Indifferent But Distanced Perfectly Projected Endlessly

I wish you weren't reading this because I wish I weren't writing this. You see, since I'm writing this, it means vacation is over and I'm back in Dallas.

Most family vacations are tiresome events by themselves. Orlando, New York Boston, to name a few. I usually need a vacation to rest from vacation. This one was entirely different.

We took a family trip to Huntington Beach Thursday through Monday. It was a vacation with very few places to see or things to do. After eating breakfast, my day was wide open for whatever.

It was truly one of the most relaxing things I've ever done in my entire life. In that spirit, I tried to listen to as much California music while I was there - Rilo Kiley, Jack Johnson, Chet Baker, et al.

We got to the hotel around 1:30 on Thursday afternoon. Within a few hours, I was already in the water. Huntington Beach recently received the permission to call itself Surf City USA. Very apropos. Not only was it my first time to see the Pacific, it was my first trip to open waters outside the Gulf of Mexico.

On Friday morning, Larry, Chris, and I played golf. I hadn't played in several months and was mildly concerned about where my ball may end up throughout the day - especially after a few suspect swings on the driving range. As it turned out, the ball went where I wanted it, for the most part, as I danced my way around to an 88. Nice start to a vacation.

Incidentally, it was last day that I had a difficult decision to make. I was in-between clubs so I wasn't sure to hit a 4 or a 5. That was the fullest extent of my stress for the weekend.

Later that night, we had a barbeque on the beach. There are several fire pits for public use - but you have to arrive early to stake your claim. Not a problem since we were at the beach from 2 until dark. The meal wasn't anything fancy - hotdogs and smores cooked from a wire hanger. Yummy if you can keep the sand and ash out of your food.

On Saturday, we went to Catalina Island. Catalina is an island community about an hour's boat ride from Huntington. About 3,800 full-time residents call it home. Its uniqueness is in that motor vehicles are a rare sight. They're not forbidden entirely, but it doesn take about 10 years to go through the process of getting one. Most of the residents travel by golf cart; that's what we did. Most of the island is owned by the Wrigley family - of gum and baseball fame. In fact, the Cubs used Catalina for spring training some time ago. Natalie Woods used it as a place to unsuccessfully learn to swim.

That night, Melissa and I had dinner with my cousin, Tony, his wife, Angela, and their 8 month old little girl, Sophia, in Longbeach. I don't get to see Tony that often so any time with him is good. We got to trade stories about our wives' sports naivete, which is always fun.

Sunday was more time spent at the beach. This time, however, we had boogie boards, which was quite fun. Nikki also convinced me to put on some baby oil instead of sunblock, a decision I only slightly regret. Later that evening, we we went to an exhibit in Laguna Beach called the Pageant of the Masters. It's performance art, in that human beings make a staged reproduction of famous works of art and statues set to orchestral music. It was actually quite impressive.

Monday was a traveling day, unfortunately. We had the morning free for one last trip around the Huntington shops.

Once back and wondering how to survive the sweltering heat, we did what one should always do once arriving back in Texas - eat some good Tex-Mex.

My few thoughts about southern California in general:

I don't know how people live there. First, the real estate market is outrageous. A 2 bedroom, 1 bath sells for at least half a million dollars. American dollars, to be clear. Second, I have to remain a little wound up in order to stay properly motivated and focused. But seeing the beach and the waves every morning took all that away. And third, I saw too many USC t-shirts and not enough UT shirts. Why would you want to celebrate second place?