Welcome to San Diego

I thought we would never get there.

Driving through the mountains was completely insane. 

Maybe there's an easier way to get to San Diego, California, but we didn't know it.  So through the mountains it was.  In Billy.  Trying not to fall too far over the cliffs.

And yet here we are, across the mountains and entering Coastal California: a place I never dreamed I'd see.

I've been to Ireland and Israel, Canada and Jamaica, but somehow California seemed father away than any of those.  A foreign land.  And yet here I am.

Summer told me to send her a picture as soon as I saw the first palm tree lined street.  That's the photo above.  She lived here for several years, and she's our virtual tour guide for the next couple of weeks.  She sent me a giant list of things to do, places to go, and foods to eat.  We're going to try to do them all.

After settling into our campground we all agreed that we didn't want to hang around staring at the gravel and the fire pit.  We wanted to get our first glimpses of the Pacific.

So we did:

That's my first view as I sat down in the dry part of the white sand.  Jonah ran immediately for the waves and made a friend with the first boy he saw.  Maeryn played in the sand.

Jonah rushed back in about ten minutes carrying this:

A Sand Dollar.

Still alive.

I never knew...

There were hundreds of them there in the surf.  You could reach down and grab one, grab two, grab ten...  astounding.

Don't worry, we threw it back.

The air was chilly and we all wore jackets.  Jonah snuggled up in a hoodie after playing for about thirty minutes in the surf.

When we all agreed we'd had our fill and were pretty much starving, we took Summer's advice and went to a place called Delux Dogs on Coronado.

I had my doubts.  I mean... it was just hot dogs, right?

But Summer didn't steer us wrong.

They had veggie burgers.  And they were the best veggie burgers in the known world.

The kids got grass fed all beef hot dogs and loved every bite.

Everyone was friendly.

Our bellies were filled.

And our time in California had only just begun.