches and in the city parks. If your image of Hawaii comes from movies that show nothing but wealthy main-landers walking their poodles under palm trees, Hilo's an eye-opener. Ugliest architecture in the world. But some of the nicest, most friendly and courteous people you want to meet. That's the Japanese influence, mainly, I think. And the ugliness of the prevailing architecture is offset by the loveliness of the many parks. The Liliokulani (sp.?) Gardens is probably the most perfectly laid-out, beautiful and well-maintained city pocket-size park I've ever seen anywhere in the world, certainly in the USA.

Ok, then, I'd like it. I like cities as cities, have figured I might like Honolulu. Homeless used to wander my own relatively short street, and a lot of us may be there soon enough. I got my takes on Hawaii from mainlanders who'd been there on vacation or, in one case, from a couple of guys who live there in the winter time. Those two are not the last of the big spenders but they, um, stay in the better places. Snort - in Rome they stay at the Hassler, and my budget place is $30. a person (or was). I still follow Rome's places to stay and I know I could still beat most tourists.

People in my area in the last place I lived in northern california (eureka/arcata area) wore shorts with the slightest excuse (it's 62!!) and the favorite place to go was the Hawaiian Islands. Or so it seemed.