It’s been hellishly hot in San Diego lately.
A few nights ago, my son and I headed down to the beach for a swim. We’re only a few minutes away, so there wasn’t much planning involved. Grab some towels, throw a boogie board on the golf cart, and go.
And as we were out there, the sun started to set and the whole sky lit up.
Whatever I had been thinking about before we got there—work, stress, things I needed to get done—kind of disappeared for a while.
It’s pretty cool to live somewhere that can do that to you.
One of the things I appreciate most about raising my kids in Ocean Beach is how much the ocean becomes part of their lives. Not as some big planned activity, but just as something that’s there.
They learn to respect it. They learn about waves and currents and when the water is safe—and when it isn’t. They get comfortable in the ocean while also understanding that you don’t take it lightly.
And maybe just as importantly, the beach gives us a reason to get out of the house.
There’s always something to do. Go for a swim. Take the dog down to Dog Beach. Surf. Boogie board. Walk the cliffs. Or just go sit on the sand for an hour.
Sometimes you get lucky and catch one of those sunsets where everyone seems to stop what they’re doing for a minute and look west.
The photo above is from one of those nights.
A girl sitting near us on the beach happened to take a photo of my son and me at the water's edge with the sunset behind us. She didn’t know us. She just thought it was a nice moment, came over afterward, and offered to send it to me.
I loved the photo, but I also loved that she did that.
There’s something about Ocean Beach that seems to attract people who are a little more comfortable talking to strangers, helping each other out, and sharing a moment like that. OB certainly has its quirks—and plenty of them—but that part of the community is one of the reasons I love it here.
Living near the coast in San Diego is expensive. There’s no getting around that.
You pay a lot for a relatively small house. You make compromises that probably wouldn’t make sense in a lot of other places.
But then there are nights like this.
You drive a few minutes from home, jump in the ocean with your kid, watch an absolutely ridiculous sunset, and for a little while forget about whatever wasn’t going right that day.
And you think: yeah.
This is why we live here.
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