We spent our fourth to July Holiday at La Jolla shores with two other young couples in our ward. As you can see it our car was packed on the inside and out, and its a good thing that Daniel is creative because it took creativity to maneuver the ropes so that everything would stay on the top. Now everyone warned us that the worst thing you can do is try to go to the beach on this holiday and especially a very popular beach like La Jolla shores, but we went ahead and chanced it, and totally lucked out! We anticipated being in traffic for a couple hours to even get down there, so we brought both our laptops and some movies to watch, and were planning to just have a party in the car, but it was a miracle, there was barely any traffic and we drove right on the beach to drop off all our gear, and it wasn't hard to find an open spot to set up camp on the sand. It was a beautiful day, the water temp was a little chilly (about 61 degrees) but other then that the surf was great, the waves were big and smooth and close together for the most part. I wish I had got video of Daniel and I catching them but both of us were too eager to be playing in them instead of taking time out to video. Daniel had his first real ride, but I will let him blog about that. I have noticed that some days I am on when it comes to surfing and somedays I am not, and there is no rhyme or reason to it--this day I got pummeled by quite and few waves, it was one of those days I am grateful that my board is foam or I may have been knocked out.
For the main event, Daniel and I did our traditional paddle (we started the tradition last year, and I am sure someday will continue it with our kids) over to the cove to watch the fireworks in our tandem kayak. It was the coolest thing because it is so loud out there and the fireworks are right above your head. Daniel took some impressionistic pictures with the camera of the show. I am proud and relieved to announce that this year we did change one tradition from last year...We successfully rode a wave into shore without falling out of the kayak and losing each other in the dark ominious ocean amidst waves breaking over us. Part of the success was due to landing at La Jolla shores instead of wind and sea this year--the waves are smaller and there are bright lights on the beach there. I am also proud to announce that we beat Paul Baxter and his wife, who also paddled out with us to watch the show, back to shore, we were unofficially racing them back. Maybe next year we will have to watch the fireworks at Catalina and paddle out (22 miles to get there). I made a lot of progress in a year with my ocean adventures so I think it may not be out of the question.
