This vacation we made plans to be chill. We as a group agreed we would purposely not plan out any of our days in detail but leave things open so we could have time to just be. So on this day we simply explored the ocean beach at length.
Mission Beach, San Diego – what is happening here? From the naked eye (or the semi-cynical eye of a Gen X tourist) it looks like something out of 1990's MTV Spring Break special – as in back when MTV played music videos and had VJs who would sometimes be at very sunny locations live with lots of very scantily clad people behind them. The difference on this day was that the amusement park roller coaster was closed (not yet in season), the beach side pool was closed, and the strange sitting park, outside the amusement rides and next to the beach, on a Monday morning was completely deserted. The only people nearby were the maintenance workers and the homeless sprawled out near the beach fire pits.
Upon reaching the beach we did our inaugural go out and put our feet into the ocean immediately exercise.
After the inaugural water stepping we walked the "boardwalk" until it was obvious we couldn't walk any further in one direction to find anything but residential/vacation rental properties – so we turned around to walk the other direction heading toward Garnet Street to find the pier and a spot for a little brunchy, pre-lunch snack or beachy beverage. But first I needed to hug the lonely ice cream cone at Beach Treats. It was sticky. Shocking.
As we made our way to the pier avoiding motorized scooters and mini-motor bicycles driven with abandon by fellow vacationers we enjoyed the dive bombing pelicans and the sounds of the seagulls above.
Then we found it, the cheesiest looking beach shack brunch establishment to sit at and overlook the teenagers being forced to do community service cleaning up the beach.
After some Virgin Marys, a Mango-rita and hydration we moved on to explore the pier and see if the houses we saw out there were actually houses or a hotel.
On the pier, that was filled with vacation rentals (not homes where people live), we watched actual surfers surf in the ocean. I have never seen an actual surfer surfing in the ocean with my own eyes, just in movies or TV clips. As a whole everyone in the group was very disappointed to learn that real live surfers wear wet suits, instead of surfing mostly naked displaying their fit bodies like gods floating on the surf. It was still pretty amusing to watch them attempt to catch waves as whales or sharks bobbed along near them in the oncoming waves. They also were quite bunched up but never managed to bash each other on the head with surf boards or their falling bodies. It is like surfing is a skill.
The mid-day sun was starting to cook our less than sun-soaked skin so it was time to leave the pier, purchase some fish for our fish taco dinner extravaganza and get some lunch at locally recommended Miss B's Coconut Club.
They were not lying about the coconut in the coconut club – it was in everything including the coconut beverages delivered all around me. It was some of the best coconut shrimp I've ever had – as you could taste the fresh coconut and the fresh shrimp and it was not deep friend past the point of recognition – perfectly nutty and shrimpy simultaneously. The jerk chicken wings were not bad, and the fully loaded fries covered in pork were slammin'. Meanwhile, the calamari came with deep fried pickles and jalapenos – hot stuff!
We walked off the fried food taking the bay side beach walk – the bay is the quiet adult side of the Mission Beach peninsula with pretty houses people actually live in, no motorized scooters, and bicycles who actually call out "on your left" as they ride past with grace and concern for the other human beings on the walkway with them. It was very pleasant.
For the rest of the afternoon we relaxed, some went to play in surf and I wrote my blog and did energy work on my friends. It was a nice comfortable stress-free experience. When the sun went down we started to chop up the farm fresh ingredients for our fish taco fun times. So many yummy things including seaweed kraut!
Tasty fish tacos made by hand in our "gourmet" kitchen!