The Ice Cream House

There is a house a few doors down from Betsy's house that everyone has long referred to as "The Ice Cream House," so named because of several white domes that resemble soft, swirly ice cream cones. It is owned by a couple from Minnesota - Kathleen and Dick - who spend the winter months here in San Carlos.


The Ice Cream House is one of many custom homes here on the caricol. Kathleen invited us over a few evenings ago. Their living room leads out to an open air dining room, bar, swimming pool, and the same view of Shangrila Cove that we have - their view being south, ours being east.

But, there was a period of time when they had no view at all!

The Ice Cream House sits on the same cliff as the Berryhill home. Supposedly there is a law, or bylaw or something - in the home owner's association called the "rustic" or "rustica" provision, that forbids the building of homes on the lower part of the cliff. But about eight years ago, a lot was purchased and a huge home began to be constructed on the cliffs below. Truthfully, this house did not obstruct anyone's view. At least not initially anyway.


The man who bought the proper and was building the house, began dynamiting on his property. This went on for many months, maybe a year. Cracks appeared in the Berryhill house, and needless to say, marred the otherwise peaceful atmosphere of the neighborhood. I suspect that had there been no dynamiting, the neighbors may have let the construction go without a fuss. But now many of them gathered together and made trips to Hermosillo, the state capitol, to see what they could do legally to prevent the dynamiting.

Eventually they were successful in bringing the blasting to a halt. So! Now Mr. Dynamite is unhappy. His property goes up the cliff high enough so that it borders just a few feet in front of the Ice Cream House. He decides to construct a stone wall right agains the face of the Ice Cream House, so high that it reaches the roof of the second story of the Ice Cream House, completely blocking any view of the outdoors. Now when you looked out any window of the Ice Cream House, all you could see was this stone wall. This wall became known in the neighborhood as "The Spite Wall."

This matter is still in litigation, but apparently there has been enough resolution for the section in front of the Ice Cream House to come down. The remains of this portion of the stone wall lie in pieces on the cliff below the Ice Cream House, looking like a war zone.


There are additional rumours, which I have to say are exactly that, rumours. But because they make for good story telling I'm adding them to my tale with the disclaimer that they are "heresay." It is rumoured that Mr. Dynamite came down to Mexico because he was on the run from the state of Arizona for murdering his wife. Nice Guy! Further neighborhood info informs me that he sold the house to his brother, but his brother's wife hates San Carlos and hates the house and refuses to come here. In fact she has never been here. So this huge house sits on the cliff below us, empty, with a built in swimming pool overlooking Shangrila Bay, that has never been filled. No one has ever spent a night in this gigantic house. I believe it is for sale. We see an occasional maintenance worker walking around the roof. I'm tempted to go down the long, expensive driveway and walk around the grounds.

So that is the tale of the Ice Cream House. Don't you think it sounds like an old western ballad? I can hear it, the guitar strums an ominous A Minor or suspended chord. A deep crusty voice says something like, "This is the Saga of the Ice Cream House." The chorus has the words "boom boom" in it. Davy, are you reading this???