Life's A Beach in San Diego

On Monday morning, we woke up in a bed in a hotel in a town about three hours from San Diego. It wasn't a terrible experience as the showers felt great, but it wasn't quite where we thought we'd be that morning.

After a free breakfast, we packed up and got on our way to San Diego. Temperatures fluctuated from 70-100 degrees on our way. But by the time we got to San Diego, it was a pleasant and surprising 75 and sunny. It was just what we wanted after a few days in some incredible heat in Utah.

Our first stop was in the North Park neighborhood (or NP as the locals say) to meet Katie's boyfriend, Nick, and get keys to her apartment because she was working. Nick was extremely friendly and gave some suggestions for lunch.

We ended up getting to Katie's apartment around 12:30 and met her roommate, Rachel, who is also very nice.

We unloaded our gear, threw laundry into the washer, and began to plan our day. There wasn't much planning needed as Katie and Nick had something set up for us in the evening, but we did need to figure something out for the next 3-4 hours.

It wasn't hard to figure out what to do because Katie lives about three houses away from the beach in Ocean Beach (or a OB as the locals day).



So, we changed, grabbed a few chairs, and walked about a quarter mile to the beach. It was busy with people but it was just what we wanted after visiting a lot of national parks, hiking a bunch of trails, and camping often - not to mention the more than 3,000 miles we had driven so far.

Along the beaches in southern California, you need to be aware of stingrays, which tend to stay in shallow water and bury themselves in the sand. Stings are extremely painful and would obviously require medical attention. To help avoid getting stung, we had to do the "stingray shuffle," which basically means to drag your feet and move slowly in the shallow water. That will scare off the stingrays, which are peaceful animals unless they are startled or stepped on.

We ended up staying in the beach until about 4, at which point we headed back to Katie's apartment and condensed to one car to meet Nick on Fiesta Island on Mission Bay for some games, food, drinks, and paddleboarding. Oh, and a fireworks show courtesy of Sea World around 9:30.

Before getting to Fiesta Island, we had to pick up our food. It was takeout BBQ from a local place, Phil's Bar-B-Q, and it was phenomenal.

When we got to Fiesta Island, we did all of the aforementioned activities including Kan Jam, which Katie bought recently.

Cara and I challenged the Runk's first and immediately lost as Lauren hit a Kan Jam shot on her very first throw! But we ended up winning the next two games against them, so I guess the universe corrected itself.

We also all went paddleboarding in the bay, which was beautiful as the sun began setting. And as the sun set, it was time for a fire before fireworks.

In the end, it was great to see Katie, meet Nick, and just relax after driving across the country.

We did the beach thing again today, but I'll tell you all about that tomorrow morning.