SoCal, Day 2

pretty late right now, about 3AM thursday night/friday morning...good day today!

didn't think the day was going to turn out to be much to brag (blog?) about...didn't get to bed till about 3 wednesday night, slept in thursday morning...cooked breakfast for some of the beachhouse folks this morning, eggs/bacon/toast...then just bummed around for a good long bit, reading my book (Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen)...i've been on a HUGE Hiaasen kick for the last couple months, ever since my friend Hone introduced me to him...great writer, was a Miami Herald columnist for a long time...definitely worth checking out...

...luckily Strubes was more ambitious and suggested an afternoon road-trip...got a tire patched on the rental car (nail in the tread), then headed up the coast about 20-25 miles to a small beachside town called San Clemente...nice place! i'm not gonna keep trying to come up with descriptions about how beautiful every place i visit is, because this whole thing would get boring (more so than usual) pretty quick...suffice it to say, San Clemente is yet another little slice of heaven on earth...we hung out in the park by the beach for a little bit, then walked down the pier, got some good pics, then walked back towards the shore and had some food and beer at a place called Fisherman's Bar and Restaurant right at the end of the pier...they had a $3 happy hour steak taco thing going on, the tacos were absolutely delicious, as were the Hefeweizen's we were drinking...unfortunately the clouds were rolling in, it was getting a little chilly, but still a very cool place to hang out...after that we rolled back down to the beachhouse in Oceanside...

...later in the evening i had to drive down to san diego airport to pick up T-Mac...holy shit do i love driving in this area...getting through traffic in this area is like cutting through butter with a warm knife! i guess it helps that i was driving strubes' rental car, a kick-ass Dodge Charger...probably shouldn't even admit this in public, but in any case i managed to hit 105MPH on I-5N going from the airport back to the beachhouse...but sitting in the car you wouldn't even know it...i think that if/when i ever buy a car with a V-6, i'll be dead within the year!

definitely good to have T-Mac in the house, plus Nichols and his girlfriend Erin got to the house while i was out on the airport errand...so it was super-cool to get back to the house and be amongst the whole throng of good old friends...got a camp-fire going, hung out in the hot tub, etc., etc...and just been drinking since then...couple quick points and then i'm done...

a) to clarify a point i made yesterday, one huge difference between this part of CA and the beaches back home is that the places back east are mainly tourist/resort areas that are jam-packed during the summer and full of chintzy tourist places but abandoned during the off-season...whereas around here, the beach communities are year-round and actual regular people live, work, and play in these areas year-round...

b) i've always loved mexican food anyways but good god it is so amazingly delicious out here...if/when i ever move out to this area, i could definitely see myself eating mexican food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for the rest of my life...

c) seriously, i'm not even joking, i absolutely love driving on the highways in this area...most people drive fast, the slow drivers know to either stay to the right or get out of the way...i guess it helps that i was driving a Dodge Charger, but still...

anyways, that's all i have to say, next post will be pics from today, mostly San Clemente...fair warning, i took a ton of pics today!