6.25.10 - San Diego so far...

For reasons I've forgotten Renata got a frequent flier ticket recently, so she paid for half of my trip to come visit her for a long weekend in San Diego. I haven't spent more than an evening with her in probably over a year, so this is very exciting.

Being the genius that I am, I booked my ticked for today, Friday, at 7:20am instead of in the evening, but I'm sort of glad, because it just means more time to hang out with her. Jack was a sweetheart (shock, I know, *happy sigh*) and got up at 5:45am with me to take me to the airport. The flight was remarkably short compared to going to MO. Renata couldn't meet me as soon as I landed because she had to finish watching one of the World Cup games involving Brazil (dork), so I sat in an airport Starbucks and had a non-fat chai latte (courtesy of my birthday gift card from Merlene!) and relaxed. It was very pleasant.

Anyway, she picked me up and we hung out at her place by the pool, catching up. Later in the afternoon we intended to go with her roommate Carly to enjoy Renata's birthday present to me, which was a kayaking tour! She's very original, Renata.

We took Carly's car, and got there in plenty of time for our new appointment. Everyone who worked at the kayak tour place was very friendly. We went out with a group of about 10 kayaks, plus the tour guides. I was nervous at first, though trying to hide it. Renata manages to get me to try new things because she's so excited and I don't want to spoil it, and then I almost always end up having a blast myself once I get over my nervousness. That's what I kept telling myself, anyway, as we walked in bathing suits in the chilly wind towards the GIGANTIC OCEAN.

The scariest part was when we were first going into the water. The guides had warned us to steer straight into the waves or we'd surely tip over. We waded in to our knees before getting in the kayaks, and the water was freezing. I was thinking "How did I let Renata talk me into this??" I said that out loud to her, actually. When we started paddling we immediately got turned sideways, and it was nerve-racking trying to get back on track, but we figured it out without falling over.

After that it was completely awesome. The waves were only near the shore and beyond it was just large, gentle swells. The water was actually warmer than the air, and very pleasant. Our guides told us all sorts of trivia about La Jolla and the area, including how the $48m homes at the edge of the cliffs come with contracts where the owners acknowledge that their houses will fall into the sea within 20 years. Supposedly one such home fell in 2 years ago, and the man only had a 2 hour warning, *and* he got fined for polluting the ocean.

We kayaked over to some cliffs and saw the sea lions, and then we went one kayak at a time into a cave. All very cool. The hardest part was kayaking back to the shore, because it was far and Renata and I are incapable of paddling in a straight line. We were laughing a lot about it though.