We had a really nice day at Silver Strand Beach in Coronado.
It’s another beautiful morning outside, and I’m looking forward to another warm day.
I had a tough night of sleep, the bottom bunk felt hard, so I turned around a lot with some back pain… oh well. I’ll catch up tonight.
Today was more of a free day, and we would just do whatever we wanted, and go back to any place, so I let everyone wake up on their own, and take our time getting ready. I caught up on some news, did a few website maintenance things, and got the post from yesterday written. By time I was done, and almost exactly, everyone else woke up. We just made sure the girls had breakfast and changed before using any electronics, so it would not be too long for us to leave. Carol fixed a bag for us to take, and I got the truck loaded, got the little sun canopy we brought on the trip (first time we use it on the trip), put a few beers in the bag, and got outside organized so we could leave. I changed into something I could use to run and just stay at the beach, get wet, etc as I wanted to run at the beach.
It was around 10:30 or so when we were all ready to go. We lost about 30 minutes as Bella was being picky about what she wanted to wear. She wanted some shorts, but they were loose, then she wanted to sew them, but didn’t know where the stuff was, and she was bugging Carol, and got Carol upset, and it was a snowball. I had to intervene, separate everyone hahahaha and worked with Bella so she could get what she wanted, out of what was available. In the end, she chose the shorts she had on yesterday, that were in the dirty clothes bin. Hahahah.. all that fuss for nothing. As we were ready to go, I asked everyone where we should go, and got a unanimous response… same place as yesterday, Coronado Beach. As we drove towards Coronado, and went over the bridge, I could see the sliver of beach that continued on from Coronado, and looked like all soft sand as well, so we decided to go there and check it out. You basically get to Coronado and turn left (south) and keep going through the beach and its miles of beach access, until you get to a place you can park and with some infrastructure, called Silver Strand Beach (State Park).
The area looked pretty nice, lots of soft sand, enough room for us to hang out and enjoy, restrooms, etc so we decided we’d stay there. There was so much beach front that we could really pick where we wanted to stay, while being away from anyone. Most people there were concentrated in the area by the first gate, but the beach front there goes for almost 2 miles. We drove in and went as far as we could, paid the $8 all day parking fee, and put our stuff in Carol’s cart, so we could go far from people while staying somewhat close to restrooms. We found a nice spot, by a sand bank, and setup our stuff. The day was beautiful, it was nice and warm, and we had a great spot at the beach with soft sand, lots of sand. As soon as we were setup, the girls started playing on the sand, going up and down the sand hill. Carol was setting up a spot for Maggie, as she needed to be a bit out of sight as no dogs were allowed there.
And I went for a run. I first went north from where we were, and within a quarter mile there were signs of “No Trespassing” as it was a Navy zone. I turned around and went back the other way. I didn’t want to go that way as that’s where all the people were, so I knew I’d have to roll up the mask as I went through, but that’s what I had to do. It is definitely tougher to run at the beach, especially when the sand if fluffy, and the ground is on an incline. After I passed the crowd, there was probably two miles or more of beach front with pretty much no-one there. I ran for another mile or so, and occasionally there was a person walking. At the tail end of that mile, I entered another Navy owned area, but this time the sign said public access was ok, so I went in for a bit to finish my distance. It felt great to be running there though, feeling the sun, listening to the waves, and looking at the awesome back drop. I ran a bit further and longer than usual, and was back in an hour.
When I got back, they had just finished snacking on chips and salsa, and Bella told me the salsa was a bit spicy and was making her nose run. I told her I love that, and she said she loves it too. hahahahah… I guess she is getting into spicy food. I sat down to rest a bit, had a beer, and then Bella asked to play frisbee, so we started playing. She’s getting better and better, and now even her throwing is getting good, not just catching. Carol joined us for some time a few times. Bella and I spent pretty much most of the rest of the afternoon playing frisbee. She’s super into it, and is enjoying that she’s getting better. I am too, it’s pretty cool. Only problem is she’s picking on Carol now. hahahahaha…
Bia was just playing with sand, then relaxing with Carol, then playing with Maggie. She wasn’t really into doing too much work today, but she was content. When Carol was not playing frisbee, she relaxed in the sun, stayed with Bia, etc.
When it was around 4 something, I was really tired, my feet were tired from running on the sand, and playing frisbee was making them even more tired. So, we decided to leave soon, and go get sushi to go. We took our time leaving, we took more pictures, then more pictures, we just can’t get enough of this sunset. We said goodbye to the east coast beach sunset, and to the beach. We may not see a beach for a few weeks or months now… bittersweet.
Carol found a sushi place near the campground, so we went there. As we got there, she went to put the order in. Some guy approached the truck, with a mask, and asked if I had jumper cables, as his car was dead. I just happened to have a bunch of stuff in the truck and jumper cables was one, just in case. So, I said I did, and I could help and went to the back, unrolled the truck bed cover, opened some boxes and got the cables. Then, moved the truck next to his car and opened the hood. Not really paying too much attention to the sequence of which cables got connected first or not, but mainly and only to making sure black went to black and red to red… the guy connected the cables to his car, and when I connected the red to the truck I got sparks. I did not finish connecting and had the guy undo his, and do his last. When he connected the red to his, he got sparks too, lots of sparks. But, he did get it connected, so he left it. I then started the truck, and the dude went to his car. Problem there is that he started trying to get his car started, and within seconds, there was smoke coming out of truck and his car. Shit! I turned the truck off and ran outside, and the cables were red and melting fast. They were too hot to touch, so I got a hammer out of the trunk and pulled out the cables with the back of the hammer. Then gave the hammer to the guy and he did the same to his car. Cables were super hot, melted, and smoking, I think way too close to starting a fire. Damm! I read up later about what it could be that happened… and what made most sense is that the cables were just too small for the amount of energy going from the truck to the car, and so they overheated and melted. It could be other things, but I think that was it, they were cheap cables from Walmart, and were thin. I had used them before, but I always give the dead battery a good 5 minutes before trying to start the car, so maybe that’s made the difference… and, I had never done it with the truck, only cars and SUVs. Oh well, I’ll have to buy new jumper cables now to put in my just in case box. I moved the truck to a different spot as we still had to wait for the Sushi. The girls had gotten out of the truck as the smoke started, and they were impressed about this whole thing. hahaha… So, we moved back to the other side of the lot, and I put things away, and we waited for the sushi.
Sushi was ready in another ten minutes, we were all pretty hungry as we had just snacked for lunch. Carol got 9 rolls, and it was a little over 70 bucks, so pretty good price. We got to the campground and setup to eat outside as we were all full of sand. I had the heater going as it was a bit chilly, and we sat around the heater and had our sushi. It was great sushi actually. Bia ate all of hers, Bella ate almost all of hers, I had all mine too… spicy stuff. We ended up with one small roll left. It was good!
I started putting things away, and Bella said she wanted to bike around, so Carol offered to put glow sticks on the bikes. They loved the idea, and so Carol got a bunch of glow sticks, put on the bikes wheels, frame, handle bars, and even on Bella’s legs. hahahaha…. As I expected, the girls rode like 5 minutes and were done. Bia said the pool was warm, so they went to the pool. And again, within 5 minutes they were back. Bella saying the pool was cold, and Bia complaining Bella didn’t want to stay with her so she didn’t want to stay there. Bia went to shower then, in the trailer. I went to shower in the campground showers across the street. Bella was biking around. Carol was catching up on her phone. When I got back, I cleaned up a bit outside and started the fire. We hung out there for a while. Eventually, Bella asked me to go bike around with her, so I took a few laps around with her, on Bia’s bike :). It was actually fun riding in the dark (we could still see the streets) with the glow sticks all over. We were outside by the fire for probably about 3 hours, which is about when we ran out of firewood, and the fire was not hot enough to keep us nice and warm. Then, Bella and Carol showered and we went inside. Carol did the laundry tonight, so there’s less to do on Monday, and since the laundry room here was across the street, it was way too convenient to pass. When the girls were all ready, I got the last few minutes of the last episode of Kobra Kai going, and we were able to watch it. Now, we are all done until season 4 comes out. And after a nice day enjoying our Saturday, a run, lots of frisbee time, sun time, sushi, biking in the dark, and a campfire, we were done.
It was a great day at Silver Strand Beach, and then back at our campground.