#gratitude makeitunforgetable missionbeach beachbums sandiegosummers

[mubal4]

Memorable Experiences

 We all have memories; good and, not so good. Want to let go of the ones that are not so good, but I believe, being somewhat aware of them, to help us grow and learn, is beneficial.  Especially so we don’t create them again.  I also don’t think it is a great idea to continue to reminisce, consistently, about the good experiences.  Yes, always fun to remember those great moments we’ve been blessed to experience. However, we want to continue to be present and work toward creating the life we want to live……NOW!!  Sometimes, visiting the site of some of those great memories, maybe to reflect or maybe, just maybe to BE PRESENT, is good for the soul; at least IMO 😊.  The shot above is one of those places.  It is on Mission Beach, San Diego, CA looking north toward La Jolla & Torrey Pines. We’ve spent a number of summer vacations over the past 15 years in this spot and, there have been plenty of times I’ve spent sitting on our patio here, drinking an ice-cold beer, just soaking in this view.  Just doesn’t seem to get old 😊.  I am back here today for business but was able to wrap up my meetings and head over here prior to my flight home.  Figured I would grab lunch and take a stroll just to decompress, let go, and just be grateful.  No, I am not sitting on someone’s patio, drinking a beer – that may be a bit creepy. Although, I might be able to pull it off since it is not the summertime 😊.  

 When I come here or whenever I see a picture like this, it does remind me of all the great times Robin, Isabella, Alaina, and I have had at this beach.  We’ve created so many great memories with incredible, wonderful, human beings over so many summers. These people we are blessed to call family now; that is very special too us.  Living out west does have a lot of advantages, as did living back east.  Something similar, in PA, that is where our girls grew up, but they also did on this beach.  So many visualizations in my mind of them running around in there little bathing suits, doing somersaults on the beach, going in the water, boogie boarding and surfing for the first time, cracking crab, hitting Belmont Park, Sea World and Robin and I just enjoying our time with them in the sand.  Yes, and also digging many holes and burying dad in them 😊.  I can see it vividly, those two litter girls for so many years running on the beach, this beach, as little girls.  They are no longer little girls though, but this is not a blog article to get sappy on 😊.  I know there are so many memories that we have yet to create and I am confident there will be many more here.  But today, as I am grateful to get some time to chill-out here today, I want to just let those memories come to the surface.  

 My first trip to this beach was with just Robin, the summer after we got married, with no kids yet.  We just came over for the weekend to hang out with the normal group, which wasn’t the normal group yet because we didn’t start making the weeklong trip. At this point, you were still able to drink on the beach, but Robin and I were having a tough time. We had just returned from our honeymoon, 3 weeks on the east coast (we were living in AZ then) and, well, we were full of beer.  But, we said, “we are in San Diego, at the beach, and I have never had a beer on the beach here before!!”  That beer tasted great and we had a wonderful weekend too; also got a kitchen table at IKEA on the drive back to Phoenix, bonus….:), I guess!  The following year my parents flew in from FL to meet us, this time we had Bella, and the big memory of her is standing at the window, she was about 18 months, looking down at the boardwalk, saying, “hi boys.” It all started back then with boys 😊.  Year 3, Alaina was only about 3 months old and we drove out again, just for the weekend. Well, we stumbled on this place, right next store to “the group,” that wasn’t rented and the guy who owned it was offering it for a steel, so after some negotiation, with the owner, and Robin 😊, we booked it and that weekend turned into our first full week with “the crew.” That started an explosion of memories, laughs, headshaking, more laughs, and just fun fricking times at Mission Beach. Even when we moved back to PA in 2007, we continued to make the trek west to spend a week in July with our AZ family and it never disappointed.  That is of course, until we had to fly home.  But the experiences still were awesome – our fist visit to Sea World that was tough on a number of us that stayed up too late and were awoken by a 4 & 2-year-old 😊.  There was Bella’s first-time eating crab, all you can eat crab, and she certainly got her fill of it.  There were the visits from our east coast friends for a few days, The Shane’s from CO & PA, Uncle Kevin, the girls from Robin’s school, just so many great times. The bag tournaments, baseball games on the beach, over-the-line, football and a couple of incidents in the ocean with lifeguards 😊, some battles at the Sandbar 😊, shitless (men 😊) billiard games, and a whole lot of shenanigan’s, all in good fun.  

 It has been a couple of years since the entire crew got together out there but we are working on reviving it this year. Whatever the case, I am fortunate to get to make it back here for work several times a year and try to stop in for a couple tacos, maybe a slice, and possibly a west coast IPA.  This past summer we kind of came full circle I guess, Robin and I spent a few days, just us, hanging out here.  We had a great time.  It was very different because we weren’t with our girls, or the group and that was the first time since 2002.  We visited the same places we usually do, spent time at the beach, and created our own memories.  It wasn’t better and it wasn’t worse, it was different.  We will do it again, just her and I because we love it out here; but we will surely do it with our girls and definitely with the crew.  

 Creating memories and wonderful moments is what living in the present is about.  Sharing those moments with the ones you love, makes it unforgettable!!