San Diego.
I don’t even know where to begin with how lovely this vacation was. I went with my friend Kirsten, and our friend Paris to stay with Kirsten’s cousins in Ocean Beach, San Diego. The drive there was alright, despite the fact that a wrong turn was made and we ended up three hours out of the way. I’m so glad that I have a GPS on my phone… Despite the fact that it took us forever out of the way, we went past the dinosaurs, and saw some really pretty scenery. We got to her cousin’s place at about 5pm, and fucking hell it was so beautiful there. The weather was about 70f, much better than the 112f in phoenix. The first night, we sort of just put our things in the house, generally arranged things and then walked down to the beach and ate dinner at this place called Ciao Bella. They had delicious food, it was so unreal. Their tiramisu was to die for, and the waiter was pretty much gorgeous. The guy who owned the restaurant was such a lovely guy, his name was Franchesco. So after we ate and spent a little bit of time walking down Newport Ave, and viewing the beach again it was about 11pm so we walked back to the guest house.
Wednesday we basically had an agenda of doing nothing. We woke up early, ate breakfast on the deck with a beautiful view of the ocean, then sauntered down to the pier. We played in the ocean for a bit, walked along the ocean, sat and talked, and then hit up Newport Ave pretty heavily. We spent the day…. shopping. Yes, I’m not one who tends to be a big shopper, but there were so many neat little shops. I bought a few shirts that went over my bathing suit pretty well, and a little dress in case we decided to dress up and go somewhere fancy. While the other two primarily spent their day in clothing stores, I went and found a few really neat antique shops and literally spent hours in them. We met up for lunch at this really delicious mexican food place where I got a fish taco and some nachos. The rest of the day we just literally walked everywhere, and since it was the forth of July…. There were fireworks to be had! After we ate, we went back to the house to change. I decided that I was done with the sand for the day, so I wore my Docs, while the other two wore their sandals. Now, all day walking around, people were telling us that there was going to be a marshmallow fight on the beach that night. But we weren’t really thinking anything of it, and thought maybe a few people throwing marshmallows at each other was what they meant. Might I add that while we were walking a huge fireworks display went wrong and all went off at the same time- I guess it made national news- the shit looked like Armageddon, an sounded like the world was ending. So we watched the fireworks display on the beach, and as soon as the finale went off, people started pegging marshmallows at each other. A THOUSAND PEOPLE, THROWING MARSHMALLOWS. We didn’t expect this, at all. It was like a fucking war, it was so insane. We were pretty much in the middle of the battle, so to defend ourselves, we had to pick op marshmallows off of the sand and throw them back at people. There was also a MASSIVE bonfire, and as people were throwing marshmallows over the fire, they were catching on fire and landing on people. It was fucking insane. In Ocean Beach, I guess this is a tradition they have been having for about ten years now. We weren’t expecting it, at all and it lasted for about two hours! By the time things were rapping up, the sidewalks and streets were so covered in marshmallows that their sandals were literally sticking to the pavement. It was so crazy. So as the night wrapped up, we were walking back and we walked past a few little get togethers, but no one was really having any massive parties which we sort of thought was going to happen. We called it a night and went home.
Thursday, didn’t start off very well, at all. I was feeling really ill. I had some sort of allergy attack, and was just a bit sick, so I stayed in the house resting until the afternoon. I don’t really know what they did, but by the time I was feeling better, it was already getting late. I just left the house and wandered aimlessly through ocean beach. I found some really amazing new age shops, The Philosopher’s Stone and The Tree of Life. I spent probably four hours between these two shops, and met some really amazing people, and a tattoo artist who owned a shop in Ocean Beach. I then went and met up with Kirsten and Paris at Ciao Bella’s. We ate there again, had coffee, and tiramisu. I told them about the tattoo guy that I had met and that I was thinking about getting a tattoo done, and they both wanted one too. So we had planned the next day to go and get one. We walked back to the house, and that was that.
Friday was the day that we drove anywhere for the first time since we arrived in San Diego. But first, we met this guy who had a house called The Jungle House. It literally was like a jungle. The properties in Ocean Beach are really long, so there was plenty of room. We met this guy, Robert at her cousin’s, because he’s an electrician. But his house is known for travelers to just come and stay, so naturally it had no front door. He had so many little pieces of art everywhere, and stories behind them about random people staying and taking five years to rebuild this shower, and how there were musicians who crashed there. The back yard was literally a jungle, he had planted trees twenty years ago, and they were huge and beautiful. There was a Buddha shrine, and at least seven little two wall living spaces outside for people who stayed there. One of the current residents was a philosophy major, and had just published a book, and would stay up writing all night and sleeping during the day. Robert also had this little orange cat who acted as if he owned the place. It was incredible, and so amazing. We ended up talking for a good hour. Afterwards, we went to La Jolla, Old Town Dan Diego, Little Italy, and some other touristy places. When we got back in Ocean Beach, we decided to head to the tattoo shop and talk to the guy. I told him that I was going to be getting one done, and that they were thinking about it. So he started to draw mine up, and then Paris came up with her idea, and Kirsten sort of did. Paris and I ended up getting tattoos that night, and Kirsten didn’t end up getting one, but I got mine for pretty much a lot less than Paris, because the guy gave me a huge discount. We were at the shop until nearly 2am, and got back to the house really late.
Saturday was another day where we hit up the beach in the morning, pretty much all morning and then sort of explored via car. I think if it weren’t for my GPS, we would have got terribly lost in a few points. We ended up back at Ciao Bella’s one last time, and this time Franchesco wanted to make sure we came back, so he gave us a free Tiramisu, and him and I chatted for a while about my italian grandparents and such. The other two were still crushing on the one waiter, whose name was Mattia. We left there and took a walk down Newport Ave one last time, and watched the sun set. As we were walking, some guy walked up to us and said, “I feel your vibes, would you like to come to my art show?” So we ended up at some random art show in a Hair salon for a few hours just hanging out with these really awesome people. The artist guy was originally from Hawaii, and was a semi-professional surfer. Afterwards, we walked home and started packing.
Sunday we went back to Newport Ave to get some coffee, and then we started our drive home. I had such a nice time, despite sort of feeling like an outsider in my little friend group. I don’t feel like I’m ‘girly’ enough, or whatever. They also hardly listened to any metal on the trip, which I was not expecting. It kind of makes me think they’re posers in a way. They kept listening to Red Hot Chile Peppers, and Sugar Ray, and just random things like No Doubt. I couldn’t tolerate it, honestly. I felt so out of place sometimes, when they were sitting there gossiping, and talking about guys, and talking about clothes, and blah. Also, I did feel like quite the fat whale while standing with them. But I guess that’s all just a part of life.
I really loved San Diego. The people there were real human beings, everyone I met was so down to earth, including some lady who overheard me talking about my period starting, so she ran inside and gave me a few tampons. People don’t usually do that sort of thing. Literally everyone I met wad a story, and behind them was something beautiful. The beach was so breathtaking at times too. I loved sitting on the deck above the guest house and reading or talking on the phone or just relaxing. Overall, I had a really good time, and I think Kirsten and I will be going back soon. (:
