Parking by La Jolla Shores is pretty difficult on a Saturday morning in June. The parking lot nearest the beach generally has lines of cars waiting for parking, and traffic along the coast moves slowly as tourists and locals alike hope for an open spot that never comes.
On this particular Saturday, I had no problem finding parking, and easily slid my car into a large spot just a few minutes from the sand.
I grabbed my towel and bag from the passenger seat and locked my car before heading towards the water. After hopping over the concrete barrier between the sidewalk and the sand, I pulled my sandals off and walked barefoot through the rough ground. I initially decided on an open spot close to the wall, but the wail of a small child inspired me to keep walking, and I headed towards the low tide to lay down my towel.
I realized 2 things when I sat on my towel-
- There’s a reason why most people set up so far from the water, and
- That reason is because close to the water, the sand is very wet.
I pulled my damp jean shorts off and laid them out to the side of my towel to dry. As I did, the sunlight dimmed as a cloud passed overhead.
“Heads up!”
I immediately covered my face, preparing to get hit in the head by a frisbee or football. I heard a soft thud as instead, something landed on the sand just beside my shorts.
“Sorry about that.”
I looked up, not needing to squint as the clouds blocking the sunlight had grown thick, and saw a man about my age with brown hair and blue sunglasses lean down to pick up his frisbee.
“No problem,” I replied. He was tall, though maybe looked taller than he actually was from my position on the ground, and he too was shoeless.
“Well, have a good one.” He tipped his head, then trotted back to his group of friends.
Suddenly a drop of rain hit my nose, and I looked towards the horizon where even more storm clouds gathered.
“My shorts will never dry at this rate,” I thought. I stood up and rolled my shorts into my towel, then walked back to my car and drove home.