Active Retirement Living
In our hunt to find a place to live in retirement, we drove down to the Trilogy community in Monarch Dunes last week. We’ve visited another Trilogy development in Northern California and know they’re top notch but didn’t like the scenery up here, so hoped for more luck further south.
Our first night, they treated us to an outstanding dinner at their onsite restaurant. We appreciated that it would be awesome to have a restaurant of this caliber right in your neighborhood.
The next morning we started our day with a complimentary massage at their onsite spa. It was decadently relaxing. A champagne mimosa makes any morning more enjoyable but I was ready for a nap by noon:)
After Shrimp Louis at their Bistro, we met with a salesperson who showed us around the community, amenities, and model homes.
The beauty of buying into an active retirement community is there are lots of clubs, groups, and activities to join where you’ll meet and make new friends. Who wants to move and find themselves isolated in retirement? Not us! Everyone was friendly and we could easily see ourself settling in there.
Because this was a construction site we had to suit up in hard hats and reflective vests. Not overly stylish but mandatory.
We traipsed all over the construction site to check the angle and views for each lot we liked. The sign on the back of my vest indicates that “Nobody Gets Hurt Today”, but my suede shoes took a real beating in the dirt. Probably not a good choice of footwear on my part.
The lots with the best views were out of the price range we want to afford. Could we spend that much? Yes, but we don’t want to have a mortgage and ideally want to bank extra money as a cushion and travel fund. The more affordable lots had no view or privacy. Not what we want.
The upshot is we’ve got more thinking and hunting to do. We’re pretty confident we’ll know the right spot when we see it so the search continues!
Are you considering moving in retirement?
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Jenifer, again I will recommend Oakmont; it has everything you say you want, including college classes within blocks of the homes there. The Osher LifeLong Learning classes are well-attended, various and lots of fun…you really must check it out, as it seems to give you what you seek…physically, environmentally, culturally, medically, etc. etc. etc. Ocean an hour away & right in the middle of Wine Country, too! Financially, you have to contrast & compare, of course, but my guess…less than what you’d sell for in your area of California.
Oakmont sounds too good to be true! All that in the beautiful California wine country would be a dream come true. It’s definitely on our list to see this summer! I sure hope it is something we can afford because it sounds ideal. Thanks so much for telling me about it, Marlene. Do you live there?