It's great living in a geek's paradise; Katie's entire family understands the joys of console, computer, and tabletop gaming, so there's always some form of nerdy fun going on. The problem, though, is that once we get started, it's kinda hard to stop--even when we wanna go out. After periodic bursts of us twisting each other's arms to go out, we finally left for the beach around 1:00pm. While walking I marveled the architecture... most of the houses are compact, concrete buildings with clay tile roofs (pueblo style). Another thing I noticed was the weather--I'd been expecting a significant, but dry, heat. However, Torrance's proximity to the Pacific gives it blue skies and a cool breeze for most of the year. Wonderful weather isn't the only thing this town has to offer, though.
We stopped momentarily at a RiteAid to grab something to drink and, looming over us before the soda refrigerators, were two aisles worth of liquor and wine. Apparently, Californian grocery and drug stores can sell you any form of alcohol you could possibly want. They had the usual cheap jugs of wine, but across from them were the likes of Jack Daniels, Malibu, Crown Royal, Grey Goose, the list goes on. They're a bit pricier than the liquor stores in College Park, MD, but you could use a RiteAid membership card to get discounts. What a strange and magical place this California.
Walking along the beach gave an equally captivating impression. The water glowed a light blue in the sunlight and, though a little chilly, felt soft and frothy at our feet. Rotting kelp and a condom wrapper tumbling in the surf broke the illusion momentarily, until we spotted a seal on the beach. It was laying in the sun, cordoned off by orange cones and under the discretion of a lifeguard. Anyone that so much as stepped a foot within the cones' perimeter received a stern warning to step back from the guard--we seriously thought he was gonna snap at the seagulls waddling by. I tried taking a picture with my phone, but left my microSD card in the laptop so I ran out of space. Moreover, I still haven't charged my digital camera or camcorder yet, and I was missing out on some great opportunities. Dustin managed to get a shot of the seal, but soon we heard people gasping with wonderment when dolphins breached the horizon. Dustin, Katie, and I were hypnotized by the silhouettes flipping and splashing over sunlit waves. I've seen dolphins while vacationing along the East Coast as well, but never playing like these. I cursed myself again at not bringing my camcorder.
Our stay is still far from over, I thought to myself,
I'm sure we'll get more great opportunities like this. After getting our fill of marine wildlife, we walked a bit further down the beach, enjoying the breeze and the waves rushing around our feet.
On our way back I found a shell washed up on the beach. It was a conch shell--we had stopped by a live seafood store that stored all its shellfish alive in plastic canals filled with running water, and it looked exactly like the conch's they were selling. I picked it up and, sure enough, there was a gooey appendage protruding from the shell. Taking pride in finding a conch even fresher than the ones at the store, I thought I'd take a taste (not really, but it makes for a great picture). I saw something else, though--the seal we watched earlier was charging up the beach away from the waves. The lifeguard had to move the cones back, and a wildlife rescue vehicle sat in wait. The pickup truck's driver set up some ramps linking the truck bed to the beach, and rolled down a cage on wheels attached to a motorized winch. He and two lifeguards netted the seal, got him into the cage, and pulled him onto the truck with the winch. After the truck cleared the beach and we sang
Kiss From a Rose on the Grave--by Seal--we set out homeward. Why didn't I bring my camera?!
We almost took the bus, but after getting on the wrong one we set out on foot like originally planned. Pacific Highway is a long road, stretching from Tiajuana to Vancouver--following it back to Katie's place felt almost as long. On the other hand, we got to add one more unique experience to our list today. If you are familiar with a hookah restaurant, it usually has long, comfy couches for its tenants to sit on and enjoy the hookah together while exotic music plays in the background, giving the place a foreign atmosphere. How about a hookah pizza place, though? Overtaken by curiosity, we enjoyed a little mint hookah with a few slices of pepperoni pizza and a plate of hot wings. It was weird, but an appropriate close to our little adventure.
It's great living in a geek's paradise; Katie's entire family understands the joys of console, computer, and tabletop gaming, so there's always some form of nerdy fun going on. The problem, though, is that once we get started, it's kinda hard to stop--even when we wanna go out. After periodic bursts of us twisting each other's arms to go out, we finally left for the beach around 1:00pm. While walking I marveled the architecture... most of the houses are compact, concrete buildings with clay tile roofs (pueblo style). Another thing I noticed was the weather--I'd been expecting a significant, but dry, heat. However, Torrance's proximity to the Pacific gives it blue skies and a cool breeze for most of the year. Wonderful weather isn't the only thing this town has to offer, though.
We stopped momentarily at a RiteAid to grab something to drink and, looming over us before the soda refrigerators, were two aisles worth of liquor and wine. Apparently, Californian grocery and drug stores can sell you any form of alcohol you could possibly want. They had the usual cheap jugs of wine, but across from them were the likes of Jack Daniels, Malibu, Crown Royal, Grey Goose, the list goes on. They're a bit pricier than the liquor stores in College Park, MD, but you could use a RiteAid membership card to get discounts. What a strange and magical place this California.
Walking along the beach gave an equally captivating impression. The water glowed a light blue in the sunlight and, though a little chilly, felt soft and frothy at our feet. Rotting kelp and a condom wrapper tumbling in the surf broke the illusion momentarily, until we spotted a seal on the beach. It was laying in the sun, cordoned off by orange cones and under the discretion of a lifeguard. Anyone that so much as stepped a foot within the cones' perimeter received a stern warning to step back from the guard--we seriously thought he was gonna snap at the seagulls waddling by. I tried taking a picture with my phone, but left my microSD card in the laptop so I ran out of space. Moreover, I still haven't charged my digital camera or camcorder yet, and I was missing out on some great opportunities. Dustin managed to get a shot of the seal, but soon we heard people gasping with wonderment when dolphins breached the horizon. Dustin, Katie, and I were hypnotized by the silhouettes flipping and splashing over sunlit waves. I've seen dolphins while vacationing along the East Coast as well, but never playing like these. I cursed myself again at not bringing my camcorder. Our stay is still far from over, I thought to myself, I'm sure we'll get more great opportunities like this. After getting our fill of marine wildlife, we walked a bit further down the beach, enjoying the breeze and the waves rushing around our feet.
On our way back I found a shell washed up on the beach. It was a conch shell--we had stopped by a live seafood store that stored all its shellfish alive in plastic canals filled with running water, and it looked exactly like the conch's they were selling. I picked it up and, sure enough, there was a gooey appendage protruding from the shell. Taking pride in finding a conch even fresher than the ones at the store, I thought I'd take a taste (not really, but it makes for a great picture). I saw something else, though--the seal we watched earlier was charging up the beach away from the waves. The lifeguard had to move the cones back, and a wildlife rescue vehicle sat in wait. The pickup truck's driver set up some ramps linking the truck bed to the beach, and rolled down a cage on wheels attached to a motorized winch. He and two lifeguards netted the seal, got him into the cage, and pulled him onto the truck with the winch. After the truck cleared the beach and we sang Kiss From a Rose on the Grave--by Seal--we set out homeward. Why didn't I bring my camera?!
We almost took the bus, but after getting on the wrong one we set out on foot like originally planned. Pacific Highway is a long road, stretching from Tiajuana to Vancouver--following it back to Katie's place felt almost as long. On the other hand, we got to add one more unique experience to our list today. If you are familiar with a hookah restaurant, it usually has long, comfy couches for its tenants to sit on and enjoy the hookah together while exotic music plays in the background, giving the place a foreign atmosphere. How about a hookah pizza place, though? Overtaken by curiosity, we enjoyed a little mint hookah with a few slices of pepperoni pizza and a plate of hot wings. It was weird, but an appropriate close to our little adventure.
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