Beach or Cabin

I've lived on the beach and in the mountains. Cities, small towns, wilderness areas, out on the ocean.
If it's taught me anything, it's that the only Zen you'll find on the mountaintop is the Zen that you brought with you.

 

Many years ago my wife and I spent a night in a cabin on a headland on the central Oregon Pacific coast. It was early spring and gusts of hurricane force+ pummeled the cabin. The gusts would hit with Woomp and the cabin would shudder on its foundation. Impressive…yes, romantic…not so much.

 

My wife & I are fortunate and have both a house close to the beach and a cabin in the mountains. We spend more time at the house near the beach. The beach is closer to family and doctors, but we spend about 1/3 of the time in the outskirts of a small mountain town along a river in the mountains.
We love listening to the river at night during spring and fall. They do get 4 seasons of weather in the mountains. The beach weather varies much less, mild summer and winters. Both are great in different ways.