Surf and sun

After weeks of freezing temps in New Jersey, we jumped at the chance to get out to San Diego for a bit of sun. Like all of our trips these days, they do involve a bit of college touring and there were a few we wanted Tori to see out there. So we went and were so glad we did. For the sun. And the college info. And just a different pace of life for a few brief days.

We rented a place in Pacific Beach, near where my friend Stacey used to live. We wandered down to the beach and took it all in. For about one minute...and then the kids first surf lesson started! The kids had surf lessons every day and loved it. Tori got to standing pretty regularly, Royce got up a few times and Adam did once. After the lessons, the kids turned in their wetsuits and boards and went back out into the ocean. They swam and chased waves for hours, some of the only people out there without wet suits. And probably the only New Jersey residents on the beach, loving the 70 degree weather. Who knows what the water temperature was- and who cares!

We considered doing more- the zoo, Sea World, etc but didn’t. We sat on the beach and we sat on our deck. We got caught up on Olympic Trials. It was lovely and quiet and just what we needed. Per usual, with the requisite groaning from the kids, we rented bikes and rode around. But really, we only rode a few miles into La Jolla. We saw the sea lions, ate some tacos and rode our bikes back down the coast. We did do a little hike at Torrey Pines State Park but that was mostly because of the namesake potential.

The day of college tours was done by Phil and Tori. They drove, they saw, they liked. Phil, doing extra duty, even got Tori to a college swim meet, which I appreciated. All colleges were gorgeous. Tori could see herself going to all of them. But Tori also feels that the college talk is a bit too soon, there are too many unknowns. But the twins were listening to some of it. Royce particularly liked the college life vibe and said she could see herself going to school in San Diego and surfing every day. We stressed that she had to go to school in addition to the surfing. She waved us off and discussed in detail what kind of surf board she wanted. Perhaps too nice?

We flew home on a red-eye flight, on which four of us sort of slept. One of us, Adam, took Phil’s business class seat and reported that he slept just fine. We came home to frigid cold but after the few days break we felt that we could take it. Sort of. 3 of us fell into bed and slept until 7:30. 2 of us practiced parallel parking in the dark. Why? Tori was picked up at 7:25am for her driver’s test! Stay tuned for those results!