My wife and I stayed for 5 nights with our two kids (12 year-old daughter and 15 year-old son). Overall, we had a terrific time and would recommend Nicole's place to others looking for a beach getaway. For folks who are interested, here's a few thoughts...
* Location
- It wasn't right on the beach, but it was awfully close - a couple blocks to the bay and a slightly longer walk to the ocean.
- It was on the southern end of Mission Beach, so there wasn't a lot of dining/nightlife options real close by. For us, this was perfect as we were looking for someplace a little quieter and we usually cook most of our meals to save a few bucks. But it isn't super far to get to Belmont Park and the area north of that where are a lot of places to eat/drink. Also, Nicole has bikes available to get there... or you can rent electric scooters/bikes (which are all over the place, for better or worse).
* Amenities
- Garage - Great. We had a Jeep Compass that fit with room to spare.
- Washer/Dryer - Great. Really nice to have access to a washer/dryer.
- WiFi/Cable - Strong wifi signal. Took us a little time to figure out the TV/cable remotes, but once we did, there were a ton of channels to choose from.
- Beach Stuff - Was really nice to have towels, boogie boards, a little tent for shade, and pails/shovels/diggers.
- Bikes - There were 4 bikes available. They could use a little TLC (ocean air is a little tough on them); couldn't lower the seat on the smallest one for my daughter, because the bolt was rusted tight.
* Kitchen/Dining - Newer appliances, including a dishwasher. Big kitchen table with lots of seating. Had most of the basics covered for preparing meals. Could maybe use a few more plates/bowls to reduce the amount of times the dishwasher needed to be run (but now we're getting into the little stuff).
* Bedrooms/Bathroom - Always had hot water, which was nice with 4 folks showering after a day at the beach. The smaller bedroom is a little quirky - you have to walk through it to access the garage (which is where the washer/dryer, bikes, beach stuff, etc. is).
* Noise - Nicole and her family (including a couple of toddlers) are upstairs, so we occasionally heard some crying and the pitter-patter of little feet. There's quite a bit of jet noise (starting at 6:30 am) because the airport is pretty close by, but we got used to that. On the last night we were there (a Friday night), my daughter said she woke up to some folks partying about 2:30 am a couple houses down, but other than that it was pretty quiet the whole time we were there
Overall, we had a great time and would stay again. It seems like it would be a really outstanding place to stay for folks with younger children. Nicole has a lot of stuff for younger kids available, the bay is really close (with beaches and nice calm water), and there's lots of stuff around that would probably fascinate most pre-schoolers (boats, jets, etc.).