Day 5
9:00AM I sleep in late today to celebrate the lack of any need to respond to some emergency. Since I have missed the somewhat inferior HoJo's waffles, I decide to take a run as I have not had a chance to do this since Friday. I head across the interstate towards the ocean to explore our new land.
9:30AM I run along US hwy 101 looking at the unique collection of shops. It would appear there is a pattern. It went something like Surf Shop, Mexican Restaurant, Antique Store, ...repeat. There was what I would describe as a shanty town strip mall. It would appear that the building might have been leaning in odd directions and the roofs looked like tin or tarp. I was amazed at the shear number of people running or biking along this highway. Don't they have jobs? It's 9:30am on a Wednesday. I turned into a subdivision to take a look at the homes on the top of the bluff overlooking the ocean. They stood in stark contrast to the more modest homes...literally on the other side of the tracks. Very nice homes and many were for sale. I was tempted to enter one house that was having one of your typical Wednesday morning open houses. I'm not sure based on the prestige of the home whether they wanted a sweaty fat man wandering through.
A running challenger emerged when I turned onto this ocean front street. I young mother pushing two babies in a runner stroller. She was on the opposite side of the street and she was threatening me. For some reason I just could not let a mom beat me jogging down the street with a baby stroller. I swear to you she was speeding up but I could speed up more.
10:00AM Oh thank God, the end of the street and she turns off as I take a long winding staircase down to the beach. I'm not sure I could keep up that false sense of bravado any longer. The tide is just rolling out and the waves were exceptionally large. The stairways are filled with teenagers...and more disturbingly some 50 year olds scouting out the waves and texting their friend the conditions no doubt. There were probably 40 black dots in the water all waiting for a perfect wave. They were black dots because they all had wetsuits. Basically I was just amazed that the california stereotypes were soooo...prevalent. Dude!!! Awesome!!! I was wondering if the bike racks on the Volvo could be retrofitted for Surfboards.
10:10AM, I run back to the hotel following a loop that makes me pass a small used car dealership. In the lot we 6 cars. 5 of them were silver Volvo's all laughing at me. I despised that little store and I threaten to return with some tools and perform a turboectomy. Teach those cars to laugh at me.
10:15AM, I might be wrong but I sure have noticed a lot of Priuses. What is up with that?
11:00AM, I jump in the pool to cool down. Nice!!
12:30PM, Time for the beach. We head down to near where I had been running. The beach is not over laden with people and we easily find a spot to park ourselves. Ike and I spend some time jumping into the waves and I try lame attempts to body surf. Ike returns to the beach to scan for girls that he will never talk to.
1:30PM, I have noticed more and more boys have arrived at the beach. They all seem to have some gimmick to prance about with their ripply little bodies around the lovely young ladies with me. They of course are quite obviously scoping out said boys. Some were playing frisbee, some were going back and forth with a soccer ball. Others toweled themselves off gracefully. Again the stereotypes were running rampant.
3:00PM, By now we have all burned except for little asian Ike. He sucks because his brown skin doesn't get sunburned. Ike and I return to the water. The girls are strolling near the water.
4:00PM, Ike and I are ready to be done in the water but we notice that a guy we had seen before with a physique much like mine had approached Kt and Bonnie at the water's edge. He was making small talk and asking for phone numbers. I admire his courage and I was laughing like crazy as I could see Kt looking like..."Dad, come and say we have to leave or something." Instead I watched from the waves amused at this brave young man about to be shot down. There probably was something creepy about his statement that it was nice to meet girls of legal age. Rejected he finally left and then Ike and I came out of the water.
5:00PM, Pool again
6:00PM Dinner of porta-tacos. I brought burrito rollups, refried beans, burrito chicken, nacho cheese, and salsa. A very authentic mexican dinner in this very hispanic neighborhood.
8:00PM, Pool and hot tub
10:00PM, Shower
11:00PM I go to sleep very tired. The kids sit on laptops and iPhones talking to people and watching Youtube until unknown hours of the morning.
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