Rental cars and hotel rooms

I spent a lot of my time in Boulder living on the corner of two dead end streets in a neighborhood affectionately known as the Hapgood Hood. There was an even mix of families and students, and in the duplex across the street lived a young man named Dubz. He lives in San Diego now and decided to get married, so my old roommate Alex and I made the trek west to congratulate him on this momentous day.

Most of my “vacations” have involved worrying about weather patterns at high altitude, hoping my thumb is attractive enough to slow a passing motorist, or bumbling around a foreign country. I rarely cross paths with hotels and rental cars, but there’s a first time for everything and over Memorial Day weekend I took a pretty standard vacation.

We got started in San Diego swapping our underpowered Focus rental for a bright red Mustang. Now, I don’t have any illusions about a Mustang being a sports car, and I’m pretty sure they de-tune the rental cars anyway, but while it handles like a boat it does go really fast in a straight line. Trust me, I know because I left every stop light by putting the pedal to the floor. It wasn’t long before we learned that the car gets more fun with traction control turned off, and that was the beginning of the end for that set of rear tires.

The first day we ventured down to the water and found an ocean choppy with wind and storm swell, pummeling anyone who dared enter. Alex gave it a solid attempt but eventually tired and surrendered, joining me on the beach. Not to be deterred we borrowed suits and boards from my old neighbor and partner in crime - code named “Ninja” because he knows karate, drives a Kawasaki Ninja, and two Canadians couldn’t remember his real name. The three of us went down and found much nicer, better formed waves on our second and third attempts. Paddling around on a long board was perfect for me because it was fun and active but didn’t engage my hip at all. Alex caught a few waves while Ninja and my old neighbor Collin showed us how real San Diegans do it.

And then of course there was the wedding. I’m not much of a pomp and circumstance kind of guy, but I will say it was beautiful and picturesque.  They were married under two palm trees in a beautiful resort on an absolutely perfect day. The food was good, the bars were open, and I’m pretty sure we woke up half the guests walking back from the reception to our rooms.

Monday I had a beautiful picnic lunch with my friend Kendall before Alex joined and we headed to the Scripps dive locker for a BBQ on the beach. We cooked and drank some beverages just outside my friend’s office window which is located 20 feet from the sand and 40 from the water. I don’t know how he gets any work done. We took our leave there and headed to PB where we had a second BBQ at Ninja’s - complete with guns, horseshoes, adult beverages, smashed tables, and a microscope trained on plant cell nuclei. It was every bit as weird as it sounds. I wanted to capitalize on every last bit of time in San Diego so I ended the night with a friend at a bar in Hillcrest that had a rainbow flag permanently curled around the Bud Light tap.

And thus concluded one of my only standard vacations. I thoroughly enjoyed having a relaxing weekend - looking for lightening not because I thought it would kill me above tree line, but because it was pretty. Most of my trips will still have adventure and danger, but now I know that a trip with rental cars and hotels doesn’t have to be boring.