What Do You Mean It's Cloudy??!!

Apparently it isn't always sunny in SoCal.

Today was the first day where the haze and usual morning overcast sky didn't clear up around noon, unfortunately. So with no sun in the sky and warmth on our skin, the Memphis Crew was at a loss for what to for the day.

Fortunately, Susan woke up feeling much better today and was hungry for some food by lunch. We decided on Hodad's, which consistently has a line around the block and was on Newport St near our usual beach hangout. Thankfully, the gray skies scared most of the beach goers and the line wasn't too long. We took our burgers to go and sat by the ocean, watching the people pass by and surfers try to catch a few rides. The burgers were big and awesome, kind of like in an In-N-Out style. They were delicious and I have yet to have a real meal since. That was 1 PM. It's now 10 PM.

The people of OB are pretty eccentric. They seem to still be stuck in the 1970s to put it lightly. Wandering down the street, one will see lots of long beards, shaggy haircuts, psychedelics, head shops, and tattoo parlors. It's a pretty interesting community to say the least. Everyone I've mentioned OB to has characterized it as a "hippie" community.

My eye caught a newspaper stand on the street and a I realized that I have had little connection to the outside world. No news channel on the television, no paper to look at in the morning, and I haven't even been checking the headlines on CNN. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that this has been the trend lately, but I'm going to try to fix it.

We decided to go on a little adventure after lunch and sought out Mission Beach. We had heard it had a nice boardwalk, along with some rides and games. Linz, our expert navigator, got us there with relative ease (it was, after all, only about 2 miles from OB, but she gets props nonetheless) and we pulled into the parking lot right by the coaster. As soon as I set foot on the boardwalk, I was instantly transported back to my summers in Ocean City, MD. The overwhelming smell of funnel cake was even in the air, but I couldn't bring myself to buy one with the huge Hodad's burger still sitting in my stomach.

It was fun, walking around the amusement and all. We tried on ridiculous sunglasses and played around in a cheap little arcade for a bit. Linz even treated us each to a pack of Smart-Ez and a set of fake vampire teeth for herself with the 30 tickets we won playing skee ball. Afterward we hung out by the beach and took some funny photos since I finally decided to bring my camera along for a day. It turned into a pretty good day considering how bad the weather was.

As we meandered down the boardwalk, we came upon a sweet sports club right on the beach. They had fire pits, benches, and brought in sand. On top of it all, there was a competition going on. The place had one of those wave makers, like you see on the cruise ship commercials, and there was a full blown competitions going on to apparently win a trip to Singapore to compete in the international competition. They were shredding back and forth, doing 180s, catching air, and going in and out of the perfectly shaped curl. I snapped some nice photos of the event, so look for them to be up soon.

Susan and I started looking at everything we want to do over the next week or so, and we definitely have a full list of things to do. The next week-plus is going to be pretty awesome.

To end: It's not 10:50 PM and I'm still not hungry for meal.