More on Imperial Beach

While digging up the pics I used in my previous post about ART, I found a bunch of pics from my favorite San Diego beach that I wanted to share.

This East Coast native found the lifeguard stations quite impressive in San Diego. There are actual large structures, with vehicles and everything, at various locations along the beach. Sort of like a municipal firehouse, but on the beach, and without firetrucks. They do have little trucks, Jeeps, and other rescue vehicles. There are the little lifeguard shacks, too. But even those are different than what we have on the Atlantic beaches, which really are nothing more than tall, wooden chairs.

Delicious Street Tacos

Imperial Beach was my favorite for several reasons. Street tacos are one of those reasons.

I encountered too many incomplete or inaccurate descriptions of street tacos to give y’all a definitive explanation of street taco vs. Americanized (think Taco Bell) tacos. Basically, street tacos are small, simple, inexpensive, and eaten in multiples.  They typically have very fresh ingredients, a few complementary toppings, and are served open-faced, sometimes atop two soft corn tortillas. One thing I learned today is that the second tortilla is so you can redistribute half of the fillings to make two neater “packets” of deliciousness. I ate a lot of tacos in SD, but IB Street tacos was the best of what I tried, in my opinion. Click on their logo above to go to their website and read their menu.

This Wikipedia thread has a nice description of Mexican street food , if you’re interested.

Dog-friendly Beach

Not all beaches welcome dogs. Not wanting to leave Jasper home, especially since he was the reason I had extended my stay in SD, I had to find a dog-friendly one. The thought of long, leisurely strolls along a beach without being nagged by guilt for abandoning my little friend were just too appealing.

At first, while Shannon and Chris were still at home, Jasper didn’t want a whole lot to do with me.

As they prepared to leave on their honeymoon, Jasper and I became more-acquainted with one another.

Once they left, he was all like, “Cool. What fun thing are we going to do now?”

I sort of made a game of it. If you’re on Instagram, look for #adventureswithjasperkirkman.

For the Birds!

There are lots of birding opportunities in and around IB. Click here to learn more. I like birds, but am not a serious birder by any stretch of the imagination. Jasper likes birds, too, but for different reasons. I like to look at them and he likes to chase them.

 

 

 

I forgot to mention that it was unseasonably hot most of the time while I was in SD. Inland temps were in the mid-90s, which was another good reason to head for the beach!

Interesting Patterns in the Sand

I never did figure out why there’s so much black sand mixed-in with the regular sand at IB, but I do know that it made for some very visually interesting patterns.

 

 

 

We spent many long, lazy hours at IB.

Rocks, Shells, and Stuff

There were not always a lot of rocks, shells, and such to see, I guess it depended on what was happening offshore, erosion, etc. But it was fun to see how objects on the beach impacted the patterns.

Maybe I’m crazy, but I think that makes for a nice photo.

 

 

One day, there were a bezillion coquina clams on the beach.

 

 

Houses and Other Land Stuff

 

 

 

I really like the way the clouds looked in that image.

Walking to Mexico

We never did make it to Mexico, but we were close. Less than a mile away, in fact.

 

 

 

Funny story… I carefully calculated how much time we would need to get from the car to Mexico and back. Shannon and Chris were due home that day, and my plan was to get home with Jasper shortly after their arrival. During my stay, every time we’d get home from one of our adventures, big or small, he’d excitedly run around the house looking for his people. I figured he’d be super-excited to actually find them.

I’d looked at their scheduled arrival time and planned around it. We were about 100 yards from that river when I got a call from Shannon saying they’d landed early. Doh! “Okay, but we’re almost in Mexico!” I told her. 🙂

The timing actually worked just fine as they were detained at the airport. They got to that house maybe ten minutes before we did.

As it turns out, Jasper was a little freaked-out. They both hid in their bedroom with the door slightly ajar. He could tell someone or some thing was in there, so his hackles went up and he started barking! But once he realized who it was, he was thrilled.

Maybe I’ll get to walk to Mexico next time.

It’s good that we left the beach that day when we did. Fog was rolling in. I’m not sure, but it looks to me like a marine layer. Either way, I prefer blue skies AND we were both ready to get home to see our people.