I've actually been back for almost a week, but I've been too busy to update at all. Or draw any of the comics I planned out while I was in California *cough*
The beach was, as always, AMAZING! I felt so refreshed and happy there. The weather was sunny with a slight tinge of warmth, a huge difference from our spring break where it rained every day. EVERY. DAY. It was strange because, due to the sunny weather, the town was filled with more people than I'd ever seen before. I'm used to the beaches being sparse and not having to deal with sharing the ocean with humans. It was fine though, because most of the people conjugated near the pier where a lifegaurd is always on duty. I prefer beaches cleared of masses of people, where there's nothing but you and the water. And the multiple creatures within the water. I may die one day because I'm attacked by a white shark and don't have the strength to swim back to shore (and no lifegaurd to help me out), but that's the way I like it.
Things we did included traditions dating back to my birth as well as new experiences. Things like walking miles and miles through the ocean surf while picking up bits and pieces leftover from high tide, taking hundreds of pictures of the way the sun looks on the ocean and seagulls taking off, boogie boarding with seals, exploring downtown Morro Bay and buying commemorative tacky shotglasses, spending hours in dusty antique shops and finding treasures such as old Battlestar Galactica comics, ceramic pony figurines, and vintage Beatle paraphernalia, getting hot dogs from a snack cart run by an adorable old man right on the beach, working on my scientific paper at a coffee shop with a zen garden right by a hotel parking lot, drinking beers on the beach, dune jumping at Montana de Oro and experiencing that terrifying and exhilarating feeling of leaping through the air and falling, rolling down a sand dune like you would a hill and becoming a human corn dog as a result, discovering a beautiful isolated beach created by magma flows that has the best tide-pooling I've ever seen, seeing tiny eels, hermit crabs, and sea stars in a rainbow of colors, finding a driftwood fort on the beach abandoned by its original creators and sitting in it while watching the sun set (I felt like I was in Lost), realizing that what comes down must go back up and climbing a cliff made of sand to reach the tops of the sand dunes again, running through the tide at midnight beneath the star-studded and galaxy-strewn sky while listening to My Weakness by Moby and crying, wandering through a small beach town just ten minutes away shrouded in pine trees and finding adorable little garden shops overrun with cats, independent coffee shops that claim their coffee is the best, and three-storied antique malls, feeling the ocean floor disappear beneath you as you swim that last few feet to the drop off and allowing the swells to carry you where they may, watching pelicans dive for supper at sunset and having your parents think that it's whale spouts they see, finding a friend in a lone sea lion who follows you a mile down the beach, building a bonfire on the beach and roasting hot dogs until the sun sets and the only things in life are the smells of campfire smoke and the sound of the sea, going to the farmer's market in San Luis Obispo and witnessing an electric cello player performing in operatic, golden armor, attending a birthday dinner where drinks were served to me in jars and I tied a cherry stem into a knot with my tongue, standing in the ocean at sunset with the water up to my knees and singing The Little Mermaid songs, and ultimately just loving every second of it.
My father told me one night that they found me on the beach as a baby. That I'm actually a sea creature.
It all makes sense now.
The whimsy. The whimsy.
I also went to Seaworld before we ended up in Cayucos and we stopped in Vegas for my 21st birthday!!! I didn't go wild, since I was with my family and all, but I DID get a 32 oz margarita, explored the strip, and won $12.93 gambling. This past week has been used to have my first legal drinks out with friends, like delicious peach margaritas and fajitas at Red Iguana with Gillian, to watch more of my beloved X-Files (I'm almost done with season 8 *sob*), to get plastered and attend yet another twilight concert (Bright Eyes this time), and now I am sick and at home this Friday night instead of out dancing like I'd originally planned. Tomorrow I plan on going to Craft Lake City and going on a homemade bar crawl of sorts however, so hopefully I feel better.
Also I got an A- on my independent research project! (the one I was in Arizona for earlier this summer)
You forgot to mention WHY you ran into the ocean at midnight listening to Moby. bahaha ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's okay... I understand. Oh do I understand. Just when it happened to me, I wasn't in that much of a magical atmosphere. It was more like me wandering downtown at night crying to myself while listening to Moby. haha
It has to be done at night, beneath the...the... *sniff* STARLIGHT
ReplyDeletehahahaha such a cleansing experience that was, even though the next day I still had to deal with the fact that he was gone and listen to Scully's Theme, which is the next song I want on my Ipod to cry to