Family Celebation Week 2011 {San Diego}

Growing up, my summers consisted of the beach. Or soccer. Sometimes even both, and at the same time {those beach practices really whopped my behind!}. Most all of my friends were beach lovers too and, as a giant group of hooligans, we spent countless hours between our sunken, sandy towels and the crisp Pacific ocean. Its just what we did on a warm Southern California day.

Raising Alina in Vegas means that, as of right now, she has had very limited exposure to the beach. I can’t tell you how much that hurts my heart. So on our trip to San Diego this year, I wanted to spend a couple days just relaxing on the beach.

After a few hours at Sea World, we spent the late afternoon at Mission Beach {48 hours after this, a great white shark was spotted in this exact area!!! Ahh!}. I will swim anywhere, but Daddy D is not crazy about the Pacific ocean {or anywhere he can’t see the bottom}. Mission Beach had a lot of seaweed on this particular day, and it grossed him out even more. Alina totally picked up on Daddy D’s primped tude at first, but finally warmed up to the experience.

Our next beach morning, I made sure to take my two finicky beachers to the most pristine beach in San Diego: Coronado. The tide was pretty low, which made for lots of sandy fun. Daddy D, taking into account what I said about Alina mincking his sentiments, made a point to show her all the beach fun she could have. And it worked. Beach day #2 was a total success!

I lived in San Diego for a couple years in my early 20′s, and this was my first time back since that time. I had forgotten how beautiful it was, even driving down the highways, especially compared to LA. I wouldn’t mind moving back one day. But did someone say 10% sales tax and insane income tax? Ya, Nevada kind of rules in the tax department.

I missed the beach, but realize that I have come to love the moutains of Vegas a lot too. Just a different pace of life, I guess. I was happy to share my love of the beach with Alina, and hope to do so every summer…if even for just a few days out of the year.