Sunkissed and Sandy

There is something about the crashing of the surf and the seduction of the warm sun that makes me look at my calendar and wonder if anything on it is necessary. I guess we can't spend all of our time searching for sea glass and digging for clams, but last week was an exception. Wednesday night, we drove (sobbing) from Disneyland to our favorite condo in Imperial Beach, wedged in there between San Diego and Mexico. It's a sleepy little surfer hangout that the California Touism Board seems to have forgotten. All day Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we had virtually the whole beach, ocean and pool to ourselves. I had my book to read, but it was more entertaining to watch what the kids could do with a long strand of seaweed and a bucket of shells. Ari spent hours gathering ingredients for the soup that the mermaids kept coming to eat out of her sand bucket.
Our favorite dinner in I. B. is the giant Seacoast pizza. It's so big Scott almost decapitated himself when he slammed into a wall carrying it. It took us 3 days to eat it.
There are certain things we always do in Imperial Beach. One is the world's best 99 cent store. I know it's not up there on the top ten list of things to do in Southern California, but I've found treasures there. Remember the Jerry Seinfeld Halloween books? This time we found Pez dispensers for 33 cents for the Easter Egg hunt. Scott loaded the cart with cookies that I initially made fun of, and subsequently hoarded and gobbled up myself. Scott also took the older girls to the outlets on the Mexican border. I didn't want to lose beach time, so I stayed with the others.
Even though we made good use of every hour with walks along the pier, browsing at Bibbey's shell shop and searching the rock jetty for treasure, we weren't ready to go when Saturday afternoon came. We left at 3:00 and didn't get very far when we decided to stop and surprise the Atnips in Temecula. Tim and Courtney are some of the few friends we have whom we didn't meet in first grade. They traveled with us to China, and we bonded instantly. How can you not bond when your taxi drivers are drag racing each other? We had some exciting adventures with the "California Dopps," as Scott calls the Atnips. Anyway, we walked into their back yard unannounced. Unperturbed, and maybe even excited to see us, they took us to their favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner. Xanthe was sad to leave her "friend a China." If Courtney gives me the OK, I'll post some adorable pictures of all the kids! (Tim and Scott included!) We had so much fun catching up with Tim and Courtney. Of course, Tim had our next get-together planned by the time we said good-bye.
We returned home to an immaculately organized house, right down to the kids' sock drawers, thanks to my mom. Organizing is her calling in life, and she spent our whole vacation Coconizing our house. Everyone was ecstatic!
Now that we're back in the tentative spring weather, I don't mind the chill. I can look up at the patches of blue and imagine the sky in Imperial Beach. I can almost feel the warmth on my face and almost smell the salty air. It's nice to have a place that is always waiting for your return, and always in your heart, like an old friend...