Down by the Sea

A trip to California would not be complete without dipping our toes in the surf. Sandy is especially enamored with Coronado beach and insisted that when we were ready to visit the shores, that would be the place to go. I casually mentioned once that we could watch the sunset over the ocean, and two nights in a row we did not go to the beach at sunset. On Sunday morning, Nicco insisted that we needed to stay at least until sunset to see the sun go down on the beach. Too bad his vote doesn't count. After a leisurely morning with the Burlem-Cheesmans, we packed up the car to finally go to the beach before hitting the highway.

We walked through the fancy-shmancy lobby of the world famous Hotel del Coronado on the way to the water. We passed a friend of Sandy's and she made the round of introductions. Nicco just held up his ID card. That way he didn't actually have to say anything, but he could still be polite and introduce himself in a manner of speaking. Or in a manner of not speaking in this case. When Nicco saw the hotel he said, "Castles are mostly in France, but I guess they are in California too." The Hotel is about as big as some of the castles we saw in the Loire Valley, and it was about as fancy too. Mark was slightly embarrassed that he neglected to change out of his comfies and crocs, but Patrice said that when you are a multi-millionaire (or pretending to be) you don't care about appearances. Or if you are me, you don't care what the regulars of "the Del" think of you, millionaire, pretending to be, or otherwise. I thought it was funny that the locals refer to the hotel as "the del." It isn't "the dell" as in the farmer in the dell. It is the "del," the spanish contraction for "of the," as in "the hotel of the crowned one." So calling it "the del" is translated as "the of the."

This is my new favorite picture:

I love us. I really love us windblown on the beach. We should be windblown on the beach more often.

The world famous Hotel del Coronado.

The beach. Aaaaahhhh....

Piles and piles of washed up shells. Nicco only spent a few minutes digging and sorting through the shells. It surprised me a little, but he was drawn to the water. That did not surprise me at all.

 I rolled up Nicco's pantlegs so he could wade along the shore. He pulled his britches up as high as he could in a futile effort to avoid getting wet. Foolishly, I did not dress Nicco in his swims to go to the beach.

I held my boy's hand and played in the waves with him. I only got wet up to my thighs. He was soaked from tip to toe and didn't even care. Even after he was soaked he asked me to roll up his pants. I told him it didn't matter any more, and he could just take his pants off and play in his underwear if he wanted to. He said no, that would be too disturbing. I'm not sure for whom, but I suppose he was right.

He was doing the potty dance in the waves and the bathrooms were a good ways away. I wasn't sure he would make it, but at that point, it didn't really matter if he went in the ocean. I'm sure he wouldn't have been the first. He played some more and then some more again before he could not hold his water any longer. It was just as well, because we needed to head out of town if we were going to get home at any sort of reasonable hour. I took him to the bathroom, we washed off our feet, and Nicco headed back to the sea. I told him we had to go to the car so we could get lunch before our long drive home. He stood defiantly about 20 feet away from me, looked me straight in they eye and said with conviction, "I'm going to the sea." And started walking back toward the waves. It kind of broke my heart. But, we managed to convince him that Frankie was missing him and needed her boy to get home soon. We promised to come back again. He said, "We are coming back here every four months."

We waved goodbye to the waves and hit the road. At the border patrol check point, the agent asked Patrice if there was someone in the back seat. He rolled down the window and Nicco flashed his ID card at the agent. I snort laughed.

It was a really nice weekend away, and we will probably do it again soon. Maybe even in four months.