San Diego and the Four Main Questions

Mel: Hey Mar, what time is it?
Jesse: It doesn't matter! Time doesn't exist in this place. All that matters here are four things: Is the sun out? Are the waves up? And are you hungry or tired?

Such is life, camping at the beach in San Elijo. I tagged along with Marianne and Jesse to San Diego last week, to join the Knight clan in their yearly beach-camping tradition. I've been once before and loved it; I was stoked for this year's trip as soon as I found out about it. I'd been looking forward to it for 6 months. And it didn't disappoint! Here is a schedule of our first full day there:

7:00-7:30 - Wake up, eat breakfast, sit around campfire and read a book. (Or go surfing, if you're Jesse.)
9:30 - take a nap in the tent until the sun comes out and heats the tent up so much, you can't sleep anymore; eat a snack, read more if you feel like it.
11:30-ish - get hungry, eat lunch, play Mexican Train.
A little after noon: Hit the beach for some swimming and a toss or two of the frisbee.
Some time after that: Take a shower, walk up to the 7-Eleven for a slurpee, walk around town a little.
Later: Get hungry, eat sinfully delicious quesadillas for dinner; read.
After that: Sit around campfire and chat and laugh until it gets dark and you get tired; go to bed.

Do you see a pattern? After the the morning melts away, time becomes irrelevant. The next three days were exactly like that, with few changes - throw a bike ride in here and there, a trip or two to some surf shops, playing games with the Nolte kids (Jesse's sister and brother-in-law, Katie and Brad, joined the festivities on Thursday afternoon with their kids - Audrey (6), Justin (4) and Tyler (a.k.a. 'Chibes') (1)), playing frisbee with other kids on the beach, watching Jesse and his dad fly a stunt-kite, watching the surfers, watching all the dogs on the beach running into the waves, trying to keep Chibes away from the campfire... and eating so well, I swear I waddled on to the plane to come home.

It was interesting... on Sunday, at the Knight's house after church, Dennis (Jesse's dad) said to us: "It's a good thing we got back last night so you have today to unwind."
Unwind from what?
Perfect weather (except for the few short rainshowers that didn't seem to do any huge damage), great food to munch on whenever I felt like it, outstanding company, falling asleep and waking up to the sound of the ocean, walking on the beach, fun games to play, reading a book by the campfire... and more! No one worried about what time it was (except if it was the Nolte kids' bed-time), how many calories were consumed, if I should check my voicemail, or e-mail... anything that wasn't one of the four main questions was completely irrelevant.

All that mattered was that the sun was out, the waves were up, and if I was hungry, or tired.

AAHHHHH...