We have lived in San Diego for five years and still haven’t done the bonfire at the beach thing yet. That was reconciled during Staycation ’09. We all packed up and went to Coronado Beach, a beautiful wide sandy strip with a great view of Point Loma and La Oceana Pacifica beyond. Yes, I know that’s not real Spanish, muchas gracias!
Most of the beach afternoon I spent with Baby Harbat chasing the waves and running in the sand. Here’s what happened in the first two seconds my wife played with her.
Just kidding, honey! I already deleted the footage where she buries Baby Harbat in the sand then can’t find her for over 45 minutes, and the part where she has Baby Harbat “playing” with sand crabs, broken glass, and beached jellyfish.
As the sun went down, we got BH bundled up some towels, and claimed our spot at one of the half dozen concrete firepits on the beach. Though it took a little while to get the fire lit, the on-shore breeze soon whipped it into a magnificent pyre to rival the furnaces of Vulcan! Well, it was enough at least to cook our hot dogs and stay warm. There’s something about standing around a fire on the beach, the warm night air wrapping around you, the smells of salt water and cooking food, and the soft crash of waves, that makes you realize how lucky you are. And I mean you. I was too busy picking sand from my food and hoping I didn’t step on an ember in my bare feet. Kidding again! It was great and we will definitely be doing this more often.
Our second foray into nautical danger came in the form of a 22’ rented daysailer. It was a fantastic breezy afternoon, low 80s on the water, and just as we pulled away from the dock and gave the rental company a hearty wave, our outboard died. No problem, we sailed out of the harbor and into San Diego Bay. My sister took over the helm to get herself acquainted with sailing, and we did just fine except for the million-ton freighter bearing down on us and blasting a horn so loud its echoes repeated in the entire metropolitan area for seconds after it stopped. After the second blast we decided to get out of its way. I’ll tell you what, those freighters move way faster than they seem. Here is the leviathan safely past us:
And here is Baby Harbat manning (toddlering?) the jib sheet. Ahoy!
And so concludes the three-part series on our Staycation. There was much more activity and frivolity, including my birthday on Sunday and days of presents, feasting, and debauchery. But I can’t put up pictures of that so I’ll leave it to your imagination. Happy weekend!
Writer, architect, father, husband.
Loved that wave/swimming attempt. Good Mama-nice rescue!
Ha, loved the baby roll.