Escape from the desert

We just got home from a weekend jaunt to San Diego. Could the weather have been any more glorious, she asks rhetorically.

It was beautiful. Crystal clear blue skies, a light breeze, the perfect temperature. The air was just ever so slightly damp, just barely resting on your skin, a huge relief after the dry desert air that leaches all the moisture out of your body. It made you want to kiss your fingertips and throw them into the air. David and I kept remarking on how William's round cheeks were so much smoother and softer in the damper air, which just gave us an extra excuse to cover them with kisses.

We drove over to Coronado on Saturday afternoon and ate ice cream on the veranda at the Hotel del Coronado. Then we took William for a stroll along the boardwalk and looked at the waves. This morning, we went to the Pacifica Breeze Cafe up in Del Mar for brunch, then walked down the street to the park overlooking the ocean. I pointed out to William all the surfers, lounging with their longboards, hoping for an occasional wave to ruffle the glassy surface of the turquoise water. And we talked about how the Pacific Ocean is much colder in San Diego than the Atlantic Ocean was in Holden Beach. I'm not sure William remembers sticking his feet in the Atlantic, but we wisely decided that we're going to wait to give him a full-fledged introduction to the chilly Pacific.

It was such a propaganda-type weekend. Having lived in San Diego for two years in the past, I know that you get maybe a couple dozen such days every year. The rest of the time, it's usually too cool for me to want to put on a bathing suit and go swimming (brrrr!). Then there's the infernal marine layer, which seems nearly omnipresent at the coast. But not this weekend. It was the sort of weekend that makes people want to throw caution and reason to the wind and buy a million dollar shack and live in San Diego. Glorious, glorious, glorious. Did I mention that it was glorious?

I think William had a good time, too. He seemed cheerful most of the time. He got a makeshift high chair in which to sit when we went out to eat sushi with Kristin. He got to check out all sorts of interesting tourists at the Hotel Del. He even slept through the night both nights, even in an unfamiliar Pack n Play. The only thing that wasn't quite up to his standards were the Miramar Inn's bathing accommodations for small people.

Oh well. You can't have everything.