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9/26/2011 - Hi all! Well, it's almost October and we still haven't made it up to Reflection, but mostly because it's been so busy. That's great that everyone has been enjoying the place so much, but I want my turn to play too!  ;-)  I guess we'll have to wait until fall again, but that's OK.

I've been hearing from guests that everything still seems to be in great condition, so thanks to everyone and to the Cottage Rentals Housekeeping staff!

5/30/2011 - Well, I thought it was spring two months ago...there's still snow falling in the hills! I'm sure spring/summer will come sooner or later! Things seem to be humming along just fine, with some exterior painting on order to spruce things up a bit. Hope to get out there in June to renew anything that needs cleaning or fixing.

3/21/2011 - It's spring! We managed to squeeze in a couple days to both work on the house and relax.

We had rain and drizzle and some sun. We did a lot of the usual refilling, refurbishing, cleaning, polishing, and repairing. Took our lunch and ate it in the little gazebo at the top of the stairs. Checked out the yurt going up along the oceanfront path; I hear that's where you'll be able to get a massage soon with a view and the sounds of the ocean. What a great idea!

But for the last couple hours we've all been quietly reflecting! Not sure why. I packed up all the maintenance boxes early for a change, and read the paper on the window seat...what a treat!

Had a nice warm fire in the stove this morning. Cooked great meals. Had lots of K-Cup servings. Chatted with some of our friends in the Seabrook team, which was so fun as usual. Checked out the new construction, and watched a bald eagle fly circles above town.

Just goes to prove that even a short trip can be so wonderful.

Tomorrow: Pack up, say goodbye to our friends here, and get some take-out Teriyaki before we head home!

Based on our journal, more and more people are staying at Reflection multiple times, and that is so great. It's like we're growing our own family, and hope hope they all feel like this is their place as much as we do.  The calendar has been quite full even during winter, so I look forward to having many, many more people enjoy what this little gem has to offer.

12/28/2010 - Happy Holidays everyone! Spending the week at Seabrook, and it's as fun and relaxing as ever. We were planning to do a "real" vacation, but there is always something to clean or maintain to make everything perfect. The wi-fi routers needed a tune-up, and some steak knives went missing so we placed a quick order to replace all of them. Other than that, the cottage looks great!

Pretty chilly on the beach today, but still nice. Watched a Seagull feast on a crab; I had no idea how quick they can take a whole crab and leave just the empty top shell. That was a happy bird!

The Cafe is undergoing a re-make, so it's closed until February, but the Pantry is as great as ever. I hear the enclosed swimming pool facility is definitely on the way now, after being put on hold for a while.

It's a clamming weekend, so the whole town is just about booked.

Updated the journal page on the site. You know, it really warms our hearts to hear people say they enjoyed their stay and will be coming back again. We feel like you are all part of our family, and Reflection is home for everyone who seeks refuge here. This is exactly the experience we hoped to create. Thank you all!

And here's a typical day at Seabrook!

Sunrise over the forest from the bedroom window:

Frosty morning at Crescent Park:

At the beach:

Sunset:

10/31/2010 - Happy Halloween Everyone! Weekends at Reflection are all booked up for a while, but Thanksgiving weekend just got freed up, so if you want to spend turkey day at Seabrook, call now!

And if you haven't noticed, we've "rolled back prices" to where we were at the start of the year.

10/7/2010 - Finally back again at Reflection! The cottage looked awesome! Thanks to Housekeeping and everyone who stayed with us! We had some fun stuff to do this time, like hang these colorful lights...

We also added on to our lantern collection in the kitchen, added a fourth Xbox controller, two more Xbox games, and a DVD and a Blu-ray disk. We lost one Xbox game and the hot chocolate mixer, but replacements are on the way.

We met Ann, the owner of the new Salty Dog shop, and the adorable dog she was watching at the time. It rained, but we had a great time working on the place, catching up on some Samantha Who? DVDs we brought, reading all the guest book entries, and catching up with everyone we know in Seabrook.

The new construction in town is very exciting, and we hardly heard any sounds from the activity, which was good.

Toured the Ultimate Beach House, and it is way more impressive than the Coastal Living article showed it to be. That view from the kitchen and bedrooms just says it all.

Had dinner at the Ocean Crest for the first time, and that was wonderful. Of course, our Cafe meal was just as good as always, as were the scones from the Pantry and our chicken katsu from the You and I Market!

9/13/210 - We keep finding cool stuff to buy for the cottage, so by mid-October you should see more movies, a really cute coffee cup set, new outdoor lighting, more additions to the lantern collection, and more!

8/21/210 - Just added Reflection Cottage to VRBO.com, so check out the listing and submit your reviews to share with others! We haven't been able to visit, so we've just been mailing things up to Rentals to replace and refill supplies.

6/27/2010 - Made a very quick maintenance trip to Reflection, and although we didn't have time to play, we did see a spectacular sunset and the Idea House.





We got the Xbox replaced, and as insurance, we added a second one to the other bedroom. Also, we finally got our new bikes in service, all waxed and personalized and ready to go!

The summer calendar is filling up quick, with July almost completely booked, so plan early if you want to return for some fun. Remember, the green check-out days on the calendar appear to be booked, but they are in fact open days available for booking. If it wasn't for that calendar problem with LiveRez, I think we could've approached 100% occupancy for July.

In any case, the cottage is ready to go again, so we hope all of our guests have a wonderful time!

5/26/20 - New beds are in Reflection! And wouldn't you know it, the Xbox went on the fritz. We'll get it replaced ASAP. Evidently the "red ring of death" is not uncommon for that console.

5/22/10 - More upgrades coming next week! We thought we had spent a premium for the comfy beds in Reflection, but they just didn't seem good enough. So, we just purchased new  Simmons Beautyrest mattresses to be delivered next week. If you liked the old beds, we think you're going to love the new ones!

5/9/10 - What started as a trip to replace the bikes (they didn't show up in time) turned out to be a fantastic mini-vacation. We did some painting and the usual cleaning and checking of everything, but the weather was so good, we had some relaxation too. Check out this sky!



We also saw this eagle of some sort, cruising up and down the beach.

And, yet another fantastic sunset.

We probably collected at least 35 perfect sand dollars on the beach, and just had a great time. Paninis, gelato, and scones from Lil's Pantry were great. The lemon scones are just heavenly. Teriyaki from the You and I market, and a nice lunch at the Front Street Cafe to cap off our stay. We replaced the kite with a new one, and that's about it for now.

4/11/10 - Another quick maintenance trip between bookings to add more stuff to Reflection! It didn't look like the espresso machine was getting much use, and since we couldn't install a drive-through, we got one of these:

Yup, a Keurig K-cup brewer. This thing is pretty fun! Coffee, hot chocolate, tea, whatever you feel like making, all in one minute with no clean-up. So bring your favorite K-cup beverages and enjoy it! Like everything else, the quick instructions have been added to the House Manual.

At the suggestion of one of our guests, we also added a couple throw blankets.
Since we couldn't find a basketball last time we stayed, we also got one of those for the house. With the Reflection touch, of course.

And lastly, we installed two of these:

No, this is not a UFO. This is a cool water-saving shower head. Since we sometimes ran out of hot water if six people were showering in succession, we installed these bad boys to use 25% less water. Thing is, they actually feel like they're giving you more water than the old shower heads. These are quite amazing; the water feels softer and warmer, and a very slight massage effect makes it feel wonderful. Let us know how you like it. We tested one at home and we all liked it so much we didn't want to send it off to the cottage!

The kite seems to have gotten a little wonky and doesn't fly right, so we ordered a new one. And the bikes, although I bet they're among the nicest in town for their age, have finally started to succumb to the salt air and don't look new anymore, so new ones are on order.

The fresh air ventilation system in these houses is great for air quality, but sometimes there was a draft in the bedrooms from the output vent. We installed diffusers to put an end to that.

Other than that, it was more cleaning and checking as usual, and everything looked great. We also added a few pewter magnets to the fridge; they just called out to us at the store.

We did have a few minutes to relax, and we saw another awesome Seabrook sunset.

You just don't ever get tired of seeing stuff like that!

4/4/10 - Happy Easter everyone! Just posted our panini recipe!

3/27/10 - Just returned from a maintenance trip to Reflection. Wow, Seabrook has a lot going on! Quite possibly the most active location on the Washington coast.
    We were pleased to see the cottage in tip-top shape (thanks again to Cottage Rentals!), and even more pleased to have sunny weather!
    We installed a new Sony Blu-ray disc player, and with the HDMI connection, it has unbelievably clear and vibrant images on the flat screen. We started off the BD disc collection with Casino Royale, 21, and Maid of Honor. Any other suggestions?
    Blu-ray players claim to show regular DVDs in higher resolution, and I was skeptical, but they really do look a lot better.
    Enough about electronics. There are new instructions and yet more labels to make things easier to find and use, the House Manual has been updated, and the Harmony One remote has been reprogrammed, so hopefully it'll make things that much better for everyone.
    We also delivered a new Cuisinart panini maker and griddle, and tried out our own recipe that was our best remake of our favorite dish at our favorite Panini restaurant And it was awesome! As soon as we figure out just what we put in there, I'll post the recipe here and it'll go into the House Manual as well. Fun!
    One more thing on the kitchen front: We upgraded the steam wand on the Saeco espresso machine to the traditional industrial style. This part is no longer made and was not easy to find, but now you'll be able to froth milk like a pro, without the "automatic" frothing contraption that's impossible to clean.
   Aside from that, one more DVD (House of D), long-length silicone oven mitts, some decorations, and general cleaning and refurbishing of everything we could get to, and that was our trip.
    We're still sore from all the work, but we're confident that Reflection is ready for another year of top-notch service to our favorite people: you!
    We can't believe it's been two years. And in those years we've only received a few email comments and suggestions, so I encourage you to email us to suggest anything that can make Reflections even better for the coming year.

3/18/10 - It's Spring Break season, and the calendar has been quite full! We're taking the opportunity make a trip to Seabrook to work on the cottage. Speaking of calendar, the LiveRez service that Seabrook uses shows the calendar in a misleading way. Every  green  day following an  orange  day is just a check-out day, so it is also available as a day you can book. We polled our smartest friends and 90%+ of them interpreted the calendar wrong! That explains all the single days free between guest stays. I'm working hard to get them to change the calendar display.

1/26/10 - Wow, it's only January but things are starting to heat up! The Reflection calendar is filling up a lot quicker this year, I hope that means that word's getting out.  We have reservations out to August already, and it looks like lots of folks are spending Spring Break with us, and that's great! We're thinking about what else we can add to the cottage, so if you have ideas, let us know! The Blu-Ray player is already purchased and we'll install it first chance we get. Santa brought us a Blu-Ray player at home, and wow; it's hard to back after you've seen true hi-def!

1/1/10 - Happy New Year! Looks like this year will be bustling at Seabrook, with new retail buildings and many new homes being built, including the Coastal Living Idea House 2010. Check the Seabrook site for details!

12/6/09 - We selfishly booked the cottage for clamming weekend, our first real attempt to have a just-for-fun weekend, although we still put in several hours checking everything over and putting in a few new things like bathroom trash cans and a bigger spice rack.
    Clamming at night was quite the experience! It was cold, but clear, and there were a lot of people to the south, but hardly anyone out in front of Seabrook. We had no problem limiting out, but we'll make sure to bring more than one gas lantern next time. The battery lantern was pretty useless.
    The weather Saturday and Sunday was spectacular; cool but sunny. Construction is heating up around town, with the new retail center area getting cleared, as well as the new development to the northeast of South Alder Court. The Camping Cottages are coming along nicely and they certainly look cute.
    Had some scones and gelato from Lil's Pantry. Mmm!!! We've learned that the scones are a must, so when we got there we bought out whatever they had in the case!

10/31/09 - Happy Halloween! Here's how to whip up decorations out of cleaning and painting supplies:

Well, it was enough to impress the kids who came. Or at least show them the way to the candy.  Spent the weekend making everything new again, and inventorying everything. Just can't thank our guests enough for taking such good care of our little Reflection Cottage. Housekeeping has been doing a fabulous job keeping everything clean, and we do our best to keep everything new. Polishing the chrome, touching up paint, testing all the electronics and appliances, cleaning where only an anal-retentive owner would. That effort is now outlined in a new checklist I made, so we don't forget anything, and it took me 18 hours or so to complete (my "work crew" was home sick! I think they were faking). Sure was painful watching everyone else in Seabrook playing outside and going down the trail to the beach. Built a nice, hot fire in the stove to keep me company through the night until I finished my to-do list.
And, finally, I got to play on Sunday, and boy was it beautiful. First time I had seen lakes in sand!

Spent a couple fabulous hours on the sunny beach, and only saw a few other people. Stopped by Lil's Pantry and the Cottage Rentals office to catch up on things.
Construction is humming along in other parts of town, with the Camping Cottages coming along nicely, and the mansion near the Cafe is now complete. There was an open house for it, but I missed it. Must be spectacular inside.
Oh, BTW, if anyone left behind a Graco play pen owner's manual, let me know and I'll mail it back to you.
Razor Clamming season is upon us, and for the first time I think my family will book the house to actually have some vacation time in December. Good luck to anyone else staying for a clamming weekend.
Updated the guest book page with the latest entries from the journal. Check it out and you'll see that I'm not making all this up!

9/2/09 - Yay, we get to play at Seabrook!



    We walked in to find everything looking like the day we went live. We cleaned, erased scuffs on paint, conditioned leather, and looked things over, and it all looked great!
    We've been so fortunate with the guests we've had. Thank you all! I hope you've enjoyed your stay so much that it feels like you're staying at a friend's house. The way everything has been cared for, it feels like our friends have been staying there, and that is wonderful.
    The beach was spectacular as usual, although we did have to share it with a half dozen people at times ;-).  We visited Canon Beach after our visit, and while the beach was nice, even at 6:30pm on a weekday, it was so crowded! Literally hundreds of people still out there. I'll take Seabrook anytime.
    Things have really been heating up in town; lots more interest in renting and purchasing. The first ocean-front home is all moved in. The little Camping Cabins are coming up fast. There's a new basketball court near the playground, and the Colours ceramics studio is open in the old Cottage Rentals office.
    Lucky for us (and our guests), none of the construction is anywhere near our cottage. Nice and peaceful!
    We visited with the Cottage Rentals folks, and they were great fun as always, and very optimistic about all the new activity in town. Lots of new stuff in the gift shop, too!
    We played with as much of the "toys" as we could, to test them of course. Ahem. Got the bikes all polished and lubed. I didn't think they'd last this long, but I put a lot of care into preserving them. They're so much fun to ride!
    Some of our wonderful guests left a really awesome kite for our other guests to enjoy; thank you, Laceys!



    We took a bunch of pictures and had some fabulous meals in the cafe. That is such a treat for us. Tried every dessert they had. Mmmm!
    The calendar is filling up, and based on the journal entries, many of you are returning guests, so I trust your stays have been good! We're still not seeing any email on what else we could do to improve the service or the furnishings, so please help us to make this your cottage and your special place to escape!

8/26/09 - Finally have a chance to get to Seabrook next week, and we're very excited! Hope the new decorations fit! Really wished we could've made the Fun Run. The new Rentals site looks stable now, and our new rates have been published...LOWER rates. Our contribution to the stimulus plan!

8/5/09 - My, summer is just flying by! Reflection's calendar has been plenty busy, so I'm sure lots of fun is being had at the beach! We've been trying get up there to do maintenance and bring up some new decorations and a nice set of Japanese tea cups, but the place has been booked. I guess I shouldn't complain...maybe I'm just jealous! Cottage Rentals has been busy upgrading their new site, so that kept us busy too. Hope everyone is enjoying Seabrook!

7/4/09 - Happy 4th everyone! Finally got some videos produced and posted here, as well as a kitchen inventory page and a list of our guest journal entries. One of our guests was from About.com; read her review of Seabrook here. Weather has been great, so I trust our summer guests have had a great time. Just a few weeks still open on the Reflections calendar for this summer!

6/7/09 - Another fabulous weekend. Just an overnight trip to deliver more things and do more organizing. The sunset was just unbelievable this time. Just as we were finishing our dinner at the Cafe, the sky started lighting up, so we rushed out to snap some pictures. Sure made it hard to leave the next day!

(this photo was not retouched!)

5/10/09 - Finally made it up to Reflection inspect and clean everything. Aside from some kitchen gadgets that walked off, everything looks great.
    Installed a second wi-fi router, the upgraded espresso machine, put out a bunch of games, movies and books, and the fun part: Now we have an Xbox 360! It's installed in the front bedroom, which gives you a lot more flexibility. If the gamers aren't ready to give it up yet, offer them the Xbox while you enjoy a movie in the living room.
    I have to say, the weekend was fabulous. Weather and sunset were gorgeous. It just happened to be a clamming day on Saturday, so we tried it out for the first time. Oh my gosh...we had so much fun. Looked to me like everyone was limiting out in less than an hour. We only quit because we were exhausted.
    We found out the hard way that crows can pull your biggest razor clams out of a 5-gallon bucket, even under 5" of water. Good thing we still had another 50 or so clams in the bucket!
    The Cafe is now under new management, but it's every bit as fun as before; we felt so pampered, and the menu was great. And the grocery store just opened up six weeks ago; they have a deli, fresh veggies and fruits, gift items, frozen foods, espresso, and lots more. We had paninis and deli sandwiches for lunch and they were yummy.
    Since it was so sunny and mild, we spent time biking or walking around, checking out all the new homes, and just relaxing.
    Based on all the new entries in the guest book, everyone has enjoyed their time in Seabrook and in Reflection, so we'll just keep doing what we've been doing, and we hope all of our future guests continue to enjoy this special place.

4/26/09 - Wow, where has the time gone? Hard to believe it's been a year since Reflection went on-line. Cottage Rentals has been doing a great job for us, but we really need to get to Seabrook and make sure everything is holding up. We've got a pile of boxes to bring up there, new dishes and accessories, networking upgrades, new games, and a Saeco espresso machine. The DeLonghi worked fine, but it just didn't feel like it was the same level of quality as the rest of the equipment. The Saeco is the same basic machine that we've had at home for probably fifteen years now, and it's still going strong, so it should do well in the cottage.

Life's been keeping us busy, as I'm sure it has for everyone else, but it's time again to start thinking about Reflection and how we can make it even better. We've had plenty of compliments, but I don't think we've gotten one suggestion. I know we tried hard to think of everything, but I also know it can't be perfect, so if you have any suggestion for us, drop us an email!

We're looking forward to having some Seabrook time, and I hope you do too!

11/5/08 - Had another few days to get to the cottage and finish up more of the cleaning and touch-up before the fall and winter seasons.
    Ran around town every morning to check out all the new construction: updates to the playground, finishing of Meriweather Square, the start of the new market, and as always, more fabulous homes getting finished. Brought more music to enjoy, and more DVDs are on the way.
    Looks like we're in the middle of razor clam season; the schedule is here if you're interested. I've been clamming in Oregon a couple times, and the beaches there totally pale in comparison to the number of clams right off the stairs leading down from Seabrook. Someday I'll have to make it out there on a clamming weekend!

10/2/08 - After the long and busy summer, it was time to see how well Reflection Cottage held up to hard use, read all the journal entries, and maybe even play a little bit.
     Well, the house was in great shape (thanks to all our great guests!), and Cottage Rentals Housekeeping has been doing a fantastic job! Based on the journal entries, guests had a great time in the house and in Seabrook, so that was great to hear. Please email us your comments and suggestions!
    We finally had the right weather line up with a break in reservations to get our exterior trim painted, so it looks even better now.
    With all the surrounding construction done for now, and all the landscaping really coming in, the South Alder Court is looking fabulous!
    I spent four days doing touch-up, inventory, adding and updating furnishings, and enjoying a little of what Seabrook vacationers enjoy every week. I ran on the beach every day and explored the last few trails that I had not seen before.
    Visited with the Cottage Rentals gang and had a lot of laughs and learned more about Seabrook and the surrounding area, as well as future plans for Seabrook; it's always fun to visit with them.

8/26/08 - Wow, where did the summer go? I know our kids sure are wondering what happened. We haven't been able to get to Reflection for a while because it's been booked, which is GREAT! Everything we've heard leads us to believe that things are going great with the town and the cottage, so it's all good. Construction around the property is all done for now, aside from a little landscaping activity across the street, so it should be pretty quiet.

7/2/08 - Added a few items (weights, chess/checkers set, more card games, kite, new poster print, side table for porch) and replaced one piece of artwork. Everything looks good and the cleaning crew is doing a great job. Had a wonderful warm, sunny day at the beach, and did not put on enough sunscreen. Our son had fun exploring all the trails and trying out the new playground; he just did not want to go back to the cottage. I made good use of the recliner after each day! Built a blazing fire in the outdoor fireplace and cooked some huge steaks on the charcoal grill in the court area...Mmmmm! Visited Lake Quinault and it was definitely worth the drive. Had dinner at the historic lodge and got in a short hike.

6/1/08 - Delivered a few finishing touches including the Wii Fit game and wireless balance pad. You really need to try it out; it's fun for the young and not-so-young. House seems to be holding up fine and the reservations seem to be filling up quite rapidly, so it looks like we did something right!

We're very excited; this is just the beginning!

5/3/08 - Last weekend before go-live! Amazing how much work documentation can be, but we hope you appreciate the house manual we put together; you won't find a pile of miscellaneous product manuals dumped in a drawer in our house! We compiled just what you need to know and indexed everything, plus listed everything in the house and where to find it. Weather was awesome! Did the scavenger hunt, ate at the cafe twice...great weekend!

Now maybe we can get to building a real Web site!

4/26/08 - Putting on the finishing touches and final clean-up. Got the Harmony One super remote configured, and it is sweet!

 Another fabulous day at the beach. Took the backpack beach chairs for a test run! Rode the bikes down to the cafe and parked them at the rental office, walked the path to the beach, and sat out there near the water's edge for over an hour, just enjoying the sun and watching the seagulls.

So far we've really enjoyed the Cafe Tashtego, but we've also been very impressed with the teriyaki shop in the You and I Market. The market is small, but it's amazing how much stuff they have; they seem to have whatever you need, and it's kind of fun now for me to see what else I missed before. Also tried the burger stand in Pacific Beach; burgers, fries, and chocolate shakes!

Stopped in to see the folks at Cottage Rentals; they are always fun to visit with. I learn something new every time: clamming, where to shop or eat in the area, history, day trip ideas, you name it.

4/21/08 - Two weeks before go-live. Seems like there are hundreds of little details to take care of. We are so excited to see our first guests sign up and find out what they think of the place. Impressions from some residents and the folks at Seabrook Cottage Rentals seem to be very positive so far. And they haven't even seen some of the cool stuff!

4/19/08 - Temporary web site finally up. It's been a LOT of work and it would've been very funny (for you, maybe) to hear about all the adventures in getting this cottage put together, but we'll save you the long story. It has been a lot of fun staying in Seabrook, trying out the new cafe, exploring the trails and the rest of the town, and visiting the beach as much as possible. Meeting the people behind the Seabrook organization has been very enjoyable and gives us great confidence that our Reflection guests will have a great Seabrook experience. This place is like Disneyland for grown-ups...