Lost in La Jolla (California Part Three)

Hello guys. I have not forgotten, abandoned, or left you.
I've recently moved... ish. And the internet doesn't really work here.

I am not so pleased about that. Internet is a thing I require.
Anyways... back to what I was working on like a month ago....

This is my last California post, and then I will go back to normal, well "normal," posts.
These won't be quite as detailed since it's been so long.

Part One
Part Two

Day Six

Today, we went to the church that my aunt and uncle usually go to. It's a unity church in San Diego, The Unity Center. It was nice but soo big compared to what I'm used to. We didn't stay very long, but everyone seemed really nice. Also, the topic was about changing your brain to change your life. So, it was right in the field that I want to study, neuropsychology. The main book she, the minister, talked about was one I had read over the summer.

After that we went to La Jolla. Oh La Jolla. With taco shops and tanned surfers walking around, it is about as stereotypical California as any place could be. I think I want to move there. It's awesome. And so beautiful.

On the way home from church my uncle asked me if I wanted to see the seals. Of course I wanted to see the seals. I didn't have sunscreen, but I figured a few minutes in the sun would be okay. We parked and he told me it was a little bit of a walk. So we walked. And we walked. And then a little bit more. My uncle realized he had parked a little bit too far down the beach. But, we had already walked all that way, so we might as well keep going, right? This was our mindset for over three miles of beach until we finally, finally, came to where the seals were.

So that was interesting for all of three minutes.

Then, we had to walk back. We were both dehydrated and tired. We walked forever. Then we decided that surely the car was somewhere around here. Nope. I kept recognizing things, but we could not find the car. We walked up and down streets. I remembered taking a video when we first had gotten there, we watched it over and over trying to look for landmarks. Nothing. And of course, my phone was dead. If I had been alone I would have probably just lied down somewhere and not gotten back up. But my uncle remained hopeful. My ideas were along the lines of tell someone to call the police to drive us around or something. He kept saying maybe we walked too far... maybe we didn't walk far enough. After awhile I had completely given up. Everything started to look the same. We did, eventually (obviously), find our way back. Where the car was parked you could see two street signs. Both of them were the street names I recognized. I considered that a success on my part. However, since they ran parallel to the beach, it was a little less than helpful.

I have decided one of the magical things about La Jolla is that pictures, even on a crappy phone, turn out really well. I only took a few pictures and because it was so sunny I couldn't see them as I was taking them, but in my opinion, they came out quite nice.

looks like a postcard

That night for dinner, Charlotte and her boyfriend came over and made pasta. Well, cooked pasta, no one made pasta. One thing that drove me absolutely crazy the whole time I was in San Diego was that they all seem so obsessed over weight. Of themselves, not the food. Every time they eat they talk about the calories. Every time they do anything they talk about "burning off that taco" or whatever. Maybe because I grew up in a more food-loving less food-shaming environment it just seems weird to me? I don't know. That's not how we talk in my house.

Day Seven

Today my dad and I hit basically all the beaches. We went to Dog Beach, Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, and of course La Jolla again. I, reluctantly, showed my father the seals.

The other main details I remember from this day is being in horrible pain from salt/sand friction. I probably should not have gone in the water. So, my daddy bought me some nice, expensive board shorts, instead of the ones I grabbed one time when I didn't have a swimsuit for like $3. He also let me use his rash guard (which he then let me keep after I moved back up to Columbia... I like it lots ~~except I look unreasonably fat in it~~).

I have something in my notes from this day that says "no sleep." I have absolutely no idea what I meant by this. It was probably something important since the only other thing I had written were the names of the beaches, but, oh well.

NO SLEEP. I made it important.

Day Eight

Today we went to all the beaches again. Well, not all of them. A lot of them. We rented bikes to bike Mission Beach's boardwalk. That alone was an experience. I had not been on a bike since I learned at seven. I may have biked into several both animate and inanimate objects. Including several other bikers. And also some walls. Oops. Anyways....

My dad decided to thank everyone for putting up with us by taking everyone to dinner. Now despite how going to California sounds, we are pretty broke. And we also like ice cream. So, he decided to go to a burger place (they had vegetarian options as well) near a Ghirardelli parlor. Ella's face when she heard this was hysterical. Like "ug, so cheap" in an expression. I thought their veggie burger wasn't bad though, even though it did fall apart (this "cheap" place still came out to over $70).

On the way to the Ghirardelli parlor my father announced that we would find the perfect parking spot. Everyone laughed. I said, "I dunno, he's pretty good." They laughed more. We got stuck turning left behind someone who did not know how to drive and would not pull up or turn after it switched from yellow to red. So, since we were next to the street the parlor was on, most of us got out, and my dad and my uncle stayed in the car to park. We walked up the the parlor right when my dad pulled into the parking spot right outside the door. Everyone was flabbergasted and talked about how they needed those skills. My dad told Mia she had to start young and put her intentions out there so she could get what she wanted to (I had four commas in that sentence, I decided there were too many and took them all away). When she scoffed, my father told her to try it. She closed her eyes, held her hands up and said "I want chocolate." He had a piece in his pocket and set it in her hands. The look on her face was a priceless end to the vacation. Charlotte glared at him because calories and sugar. But we thought it was pretty awesome.

That night we got on a red eye and flew back to Charleston.

Back to the weather... during the day it's sunny and 70*. People complain about how hot it is (yeah, I know). At night it gets dark. Usually there's a breeze, and the temperature is still 70*. Then, everyone talks about how chilly it is. How can you be so unused to temperature change? Or in this case, sunlight/nighttime. The temperature stayed the same!

Other strange facts... people here don't know what palmetto bugs are. Ella didn't even know what a roach was. I said "you've never seen a roach?" and my dad said, "sure she has, a roach. cockroach," but she still didn't seem to know what I meant. Wouldn't that be nice? To not know what a roach is? ALSO there's no fire ants. The only ants that are here are those tiny black sugar ants (what I call them anyways). One day I walked all around and lay in the grass and everything and I did not get one single bug bite. Odd.

And, everyone's so obsessed with cleaning here (in the house). A few times we've left in a hurry or forgotten to clean up and it's always spotless when we get back. Then my uncle will make some comment about a mess. I feel like if my... anyone... did that I would leave it for them to clean. I was expecting to clean it up when I got back. Hm.