Spring Break Report
I have seen the Grand Canyon, Rafted the Snake River, witnessed life come into and leave this world but for a brief moment, those things all paled in comparison to the beauty of my first California Burrito. I had been to CA before but only on business so when asked to join some friends for a spring break trip to Oceanside in Southern CA, we jumped at the chance. More about the burrito later. No worries, we will get to the burrito in due time.
The kids were excited to see the Pacific Ocean. They hadn’t seen the sea since before we
moved west, and needed a dose of salt water.
I was intrigued by the prospect of a long drive through some fairly
deserted terrain.
You owe it to yourself to take a long drive in the
desert. It gives you some perspective on
why it is such a popular theme in today’s movies and yesterday’s books. Part of it is the huge amount of suck
involved if you instead walked across the desert, but the rest is the stark
beauty that forces your mind to warp as it searches for color and tries to
comprehend the empty distances. Moreover, the drive from Albuquerque to
Phoenix through the White Mountain Plateau is amazing and it will eventually
take you through a saguaro cactus forest that is truly stunning. These amazing cactus's are huge and seem to
stand against the laws of nature, the cactus bottoms impossibly small against
the buck of their arms. We didn’t stop
for a picture with these magnificent guardians of the desert. But we should have, perhaps my biggest regret
of the trip.
The kids didn’t appreciate this much and were focused on
their movie screens and the thought of the hotel pool in phoenix. You could smell the flowers and humidity as
we entered Phoenix. It was a 7 hour drive by the clock that went by
exceptionally fast. The hotel pool was a welcome relief, but so was the hotel
happy hour which provided free snacks and booze for the adults. The kids played
on the elevator, racing it between floors and alternated between the pool and
the hot-tub for “treatments”.
Driving west from Phoenix through the Mojave Desert is not
to be taken lightly. There is little to
see except for craggy black cores of ancient volcanoes and huge dust
devils. I can’t imagine making the drive
in the dark, though there is almost as little to see in the daylight. We passed through towns that sold gas and
cold drinks and wondered how hard it must be to date in such a small isolated
town. These towns are legacies of mining
booms. One town claims the grave of a United States soldier who pioneered the
use of camels…..We entered California and immediately the desert became an
irrigated field. Like Dorothy, we were
stunned by the immediate availability of color.
As we left the Mojave and descended into the green palm
covered Coachella valley we stopped at the Oasis Date Garden. Ever had a date? No not a Prom Date, but a
medjool date. The Phrase “Date Garden”
sounds like a thinly vailed code word for a brothel…Honest this was a farm
where dates were grown using water robbed from the Colorado River. The place serves date milk shakes which alone
are worth the drive through the desert and is green and lush like the oasis it
is. These fruits were so good I remain
amazed that Americans don’t eat more of them.
As we moved deeper into California we passed a few landmarks
you might recognize from Top Gun and made our way into Temecula, to visit with
our companion’s family. It’s always a
great honor to meet your friend’s families and I’m always reminded how similar
we all are. We were warmly welcomed and
found ourselves in an excellent shaded backyard with a welcome glass of ice
water. The kids were happy to be free of the car. My sons “discovered” an orange tree laden with
fruit; they had never seen one before. I’m
not sure if they picked one and then asked permission to eat it, or did it the
right way around, but eventually the boys pocket knives where slicing into
fresh oranges. The trees owner cautioned
that the fruit wasn’t ripe yet, but the kids couldn’t care less and ate them
with great relish. Honestly it was the
best orange I ever tasted, can’t imagine how good it would be at its peak. Watching kids eat fruit and ask for more is
definitely one of life’s simple pleasures.
We found our rental home in Oceanside on top of a
bluff. We could see and hear the ocean
as it was only cross the road and down the stairs to the beach. We finished
packing just in time to have a cocktail on the deck as the sun set over the
ocean. The cliché of the California sunset is huge, but now that I have seen
the sun set over the ocean I believe it.
Just as the sun sets it turns red and then due to some atmospheric
alchemy appears to melt the orange disc wavers and warps while it slowly kisses
and then dives into the sea. Kids reported that the beach had rocks which
bounced into your toes, the water was cold, but they loved it. The kids had no
use to watch the sun set, and that suits me just fine
We spent the next week alternately enjoying the beach and
the sights in San Diego. The water was
so cold you had to have either a wet suit, or be a kid to enjoy it. The kid’s body surfed and boogie boarded to
exhaustion. We did the aquarium, (which
to Nugget’s delight had Flamboyant Cuttlefish, his favorite cephalopod) and
enjoyed life. We took the tour on the
USS Midway, a huge historic aircraft carrier.
I ventured to the very front of the Midway, on the ramp at the end of
the catapult and looked down at the massive prow of the ship. I was standing on steel but felt as if it
would give way, every twitch of the moored ship was magnified in that spot which
is perhaps the best place to comprehend the vast size of the ship. Across the bay you could see two other active
carriers and whatever other ships at the naval base.
The San Diego zoo is amazing and should be on your bucket
list. The zoo is clean, shaded, and well done. The city surrounded you but
could not be seen or heard, you felt remote and isolated. The zoo made great use of the hills and
valleys and had an air tram like a ski gondola to take to go from one end of
the park to the next. We all loved it.
Introduced the kids and Lover to In-N-Out Burger, they
fell in love instantly as was expected. Porter ate his like it was the first
thing he had eaten in years.
That evening we toured the various breweries of Ocean side including the much applauded Ballast Point Brewery….we made it to a few places
and when properly lubricated our companions took us to a 24 hour burrito shack,
and insisted we eat the California Burrito….never has food tasted so good. The burrito had ingredients I can’t remember but
there was something special about the tortilla, the avocado was fresh, and best
of all included french-fries built into the burrito. In my first bite I was transported back in
time to a night at Rutgers University, Drinking with Co-Workers were I was
introduced to the “Fat Bitch” sandwich.
4000 calories of whatever is at the bottom of the fryer, covered in
marinara and mozzarella…..this burrito reminded me of that night, but surpassed
the Fat Bitch handily.
Our drive home was long….we traveled north and then
East. We happened apron the strangest
accident on the road, a small plane, had crash landed and ran into a parked car
on the side of the freeway. It was so
odd to see the plane there with the first responders. The poor occupants of the car, impacted out
of the blue as they had pulled well off the road for a cell phone call
(according to the paper). We stopped for the night in Flagstaff and by chase
ate at the Beaver Street Pub, a place I had last visited in college in the late
90’s….some 18 years later I ordered the same artesian wood fired pizza and
thought about how many rotations of college wait staff the restaurant went
through in that period of time…..instant nostalgia.
We were happy to be home, but had a great trip. There are
worst ways to spend your birthday, and no better way to enjoy life.
