by Meg Pierce
The morning couldn’t be more perfect. From the master balcony, you can smell the salt on the light breeze blowing from the ocean just a few miles to the west. The typical morning clouds are already dissipating, melting under the warm glow of the California sun revealing a bright fresh baby blue sky above the red Spanish tile roof of the meditation loggia just across the bright green lawn. You could spend hours lounging here, sipping your coffee, listening to the birds and watching the horses graze in the shade of the California sycamore, and you’re almost tempted to, almost, but not quite. Afterall, when you live on a luxury equestrian estate like Willow Creek Estancia, there’s always too much fun to be had to stay inside.
Besides, you have a full day ahead of you. You’d be meeting your college buddies on your private court in a few minutes for a doubles match of tennis. They were visiting from the East Coast and staying in the guest house attached to the recreation pavilion where you’d played a light-hearted game of poker the night before as your kids and theirs had a blast getting reacquainted during round after round of bowling.
Yesterday, the two lawyers beat you and Sam in the last tennis match, but you’d been sore from a full day of training your stallion on the Grand Prix field and you were secretly hoping the delicious Napa Valley wine you’d served from your vast collection in the cellar the night before would help slow your pals down. You’d only had a single glass, so you’re feeling well-rested and limber, ready to take them on.
Not that it really matters whether you win or not. Either way, you’ll all still have a laugh over your post-game brunch at the private tennis clubhouse when you are done. Stella would be serving fresh lemonade from citrus picked from your own trees and her famous frittata with fresh bell peppers and avocado from the garden. That in itself was worth leaving the luxurious master suite for.
After brunch, you promised you’d take your friends down to Del Mar and teach them to surf. At least that was one area in which you would have the athletic advantage over them. Living less than 5 miles to the beach, you made time for a surf session at least once a week and even more in the summer when the kids were out of school, and you finally had the tan and physique to prove it.
In cooler weather though, you preferred your own yard, fishing in the lake or riding the trails with your spouse and kids, exploring the extensive network of paths that branched out from your Rancho Santa Fe Covenant home. After a long ride, you liked to stretch out your muscles doing laps in the heated saltwater pool, then relax under the starry sky listening to the chirp of crickets harmonizing with the baritone croaks of the frogs.
It was so easy on those days to imagine California in an earlier era when much of San Diego County was made up of ranches and the vaqueros would sleep out under the night sky telling stories. Personally, you were too grateful for modern-day luxuries and indoor plumbing to completely romanticize that life, which was why you’d fallen in love with this luxury equestrian estate. Willow Creek Estancia blends the best elements of history and rural life with the best amenities of modern California living.