Sunset On Our Redondo Beach Era

Over the past three weeks, Julie and I experienced the angst of condensing our prized possessions in our Redondo Beach condo --- mostly old photographs, other memorobilia and clothing --- into twelve 18" x 18" x 16" boxes shipped off by UPS and giving away literally tons of other stuff including most of our furniture in order to turn over possession to the new owners on Monday at the close of escrow.

We also filled our Ford Escape to the gills with more fragile treasures including artwork and our television before driving off for the last time from our California home.

All was not forlorn, however.

First, the weather cooperated with pretty much perfect conditions, which may not be unexpected in a Southern California beach city but is always appreciated.  The climate skipped much of the "June Gloom" that can creep from morning into midday most years.

More importantly, we had some of our kids around much of the time.

Gina, Laszlo and Emma weren't there in person, as Emma finished up her elementary school career and prepared for summer camp, but they gave us support over the phone and Zoom.  Even more directly, they have been accepting those boxes as they arrived, holding them for us until escrow closes on our new house in Pennsylvania just four miles from their home. At about 37 pounds each, moving them around and storing them is no easy task!

Amy flew out to spend our last week in Redondo Beach with us while en route to an executive business meeting at Le Meridien in San Francisco.  She had asked for the week off, but her boss said they couldn't get by without her at this critical moment in their recent series of acquisitions, so she spent a lot of time on Zoom calls working remotely.

She had another big task, which was sorting out all the stuff we had moved from Manhattan Beach to Redondo Beach eight years earlier, right after she graduated from college.  She made many tough decisions herself, somehow cutting back to something less than two of our UPS boxes and a bit of room in the car for heavier items like yearbooks.

She also managed to find time to take a surfing lesson at Manhattan Beach's El Porto with her boyfriend Lukas, so they are now officially stand-up surfers. 

As always, Amy had lots of people to see while visiting, so it was far from Daddy-time around the clock, but we had a lot of laughs.

On Saturday, we took a break from all the packing to visit Jay and Sasha up in Brentwood Village, where we spent most of our time in their gorgeous pool area.

Something specific I will always remember laughing about in the pool with Jay and Amy was when I told them that the difference between them and me was that I knew what it was like to be their age and think like them.

Amy said, "But you're just so smug."

I replied, "I'm not smug.  I'm just right."

Jay, Sasha and JoJo also came up to help us, including picking up a day bed and file cabinet that Julie and I purchased before Jay was born for our first home together in Laguna Beach to bring to the new Venice home of Sasha's mother Libby.  

On separate trips, they carted off a desk that they will use in their own home office and our globe in a stand, which is the only piece of furniture we kept and which they will soon bring to us.  They returned Sunday morning to transport the mattresses for the day bed after Amy was done using them until flying out Sunday morning.

That happened to be Father's Day!

After filling Jay's Range Rover to take another big load of clothing and household goods to the Goodwill, which turned out to be the Salvation Army when Goodwill workers said they were too busy to accept donations and before loading the mattresses, Jay drove us over to Hermosa Beach to visit our old haunt, the Lighthouse, one more time.

We learned Gloria, the 90-something-year-old jazz programmer was no longer working in the venerable nightclub which had recently changed ownership, another vicitm of the pandemic...or was it a blood transfusion for a dying tradition?

Extra seating had been added on the Pier Avenue walkstreet in front, and we snagged a nice new table with comfortable chairs.  Jay, Sasha and JoJo treated Julie for delicious Lighthouse Burgers and fries, while they had vegan meals they also enjoyed.  

On Monday, we moved out the few pieces of furniture we'd held to use, shipped the twelfth box and thoroughly cleaned the condo in Redondo for the last time, hopefully creating some good karma when we move into our new house.

Our hearts were warmed by many neighbors who told us we would be deeply missed, and we will truly miss them...and the dolphins who swam by daily.

This week, however, we're back in Big Sky, ready to savor mountain life again.  

This was the Escape after removing some items.

Lots of precious memorobilia were reduced to photos for this move.