Today we are off to a place that holds a special place in my heart. Pacific Beach is a laid back beach town just outside downtown San Diego. Skateboards, surfboards, bike paths and bonfires are its lifeblood and it’s relaxed vibe is its soul. The main street is lined with funky shops, bars and restaurants, thrift shops and tattoo parlors.
I love it for all those reasons, but more so because I have visited here every Summer since childhood. My grandparents, who lived in Arizona, would spend a month in a condo on the beach to escape the desert heat. We would travel down from L.A. for labor day weekend to visit and I have so many memories made on the shores of Pacific Beach.
We would wake up before sunrise, when the tide was low to find seashells in the sand. We would turn into raisins, spending hours going back and forth from the pool to the ocean. Standing on the balcony, the fireworks display was so close you felt like you could touch the colors. We’d fall asleep to the comforting lullaby of ocean waves, play cards with our Grandma and eat her homemade chili she had ready for us when we arrived.
My grandmother still spent every Summer there, 20 years after the passing of my grandfather and as the years passed a new generation joined us in making memories, with the addition of my niece.
It was my grandparents’ wish to have their ashes spread together out at sea. So, when that time came, we had a beautiful family day on the beach, right in front of the place where they had stayed every Summer and at sunset, we joined hands, walked into the tide and released our grandparents into the ocean they had loved for all those years. It was their special place, then and now, always. That beautiful Pacific Beach.
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