Top 5 Things About Owning a Beach House

It’s finally happening – your dream of owning a beach house is coming true! You’re spending your days pouring over the Serena & Lily catalogue and rewatching “Something’s Gotta Give” and “Mama Mia.” We’ve all been there (okay, not really, but a lucky few of us have…and an even luckier few have done this in anticipation of owning a beach house in Cinnamon Shore!)

You know how you’re imagining how fun it is going to be once you’re moved in to your beach house? Well, it’s even more fun than that! In fact, I’ve SO enjoyed owning beach vacation homes at Cinnamon Shore that I’ll be moving down here full time. This season of life should be a joy for you…so here are my 5 Favorite Things about owning a home in Cinnamon Shore:

1. That moment you first drive in to the neighborhood and exhale. No matter if I’ve been away for a week or several months, every time I turn off of 361 and in to Cinnamon Shore I feel my shoulders relax and my breath release as I roll my windows down. I always think, “Oh, I forgot how pretty it is here” as I wind along the streets to my house. My kids call this version of me “Beach Mom” because I actually start getting happy once we either drive onto the Causeway if we’re coming through Corpus, or once we pull on to the ferry if we’re coming via Aransas Pass. To quote Mark McKinney’s song, “Cinnamon Shore”, “My blood pressure drops when I hit the ferry…”. (Actually, tied for #1 is ‘Not having to pack.’ Once you own a beach house, just buy doubles of sundries, make-up, hairdryer, and a few key clothing items and leave them at the coast! It’s the most liberating feeling you can imagine.)
2. The beach itself. Saltwater heals everything: physical and emotional. I’m not a morning person in my “real life,” but I walk on the beach nearly every morning down here (someday I’ll join beach yoga.) And most evenings the beach umbrella crews wait around on us so they can pick up our chairs last. Then sometimes we go back down again after dinner to have a bonfire or just to look at the stars or the moon on the water.
3. The golf cart. Just go ahead and buy it. It’s worth it – run a cost-benefit analysis if you must, but just trust me on this one. You’ll thank me every time you cruise to the beach. And every time you forget something at home. And on those warm summer nights when you’ve showered and don’t want to get all sweaty again walking to dinner or the beach. And your kids/grandkids will LOVE it…they’ll make up reasons for you to drive them around and look at the beautiful houses of you neighbors. I literally park my car when I pull in and sometimes I don’t use it again during my entire visit. We love to drive our cart (“beach buggy” to use local lingo) down the beach to breakfast at Port A Beach Lodge at marker #9, or drive down the beach to dinner at Venetian Hot Plate, La Playa, Grumbles, etc. Speaking of food…
4. The food and cocktails. Lisabella’s mermaid soup, red snapper belle meunière, seafood enchiladas and on and on. Dylan’s skillet shrimp and their pancetta/arugula pizza also makes me very happy. And the cocktails – whether at the pool or Lisabella’s/Dylan’s or poured in my kitchen and enjoyed on the porch or at the beach…the drinks just taste better here.
5. Seeing the “Beach Version” of my friends and family. Everybody seems to be their best, most relaxed and authentic self down here (and if they’re not, I don’t invite them back!) Friends will find you here. New friends and old. There’s no better place to host a 30-year college reunion, celebrate your kids’ high school graduation or granddaddy’s 80th birthday. This place just makes people happy. My porches here have been spots where we sit for hours and talk and laugh and play cards. I don’t do that very often back home anymore. The Cinnamon Shore vibe just creates an atmosphere for it. In fact, my relationships with dear friends and even with mere acquaintances, not to mention my own family, have grown so much richer and deeper as we’ve spent time together down here.

Well, there are my first 5. There will definitely be a Part 2 (and 3) of this post…